feat(rules): quiet output, and a dispatch gate for where output lands

Tool output isn't free. It lands in the Emacs buffer I'm working in, so eleven hourly sentry cycles on 2026-08-05 filled my workspace with lines confirming nothing had changed.

Two rules, each in the file that already owns the concern. interaction.md gets quiet output: a check returning the expected result prints nothing, and only deviations plus one summary line reach the terminal. It already governs styling, and volume is the larger cost.

subagents.md gets a third dispatch justification beside cost and isolation. A repeated scheduled pass is dispatched for where its output lands, not for how hard the work is. The size gates don't apply, since a recurring check battery is always a known target in under ten calls.

Verification gates are exempt, and that exemption is load-bearing. An exit code can lie, so a check that is evidence for a completion claim still gets read in full.

sentry.org's pass runner now runs the walk in a background subagent, and says where the thread boundary falls.

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/sentry.org b/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/sentry.org
index b25fc14..0e8f819 100644
--- a/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/sentry.org
+++ b/claude-templates/.ai/workflows/sentry.org
@@ -91,6 +91,10 @@ Every reclaim of a stale lock surfaces in the digest — the helper prints the r
 
 Each cycle, after acquiring the single-runner lock and verifying branch state (below), walks the pass list in order. Every pass follows the same four-step contract:
 
+*Run the walk in a BACKGROUND subagent, not the main thread.* The pass list is roughly ten tool calls and it repeats every cycle, while the main thread's tool output lands in the Emacs buffer Craig is working in. Eleven cycles inline on 2026-08-05 filled his workspace with output that almost entirely confirmed nothing had changed. Backgrounding is the load-bearing part: a background agent's output goes to a file, while a foreground dispatch puts it straight back in his terminal. The main thread then reports only what the quiet-output rule allows: deviations, plus the one-line heartbeat at cycle-end. See the Output-Destination Override in =subagents.md= and the quiet-output rule in =interaction.md=. A recurring prompt that tells the agent to walk the list inline is overriding this. Fix the prompt rather than the workflow.
+
+*Where the thread boundary falls.* The dispatched agent owns the whole walk, which means the per-pass work, the =session-context.org= entries, the per-pass commits, and the between-pass lock refreshes all happen inside it. The main thread keeps what brackets the walk: the entry gates, acquiring and releasing the single-runner lock, branch-state verification, and the cycle-end digest. The lock survives the boundary because =agent-lock= is keyed by name rather than by process, so a refresh from the subagent holds the same lock the main thread acquired.
+
 1. *Probe* — a cheap existence check for the pass's target (named per pass below). Absent → the pass is one skip line in the digest and nothing more. This is what makes the pass list portable: passes self-activate where their target exists and stay silent elsewhere, with zero per-project configuration.
 
 2. *Work* — run the pass under the unattended contract. Quick, solo, already-agreed mechanical actions execute. Anything destructive or requiring judgment does *not* execute — it appends to the morning-approval queue (what, why, the exact command or edit that fires on approval). A pass runs fully or not at all; there is no reduced-form pass.