# Installing gstack on a Capy cloud machine Three layers, each owned by gstack: | Layer | Where | Job | |---|---|---| | Bootstrapper | `capy/skill/gstack/scripts/install.sh` (copied once into the owner's Drive skill folder; frozen) | clone when absent; fetch origin's default branch and read the supported minimum from `FETCH_HEAD:capy/support.env`; in install mode fast-forward a clean, unpinned checkout below it; exec the full wrapper | | Full wrapper | `bin/gstack-capy-session` (moves with the checkout) | map the session start onto the installer: `--check` certifies (and reports a checkout behind origin), otherwise fast-forward a checkout behind origin (`bin/gstack-upgrade --ff-only-no-reinstall`), then install or repair | | Installer | `bin/gstack-capy-install` | Bun, both host profiles, the doctor, the install verdict, the launch line, the trailer | The vendored skill (`capy/skill/gstack/SKILL.md`) tells a Capy agent how to use them. The Drive folder is a mirror: the owner copies `capy/skill/gstack/` there when asked; nothing writes the Drive automatically. Direct use, without the Drive skill (a subagent or reviewer machine): clone into the root the bootstrapper resolves when nothing is there, then run the checkout's own bootstrapper by absolute path, from the project directory, so the floor check and fast-forward still run and the verdict is keyed by the caller's project. The same command serves every later session (an existing checkout is fast-forwarded, never re-cloned): ```bash test -f "$HOME/.local/share/gstack/setup" || git clone --quiet --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git "$HOME/.local/share/gstack" && GSTACK_CAPY_ROOT="$HOME/.local/share/gstack" bash "$HOME/.local/share/gstack/capy/skill/gstack/scripts/install.sh" --for autoplan ``` The text comes from `capyBootstrapCommand` in `lib/doctor-components.ts` (Bash: `gstack_capy_bootstrap_cmd`); the not-installed fix lines print it with the root they checked. ## Reviewer machines: `--for review-voice` A dispatched reviewer (an /autoplan voice, a second opinion) reads a plan and reports; it runs no workflow. `--for review-voice` gives its machine a real trailer in seconds: clone or fast-forward, Bun at gstack's own supported minimum (the project's pins are not applied, since no repo tests run there; the trailer says `pins: skipped (helper runtime)`), no `./setup`, no host profiles and no bun shim. The doctor certifies only the read-only helpers (`PASS helpers`: `gstack-pregate sealed`, `gstack-plan-reality`, `gstack-artifact` and the `gstack-autoplan` reads such as `status` and `contract`). Its verdict covers no host profile, so a workflow started there is refused (`INSTALL: fail verdict — … (review-voice certifies only the read-only helpers); fix: run GSTACK_CAPY_ROOT= bash /capy/skill/gstack/scripts/install.sh --for …`). A review-voice check never replaces an ok verdict that a fuller install wrote for the same HEAD and project. Every /autoplan reviewer prompt ends with this command (`GSTACK TRAILER`); the warm run's budget, under 20 s, is measured by `test/capy-review-voice.test.ts`. ## Session start 1. `bash /scripts/install.sh --check --for ` (under a second when a checkout exists). It fetches refs only and never moves the checkout. With no checkout it prints `gstack: fail not-installed — ...` and the session records that line and continues when it runs no gstack workflow; install right before the first workflow. 2. When the trailer is `gstack: fail revision ...` or `gstack: fail runtime ...` and a checkout exists, run the same command without `--check`. Below the supported minimum, a clean checkout on the remote default branch is fast-forwarded (`gstack-capy-skill: upgraded -> `), reinstalled and rechecked as one transaction under `.gstack-capy-install.lock` (the bootstrapper holds it and hands it over with `GSTACK_CAPY_LOCK_HELD=1`). A pinned (`--revision`, detached HEAD, another branch), dirty or diverged checkout is never moved; the trailer names the cause and the exact commands ([REVISION_BELOW_MINIMUM](troubleshooting.md#revision-below-minimum)). `GSTACK_CAPY_AUTO_UPGRADE=0` disables the fast-forward. 3. The minimum is the floor, not the trigger. Above it, a checkout behind origin's default branch still moves at install-mode session start: the full wrapper runs `bin/gstack-upgrade --ff-only-no-reinstall` (every refusal of `gstack-upgrade` applies), prints `SELF_UPGRADE: done -> ` and re-execs the new checkout's wrapper, which installs from the new revision (`GSTACK_CAPY_UPGRADED_FROM` set, so setup is never skipped). A refusal prints `SELF_UPGRADE: skipped ()`, and the session is never certified ok: the trailer is `gstack: fail behind — installed is commits behind origin (latest ) and the session-start upgrade was skipped: ; fix: (UPGRADE_BUSY|UPGRADE_REFUSED)`, exit 1. `SELF_UPGRADE: none (current)` when nothing is ahead; `GSTACK_CAPY_SELF_UPGRADE=off` (or `GSTACK_CAPY_AUTO_UPGRADE=0`) prints `SELF_UPGRADE: disabled ()`. `--check` never moves the checkout; behind origin it prints `gstack-capy-session: behind origin/: -> ( commits); fix: bash /scripts/install.sh [--for ] (fast-forwards)` and the agent runs that fix. Whenever the session ends behind origin (`--check`, or a self-upgrade that was skipped or disabled), the ok trailer also says so, because lanes relay only the trailer: `behind= (latest: ); fix: ` (see the trailer grammar below). 4. When the fetch fails (offline), the bootstrapper says `remote minimum unknown (fetch failed)` and checks the local install only; it never claims the minimum, and nothing is fast-forwarded. The upgrade target is always the tip of the default branch: every commit there is a stamped release that passed CI. Recovery runs forward, never back: an install interrupted after a fast-forward leaves the trailer `fail`, and the next install or `bin/gstack-upgrade` run completes the pending install stages (setup is never skipped after a fast-forward) or refuses and names the cause. Checking out an older commit is not a supported rollback; it does not undo setup migrations that already ran. Between minimums, `bin/gstack-upgrade --check` says `current ` or `behind -> ( commits)`, and `bin/gstack-upgrade` fast-forwards and reinstalls (`bin/gstack-capy-install` on a Capy install, else `./setup --refresh-registered`). It refuses a dirty, diverged or pinned checkout with [UPGRADE_REFUSED](troubleshooting.md#upgrade-refused) and never stashes or resets. Several agents sharing one checkout (eight Capy subagents on a machine) hold workflow leases on it: every `bin/gstack-skill-start` touches `/gstack-leases/` (`bin/gstack-lease touch`; pruned after 120 minutes). Each lease records its process's start identity (Linux: boot id and `/proc` start time; elsewhere `ps -o lstart`), because a pid is reused after a reboot or a machine wake. `bin/gstack-upgrade`, and so the session-start self-upgrade, refuses with [UPGRADE_BUSY](troubleshooting.md#upgrade-busy) while a lease held by a live process outside its own chain exists, naming each holder as `pid

(m )`. The team-mode SessionStart hook (`bin/gstack-session-update`) honors the same leases: it logs `SKIP leased pid=

/m` to `analytics/session-update.log` and tries again at the next session start, without writing its hourly throttle stamp. A lease whose pid now belongs to another process, or an identity-less lease from an older gstack past 120 minutes, is stale: `bin/gstack-lease live` reclaims it (`gstack-lease: reclaimed stale lease …`). Stale needs proof: two well-formed identities from the same backend that differ (`ps` is read under `LC_ALL=C TZ=UTC0`). An identity that cannot be read, a malformed record or a backend change keeps the lease. `touch` (publish by rename, prune) and reclaim (reread, then delete only the record judged stale) run under one lock in the lease directory, a symlink naming its holder's pid and start identity, so a renewal is never deleted and a live lease never disappears from a concurrent scan. The lock is broken only when its holder is dead or its pid was reused, never by age, and breakers serialize on a second symlink and reread the lock before removing it. One killed gstack-lease process is always safe; two killed in a row, one holding the lock and the next while breaking it, can still let a reclaim delete a renewal. While a live process holds it, `touch` exits 3 without writing (`gstack-skill-start` reports that the session holds no lease) and a reclaim keeps the lease. `bin/gstack-lease list` shows `alive|dead|stale`, and `GSTACK_UPGRADE_FORCE=1` overrides. ## What the installer does 1. Reuses the checkout it lives in (or clones into `--root

`), under the lock. It never resets or pulls; `--revision ` pins a fresh clone, and an existing checkout at another revision is reused with the trailer note `requested: (run /bin/gstack-upgrade to move)`. A fresh clone prints `cloned at ()` (the bootstrapper's clone too, through `GSTACK_CAPY_CLONED`). 2. Preflight: `git`, `curl`, `node`, `jq`, then Bun. The project's pins (`--project `, default the git toplevel of the current directory) are read with the doctor's own parser (`bin/gstack-runtime-pins.ts`: engines, packageManager, `.tool-versions`, `.bun-version` and CI `bun-version:` lanes for this platform). CI exact pins for this platform are alternatives: a repository may test several Bun versions (gstack's own CI pins 1.4.2 and runs one job on 1.4.4), so a Bun equal to any one of them satisfies CI; CI ranges and every non-CI pin stay required. One resolver picks the Bun (`gstack_bun_resolve` in `bin/gstack-bun-version.sh`; `resolveBun` in `lib/pregate/runtime.ts` is its TypeScript twin), and the installer, `--check`, the doctor, the bun shim and install admission all use it. Candidates, first eligible wins: the store copy of the project's exact pin (rule `pin`), the store copy of the install default (`default`), `$BUN_INSTALL/bin/bun`, `~/.bun/bin/bun` (`home`), then every `bun` on PATH. Eligible means it runs, reports a version at or above the supported minimum (1.4.2) and satisfies the project's pins. When nothing qualifies, the installer downloads one exact release archive, verifies its SHA-256 against `bin/gstack-bun-version.sh` and unpacks it into the versioned store `/runtimes/bun//bun`, under `~/.gstack-runtime.lock`. Each version directory also holds `bunx -> bun`. A broken entry is repaired without a window (its files are renamed over their predecessors), and `~/.bun/bin` is never written. The archive is the project's non-CI exact pin when gstack carries a verified archive for it (`GSTACK_BUN_VERIFIED`: 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 1.4.4); with only CI exact pins, the install default when it is one of them, else the highest verified one; else the install default `GSTACK_BUN_DEFAULT` (1.4.4, above the 1.4.2 minimum; one CI job runs the quick free tier on it). `GSTACK_BUN_INSTALL_VERSION=` overrides the default; a version without a verified archive or below the minimum stops the install ([BUN_INSTALL_VERSION_INVALID](troubleshooting.md#bun-install-version-invalid)). With a non-CI exact pin, only that version satisfies it. Any other exact pin (below the minimum, two different non-CI ones, or one without a verified archive), or a range gstack's minimum does not satisfy, stops with both constraints ([RUNTIME_PIN_CONFLICT](troubleshooting.md#capy-install-runtime-conflict), exit 3) before `./setup`. With no Bun at or above the security floor, the default is installed first so the pins can be read. Node follows the same rule (`bin/gstack-node-runtime.sh`): `engines.node`, `.nvmrc`, `.tool-versions` and CI `node-version:` lanes, non-CI exact pins required and CI exact pins in different jobs alternatives. The first node that satisfies them wins: the node first on PATH (rule `PATH`), then for each wanted version gstack's store copy `/runtimes/node//bin/node` (`store`) and nvm's `${NVM_DIR:-~/.nvm}/versions/node/v/bin/node` (`nvm`), then every other `node` on PATH. When nothing qualifies and the project names an exact version, install mode downloads `node-v-.tar.gz` and `SHASUMS256.txt` from `https://nodejs.org/dist/v/` (`GSTACK_NODE_DIST_URL` overrides the base), checks the archive's SHA-256 against that list and publishes the tree in the store by rename. A CI-only pin set installs its highest version. `/usr/local/bin` and nvm are never written. Two different non-CI exact Node pins stop with [RUNTIME_PIN_CONFLICT](troubleshooting.md#capy-install-runtime-conflict). `--check` keeps the recorded Node while it still reports its version and satisfies the pins, and never installs one; the doctor's `pins` row reads whatever node the launch PATH gives, and a Node mismatch names the node it read and the installer command that fixes it. 3. `./setup --host claude --no-prefix`, then `./setup --host codex --model gpt-6-astra`, both with `--no-browser`. Skipped when this exact HEAD was set up with the same hosts, model and browser flag (recorded in the git dir after a successful setup) and `gstack-doctor --check` passes; a warm rerun takes about a second. Each setup ends with its own `gstack ready ()`; the installer then prints `gstack ready (claude, codex)`. 4. `gstack-doctor --check` for the requested workflow (`--for `, `--only `, or `--require `; default `claude,codex,patch`), run with the launch PATH, so the trailer certifies the Bun workflows run. 5. The install verdict (schema 2), written atomically to `/install-verdicts//.json`: checkout, project, HEAD, the workflow and required components it certified, whether pins were skipped as planning-only, the pin it honoured, the resolved Bun (`bun_path`, `bun_version`, `bun_rule`, and `bun_install` when this run downloaded it), the resolved Node when the project pins one (`node_path`, `node_version`, `node_rule`), the trailer, the remote minimum, the launch PATH and the time. Admission refuses a workflow whose running Bun is not the one the verdict recorded ([BUN_RESOLUTION_DRIFT](troubleshooting.md#bun-resolution-drift)), and so do the pregate's lanes and guards, which also refuse an invalid verdict ([INSTALL_UNVERIFIED](troubleshooting.md#install-unverified)) under `GSTACK_CAPY=1` or whenever a verdict exists. `--check` keeps the recorded Bun while it exists, reports the recorded version and satisfies the pins; a candidate that would now resolve first is a `note:` line, and only a recorded Bun that is gone, changed or no longer satisfies the pins fails the doctor's `runtime` row. A schema 1 verdict (keyed by checkout only) is still read. 6. On a Capy machine (`CAPY_MACHINE_CONFIG` set or `~/.capy/system` present), install mode writes the bun shims described below. `--check` runs only steps 4 and 5 (no clone, Bun install, setup or shim). ## The bun shim A fresh shell on Capy finds the image's `/usr/local/bin/bun` (1.3.14) first, so a `bun test` typed without the `GSTACK_LAUNCH` prefix used to run the wrong Bun. Install mode therefore writes `~/.local/bin/bun` and `~/.local/bin/bunx` (`~/.local/bin` precedes `/usr/local/bin` on the Capy image's PATH). Each is a small POSIX script whose second line is the marker `# gstack-bun-shim: gstack-owned; delete this file to remove it`. At every call the `bun` shim finds the git toplevel around the working directory and runs, in order: the Bun that project's install verdict recorded (the `none` verdict outside any project and inside the gstack checkout), the store copy of the project's exact pin, the store copy of the install default, then `$BUN_INSTALL/bin/bun`, `~/.bun/bin/bun` and every non-shim `bun` on PATH, first at or above the supported minimum, then at or above the security floor. A pin is used only when it is `x.y.z` and its store entry is a real binary inside the store (no `..`, symlink escape or shim-marked file). A project pinning a Bun the store lacks prints `gstack bun shim: pins bun , which is not in gstack's runtime store; run ... --check here`; an unrecorded, unpinned repo falls through quietly. `bunx` runs `bun x` through the `bun` shim beside it. - `GSTACK_BUN_SHIM_EXPLAIN=1 bun --version` prints `gstack bun shim: project= record= chose= rule=` (and names a missing record). - `GSTACK_BUN_SHIM=0` at install time writes no shim. - Removing it: delete `~/.local/bin/bun` and `~/.local/bin/bunx`. gstack replaces only a missing file or a file carrying the marker; a foreign file or a dangling link there is left untouched with a note, and the `GSTACK_LAUNCH` prefix stays the way to reach the certified Bun. - The doctor's `runtime` row notes the shim; the resolver never treats a shim-marked file as a Bun candidate. ## The one line to grep The last line is the trailer: ``` gstack: ok 1.91.96.0 for=autoplan gstack: ok 1.91.96.0 for=review (requested: v1.91.90.0 (run /bin/gstack-upgrade to move); latest: 1.91.101.0 available) gstack: ok 1.91.96.0 for=autoplan (pins: skipped (planning-only)) gstack: ok 1.91.101.0 for=autoplan (behind=12 (latest: 1.91.107.0); fix: bash /scripts/install.sh --for autoplan) gstack: fail runtime,pins ``` An ok trailer carries at most one parenthesised note group, `; `-separated, in this order: `requested: …` (an existing checkout at another revision than `--revision`), `pins: skipped (planning-only|no project|helper runtime)`, then either `behind= (latest: )` followed by `fix: ` (the session ended commits behind origin's default branch after a fetch that succeeded in this run; `bin/gstack-capy-session` exports `GSTACK_CAPY_BEHIND`, `_BEHIND_TO` and `_BEHIND_FIX`, so this works with every bootstrapper revision), or `latest: available` (origin's default branch has a newer VERSION; the bootstrapper exports it as `GSTACK_CAPY_REMOTE_VERSION` only after a fetch that succeeded in this run). A fail trailer never carries notes. Match `^gstack: ok ` or `^gstack: fail `; never parse past the first space after the version. Exit 0 only with `gstack: ok`. Read the exit status and the trailer directly: ```bash out=$(bash /scripts/install.sh --check --for autoplan 2>&1); rc=$? printf '%s\n' "$out" | grep '^gstack: ' [ "$rc" -eq 0 ] ``` Never pipe `--check` (or the installer) through `tail`, `head` or `grep` alone: the pipe's exit status replaces the doctor's, and a silent failure is the incident this installer exists to end. Every `FAIL ` row carries a `fix:` clause and a reason code with its [troubleshooting anchor](troubleshooting.md#install-check-gstack-doctor---check-and-the-capy-installer). A parent agent confirms each subagent machine with this grep; one machine's install never covers another, and a subagent's first report carries its own `gstack:` line. `SKIP pins (planning-only; repo pins differ: ..., launch bun )` (trailer note `pins: skipped (planning-only)`) is not a failure: planning workflows (`--for autoplan`, the plan reviews, `office-hours`) never run the target repo's tests. Workflows that do (`review`, `ship`, `qa`) and `--require` keep `pins` required. When a lane reports to another thread (a handoff, a `gstack-lane-check` result, a coordinator contract), store and use the full thread id (`jam_…`) in the message, never the short display code: the code is a label the app renders, the id is what another agent can address and what the evidence bundle records. `UBI_OWNER` and lane ownership records take the same full id. ## Browser The default install prints `SKIP browser (lazy; gstack-browser-ensure installs on first use)` and downloads nothing. The first browser skill run (`/browse`, `/qa`, `/design-review`, ...) calls `bin/gstack-browser-ensure` from its preflight, which installs Chromium (~115 MiB, about 86 s on a Capy machine) under setup's lock and prints `BROWSER_OK` or `BROWSER_UNAVAILABLE `. `--with-browser` installs it during the install instead, and the installer then prints the planning-only install time and the browser bootstrap time separately. ## The launch line Every successful run, `--check` included, prints before the trailer: ``` GSTACK_LAUNCH: PATH=:$PATH GSTACK_SESSION_KIND=unattended GSTACK_STATE_ROOT= GSTACK_EPHEMERAL=1 GSTACK_CAPY=1 GSTACK_INSTALL_VERDICT= GSTACK_LAUNCH_PATH: ``` `PATH=:$PATH` and `GSTACK_LAUNCH_PATH` appear only when the certified Bun, or the project's resolved Node, is not first on PATH (older Capy images ship `/usr/local/bin/bun` 1.3.14; 57 gstack commands start with `#!/usr/bin/env bun`). `` is never a shared bin directory: a Bun from gstack's store launches from its own version directory, and any other Bun, or a Node the launch needs, launches through `.launch`, a gstack-owned directory holding only `bun`, `bunx` and, when needed, `node`, `npm`, `npx` and `corepack` symlinks. So a Bun found in `/usr/local/bin` or `$BUN_INSTALL/bin` never puts that directory's other tools (the image's node) in front of PATH. The pregate's lanes launch through the same directory. A child shell's `export` cannot configure the parent's later commands, so the parent supplies these assignments to every gstack command it launches (prefix the command, or export them once in the shell that runs it). A fresh shell without them keeps reporting the Bun it would really run: `FAIL runtime — bun 1.3.14 at /usr/local/bin/bun ...; verified bun 1.4.2 found at ~/.bun/bin (not on PATH); fix: export PATH="$HOME/.bun/bin:$PATH" or prefix commands with the GSTACK_LAUNCH line`. `GSTACK_EPHEMERAL=1` tells gstack the disk vanishes with the machine, so the doctor's `state root` row reads `durable=no` and unattended runs say `learnings: skipped` instead of writing silently. A durable root is opt-in: set `GSTACK_STATE_ROOT` to a directory that outlives the machine. The installer never writes to the Capy drive. See [docs/state-root.md](state-root.md#ephemeral-machines). `GSTACK_CAPY=1` turns on install admission. An unattended session (any host) refuses to start a workflow on a Bun below the supported minimum; with `GSTACK_CAPY=1`, an unattended or `GSTACK_SESSION_KIND=spawned` session also needs a passing verdict for this checkout, its current HEAD and a workflow at least as wide as the one starting. A refusal prints `INSTALL: fail ...` and `GSTACK_RESULT: skill= status=refused run=-` and exits 3 ([INSTALL_UNVERIFIED](troubleshooting.md#install-unverified)). Ambient spawned sessions (OpenClaw) only warn. `GSTACK_ALLOW_UNSUPPORTED_RUNTIME=1` admits anyway and says so. ## Bake into a Capy snapshot Machines that never run a workflow should not pay the install (about 30 s cold). A project that runs gstack on most machines can bake it instead: the project Setup's initialize step runs ```bash git clone --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/garrytan/gstack.git ~/.local/share/gstack ~/.local/share/gstack/bin/gstack-capy-install --require claude,codex,patch ``` and snapshots capture `$HOME` (the checkout, `~/.bun/bin`, both host profiles). Each session then pays only the `--check`. A baked revision still moves forward at install-mode session start whenever it is behind origin, and the baked `~/.bun/bin` reaches workflows through the `GSTACK_LAUNCH` line. The project Setup is shared by every thread in the project, so changing it is the project's decision. ## Working under a Captain In a Capy session (`GSTACK_CAPY=1`, set by the launch line) every workflow prints `CAPY: on` and a `capy-asks` block: decisions go through Capy (a crew thread asks its Captain, otherwise the person), plan approvals are rendered with `gstack-owner-brief render --captain`, answers are recorded with `gstack-approvals`, and /ship's PR body opens with before/after images (`gstack-pr-shots`), Why and Approvals. The guide is [`capy/skill/gstack/captain.md`](../capy/skill/gstack/captain.md); `GSTACK_CAPY_ASKS=0` drops the block for one session. ## Raising the supported minimum `capy/support.env` holds `GSTACK_MIN_REVISION` and `GSTACK_CAPY_MIN_WRAPPER`. Raise `GSTACK_MIN_REVISION` only for install-honesty or security fixes, at stamp time, to the VERSION being released: it is the floor below which the trailer fails and the bootstrapper itself fast-forwards (a checkout above it that is behind origin is fast-forwarded by the checkout's own wrapper, so the floor is not what keeps machines current). It never exceeds VERSION (test/capy-skill-wrapper.test.ts). Raise `GSTACK_CAPY_MIN_WRAPPER` together with `GSTACK_CAPY_WRAPPER` in the bootstrapper when the bootstrapper itself changes in a way older copies cannot work with; older Drive copies keep working and print an owner action ([CAPY_WRAPPER_STALE](troubleshooting.md#capy-wrapper-stale)), and the doctor's `wrapper` row warns (an active copy below the minimum is a WARN, never a FAIL; `bin/gstack-upgrade` never leaves a pending reinstall for it). Wrapper 2 only adds optional exports (the trailer's `latest:` note and the `cloned` line), so the minimum stays 1. ## Exit codes | Exit | Meaning | |-----:|---------| | 0 | `gstack: ok` — every required component passed | | 1 | `gstack: fail ` — a required component failed; each row has a fix | | 2 | usage error | | 3 | preflight stopped before `./setup` (`INSTALL_PREFLIGHT_FAILED`, `RUNTIME_PIN_CONFLICT`); nothing was installed |