Bob's Emacs Mods — the other half

Read alice-emacs-mods first. That skill covers the host-level defaults: build (emacs-nox 30.2 from Nix), daemons (factory/server/claude-crdt/horsin-around), causal transients, org worlding, Gnus, keyboard, clipetty, takeover.bb. Bob covers everything else: the operational layer where live REPLs, cross-session coordination, and debug/recovery actually happen.

Ghostel mastery (the real one, not the comint imposter)

The imposter problem

(make-comint "ghostel: <name>" prog) yields a buffer named *ghostel: <name>* in comint-mode. This is not a ghostel buffer. It has no VT parsing, no OSC-133, no bridge, no TRAMP, no prompt-awareness. Many skills and my own earlier spawns emit comint imposters. Audit: (cl-remove-if-not (lambda (b) (and (string-match-p "ghostel" (buffer-name b)) (eq (with-current-buffer b major-mode) 'comint-mode))) (buffer-list)).

The correct spawn

(require 'ghostel)
(let ((ghostel-shell "/Users/alice/.juliaup/bin/julia")
      (ghostel-buffer-name "*ghostel: julia-real*"))
  (ghostel))

Buffer comes up in ghostel-mode, parses VT through ghostel-module.dylib (Zig, libghostty-vt). Everything downstream — strobe, prompt nav, bridge, OSC-52, TRAMP — starts working.

Parallel-spawn hazard

Spawning ≥2 ghostel buffers that each launch a heavy REPL (julia, stack ghci) in the same redisplay frame hangs the daemon. The Zig module's VT parser is not reentrant against concurrent PTY floods. Julia's startup banner alone is ~100 KB of escape sequences per pane. Three parallel spawns = instant hang (observed twice in the session).

Safe multi-spawn recipe

1. Wrap shells with quiet flags via a trivial script. ~/bin/julia-quiet:

   #!/bin/sh
   exec /Users/alice/.juliaup/bin/julia --color=no --banner=no "$@"
   

2. Serialize spawns + poll for prompt between each:

   (defun bob/ghostel-spawn-wait (name shell &optional timeout)
     (let ((ghostel-shell shell)
           (ghostel-buffer-name (format "*ghostel: %s*" name))
           (deadline (+ (float-time) (or timeout 15))))
       (unless (get-buffer ghostel-buffer-name) (ghostel))
       (while (and (< (float-time) deadline)
                   (not (with-current-buffer ghostel-buffer-name
                          (save-excursion
                            (goto-char (point-max))
                            (forward-line -1)
                            (looking-at ".*\\(julia\\|> \\|λ>\\) *$")))))
         (sit-for 0.2))
       ghostel-buffer-name))
   

3. Throttle during the multi-spawn window:

   (let ((ghostel-timer-delay 0.1)
         (ghostel-immediate-redraw-threshold 4096)
         (ghostel-input-coalesce-delay 0.05))
     (bob/ghostel-spawn-wait "sd-minus"   "/Users/alice/bin/julia-quiet")
     (sit-for 2)
     (bob/ghostel-spawn-wait "sd-ergodic" "/Users/alice/bin/julia-quiet")
     (sit-for 2)
     (bob/ghostel-spawn-wait "sd-plus"    "/Users/alice/bin/julia-quiet"))
   

Nuclear fallback — one daemon per tree

When the single-daemon pattern can't be made safe, fork per trit:

emacs --daemon=sd-minus   -l ~/.claude/skills/emacs-strobe-walk/color-walk-gay.el
emacs --daemon=sd-ergodic -l ~/.claude/skills/emacs-strobe-walk/color-walk-gay.el
emacs --daemon=sd-plus    -l ~/.claude/skills/emacs-strobe-walk/color-walk-gay.el

No shared VT parser. Cost: three frames. Win: true triadic parallelism, one GF(3) component per daemon. emacsclient -s sd-minus -t to attach.

Ghostel feature table (what alice doesn't cover)

Feature	Knob	Value / notes
VT render rate	ghostel-timer-delay	0.033 → 30 fps (lower for multi-spawn)
Adaptive FPS	ghostel-adaptive-fps	t (idle buffers idle the timer)
Big-chunk bypass	ghostel-immediate-redraw-threshold	256 chars default; raise to 4 KB during spawn
Input batching	ghostel-input-coalesce-delay	3 ms default
Scrollback cap	ghostel-max-scrollback	5 MB; raise to 64 MB for long-lived REPLs
Shell → Emacs bridge	ghostel-eval-cmds	defaults: find-file, find-file-other-window, dired, dired-other-window, message
Prompt nav hooks	ghostel-command-{start,finish}-functions	empty until shell sources etc/ghostel.{zsh,bash,fish}
SSH terminfo	ghostel-ssh-install-terminfo	'auto
TRAMP shells	ghostel-tramp-shells	per-host shell mapping
Compile mode	M-x ghostel-compile	replacement for M-x compile, full VT
Eshell bridge	load ghostel-eshell	eshell inside a ghostel buffer

Extend the bridge for this session

(dolist (pair '(("gay-reseed"     horsin/reseed)
                ("gay-strobe-on"  horsin/enable)
                ("gay-strobe-off" horsin/disable)
                ("delta-append"   (lambda (text) (append-to-file text nil "~/worlds/e/2026-04-21-delta.org")))))
  (add-to-list 'ghostel-eval-cmds pair))

From any shell inside a ghostel buffer: printf '\e]51;e;gay-reseed;305419896\a' reseeds the strobe. No socket, no RPC, the VT stream is the control channel.

Known Emacs-daemon cracks (observed this session)

Crack 1: proof-easy-config: PG already in use or name/symbol mismatch

After (require 'proof-general), narya.el's own (proof-ready-for-assistant 'narya) fails the macro's name-check and define-derived-mode narya-mode never lands. Workaround: set narya-toolbar-entries to nil before loading (handles one error) and either load narya before any other PG assistant OR do (unload-feature 'proof-general t) first. Escape valve: use coq-mode + a .v file — PG bindings work fine there.

Crack 2: wrong-type-argument integerp (HI . LO) in horsin/tick

The strobe chain uses logand (+ seed golden) mask where seed can be a bignum. On Emacs 30.2 + aarch64, some path returns a (hi . lo) cons pair instead of a bignum integer, which logand can't handle. Observed every time horsin/seed exceeds fixnum range and the tick advances. Workaround: (setq horsin/seed (logand (or (and (consp horsin/seed) (logior (ash (car horsin/seed) 64) (cdr horsin/seed))) horsin/seed) #xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)) as a coerce-on-read.

Crack 3: sequential narrow-terminal window splits silently drop panes

(dotimes (_ 4) (split-window-right)) on a 120-col terminal silently fails after ~3 splits — Emacs reports "Window too small for splitting" only when the fifth split is attempted directly, not inside dotimes. Always check (length (window-list)) after a split burst and fall back to vertical layout if short.

Crack 4: daemon hang on multi-ghostel spawn

Symptom: emacsclient -s server -e '(+ 1 2)' → SIGALRM after 3-5 s. Cause: see "Parallel-spawn hazard" above. Recovery: C-g in the user's live Emacs frame. No emacsclient-side recovery exists (all -e calls queue behind the hung VT parser).

Cross-session coordination (the L6 layer alice doesn't discuss)

The user routinely runs 4+ Claude Code sessions in parallel Ghostty tabs (⌘1–⌘4). These sessions share only:

• /worlds/* filesystem
• ~/.claude/skills/ (shared skill library)
• ~/.claude/projects/-Users-alice-worlds-*/memory/ (per-project memory dirs)
• the single Emacs daemon (PID 1831, server socket)

They do not share:

• conversation transcript (each session has its own /tmp/claude-501/<uuid>/)
• Monitor task outputs (same; each session's tasks/*.output is isolated)
• a messaging inbox

Shared-state rendezvous patterns that work

• Memory entries under ~/.claude/projects/-Users-alice-worlds-e/memory/MEMORY.md — indexed, one-line hooks. Multiple sessions can read + append (last-writer-wins, but entries are append-only by convention).
• DuckDB on disk — /worlds/e/broadcast_e.duckdb and /worlds/i/ies_beeper.duckdb are written by one session, queried by another. Tables like barton_ies_messages are durable rendezvous points.
• Org buffers shared via the Emacs daemon — all sessions driving server see the same *ghostel: …* buffers. Two sessions editing the same buffer is safe as long as only one writes to a given region (CRDT is optional; last-writer-wins OK for ephemeral).

Anti-patterns observed

• Trying to SIGINT another session's Claude Code process → no cross-session permission.
• Polling /tmp/claude-501/*/tasks/*.output for another session's progress → works but slow; use a DuckDB table instead.

REPL as dynamical citizen

Long-lived REPLs in ghostel buffers are not tools — they're citizens with state. Observed in this session:

• *ghostel: nanoclj-zig* retained seed-split hex history across multiple parallel agents.
• *ghostel: julia-gay* retained gay_seed!(0xd8dbb2df5c81869c) from one agent's earlier run.
• *ghostel: duckdb* on broadcast_e.duckdb holds the result cache across queries.

Implication: source-verify before every REPL call (established in prior memory) AND state-verify — read the prompt history's tail, don't assume a fresh REPL. Pattern:

(defun bob/repl-tail (buf &optional n)
  (with-current-buffer buf
    (buffer-substring-no-properties
      (max (point-min) (- (point-max) (or n 800)))
      (point-max))))

Team-red canonical parameters (this session's gauge)

• minus seed: 0x144d8132a6e983f5 (validator / -.tree)
• ergodic seed: 0xa4dd4adf1c71e889 (coordinator / 0.tree)
• plus seed: 0x4fd68f19a3c21491 (generator / +.tree)
• pleasant-red locus: LCH(55.5, 139.9, 12.4) ≈ #f34240
• 3-MATCH triad: ghci (−1) ⊗ nanoclj-zig (0) ⊗ julia-gay (+1) = 0 ✓

Reseed the strobe:

(horsin/reseed #x144d8132a6e983f5)

(note crack 2 — coerce the seed first if it's a bignum cons).

The numeric horizons of the three REPL languages

REPL	Native int	Max exact	Above that
GHCi	Word64	2^63−1	bignum Integer
Julia	Int64 / UInt64	2^63−1 / 2^64−1	BigInt on demand
nanoclj-zig	double (Int53)	2^53−1 ≈ 9e15	literal rejected: "invalid number"

Implication for cross-REPL seeds: if the seed exceeds 2^53−1, split into 32-bit hi/lo halves and run paired SplitMix32. Reference code: /worlds/e/sm32-split.cljc. See memory repl_numeric_horizons_2026_04_22.md.

Canonical Gay.jl path

Four directories claim the name "Gay.jl" with TWO distinct UUIDs:

• /worlds/g/Gay.jl — CANONICAL — UUID f3dee6b2-1ce2-4cc9-bfb1-25e98f6f315b, v0.3.0 (newest, richest src tree)
• /worlds/g/Gay.jl_1 — sibling copy, same HEAD
• /worlds/g/Gay.jl_2 — older snapshot (v0.2.1)
• /worlds/e/exo__home1/exo/Gay.jl — DIFFERENT PACKAGE (UUID a8c5b8e4…, v0.1.0) — do not load by accident

Global autoload already installed at ~/.julia/config/startup.jl; takes effect for every future Julia REPL via atreplinit. See memory canonical_gay_jl.md.

Layout patterns & their tradeoffs

Grid	Use when	Gotchas
1×3 horizontal	3 REPLs, wide terminal	split-window-right ×2; narrow cols on small screens
1×4 / 1×5 horizontal	4–5 panes, wide	Window too small for splitting on < 160 col
2×3 grid	6 panes, balanced	need ≥ 120 col × 30 rows
4×2 grid (tall)	8 panes, narrow terminal	vertical-dominant; fall back if 2×4 horizontal fails
3×1 vertical	3 panes, narrow	each pane very short (7-8 rows)

Always check (length (window-list)) after splits; fall back on failure.

QRTP distribution of a session

Full bundle template at /worlds/e/ghostty-emacs-combo/. Pack: scripts/pack.bb → frames/*.png. Play: scripts/play.sh at 8 fps. Receiver: scripts/unpack.sh via zbarcam. See README.org in that dir. ~228 KB bundle ≈ 395 frames ≈ 50 s / loop.

bb-native MCP server template

When a skill wants an MCP server without Node/TypeScript, use /worlds/e/bb-mcp.bb (95 lines, pure babashka). Replaces a 40-file TypeScript babashka-mcp-server. Register in ~/.mcp.json with stdio transport.

Debug harness

Proposed but not yet scaffolded (TODO):

• debug/scan-sessions.sh — inventory all /tmp/claude-501/*/tasks/ + last 5 outputs
• debug/emacs-health.el — M-x bob/health prints daemon-PID, seed, tick, layout, messages-tail
• debug/shared-inbox/ — fswatch-triggered cross-session messaging
• debug/pg-snapshot.el — dump PG locked/processing offsets per .v buffer

Things NOT to do (session-observed)

1. Don't (julia-snail) on a fresh project without killing PG state first — proof-easy-config collides with narya.el's init (see Crack 1).
2. Don't spawn ≥2 ghostel buffers in the same redisplay frame unless banner-silenced AND throttled.
3. Don't call vterm-send-string — we're in comint/ghostel land. Use process-send-string (get-buffer-process BUF) STR.
4. Don't assume a ghostel-prefixed buffer is in ghostel-mode. Grep major-mode first.
5. Don't use fish-shell for loops in Monitor scripts — they don't word-split $VAR. Use bash -c '…' explicitly OR inline values.
6. Don't Pkg.add in a ghostel pane before the prompt is visible — the resolver progress flood blocks the VT parser.
7. Don't assume the Emacs "daemon" is a daemon — on this machine it's emacs -nw (PID 1831) running interactively in a TTY that happens to host the server socket. C-g at the user's frame is the canonical recovery.

Quick triage

Symptom	Probe	Fix
emacsclient -s server -e '(+ 1 2)' → SIGALRM	daemon hung	user C-g
*ghostel:…* in comint-mode	comint imposter	kill + respawn with (ghostel)
horsin tick error (HI . LO)	seed overflow to cons	coerce with mask
narya-mode doesn't activate	PG macro collision	setq narya-toolbar-entries, then unload-feature 'proof-general
REPL pane tripled	narrow-terminal split collapse	fall back to vertical layout
shell commands in ghostel don't trigger OSC-133	shell rc hasn't sourced etc/ghostel.zsh	source it

Session-specific memory hooks

• memory/delta_2026_04_21.md — team-red ladder + 3-MATCH triad + source-verify discipline + open-games verdict
• memory/repl_numeric_horizons_2026_04_22.md — three REPLs, three ints, canonical
• memory/canonical_gay_jl.md — Gay.jl path disambiguation (f3dee6b2 = canonical)
• memory/team_red_locus.md — LCH(55, 138, 12) locus, #f34240
• canonical Beeper archive: /Users/alice/Library/Application Support/BeeperTexts/account.db (352 MB) + /worlds/i/ies_beeper.duckdb (478 MB, pre-processed IES slice)

GF(3) triadic composition

alice-emacs-mods (-1)   ⊗  bob-emacs-mods (0)  ⊗  plurigrid-asi-ghostel (+1)  = 0  ✓

Alice anchors the host (validator of the install). Bob coordinates the live operation (ergodic). Plurigrid-asi-ghostel generates the substrate for new REPL/agent channels. The three together tile the Emacs-mod space.

See also (bidirectional)

• [[alice-emacs-mods]] — host-level defaults; read first
• [[plurigrid-asi-ghostel]] — ghostel substrate for agent channels
• [[ghostel]] — the underlying terminal
• [[emacs-strobe-walk]] — horsin/color-walk; target of the bignum coerce workaround
• [[proofgeneral-narya]] — Narya PG integration; source of Crack 1
• [[three-match]] — the 3-MATCH triadic framework we instantiate on REPLs
• [[emacs-color-chain]] — sibling strobe skill
• [[julia-gay]] / [[clojure]] — language content layers
• [[bumpus-narratives]] / [[open-games]] — proof-target formalizations with open cracks

Session cross-refs (2026-04-23, e-session)

This skill participates in the 32-skill working set assembled in /Users/alice/worlds/e session 2026-04-23 (15 new skills also created).

Outgoing references (this skill src → other skill dest):

• bob-emacs-mods → plurigrid-asi-ghostel — VT substrate (named ghostel-vt in ghostel-rooms)
• bob-emacs-mods → three-match — 3-MATCH framework bob's session instantiates
• bob-emacs-mods → bumpus-narratives — proof-target sheaf substrate
• bob-emacs-mods → open-games — proof-target formalization with open cracks
• bob-emacs-mods → emacs-strobe-walk — target of bignum-safe patch
• bob-emacs-mods → proofgeneral-narya — Crack #1 source skill
• bob-emacs-mods → ies-triadic — 3-MATCH triad instantiated in ghci/nanoclj/julia-gay
• bob-emacs-mods → horsin-bignum-safe — implements the Crack #2 workaround bob documents
• bob-emacs-mods → ghostel-imposter-audit — implements the imposter audit bob requests
• bob-emacs-mods → ghostel-multi-spawn-safe — implements bob's safe-multi-spawn recipe
• bob-emacs-mods → three-repl-triad — codifies bob's canonical team-red triad seeds

Incoming references (other skill src → this skill dest):

• alice-emacs-mods → bob-emacs-mods — operational complement to alice host-level
• plurigrid-asi-ghostel → bob-emacs-mods — ghostel mastery and multi-daemon orchestration

Verified GF(3) triads containing this skill:

• alice-emacs-mods (-1) ⊗ bob-emacs-mods (0) ⊗ plurigrid-asi-ghostel (+1) = 0 ✓

REPL atlas

Part of: repl-commons. Family canonical: emacs.