generation-events.md

Correlating manager responses

A content block is provisional output. It may precede a tool call, a steering correction, or another provider response. Hosts must not resolve a request from the first assistant.message.

The optional live runtime now publishes a bounded manager-generation contract:

• generation.started: generation_id, initial_input_id, and optional call_id.
• assistant.message: generation_id, input_ids, accepted_input_ids, and provisional text.
• generation.finished: generation_id, input_ids, accepted_input_ids, text, active_job_ids, and disposition: manager_turn_finished.
• generation.failed: matching generation/input identities and error_type.
• generation.detached: matching identities and existing unconfirmed cancellation outcome.

input_ids contains commands actually delivered at a request boundary or confirmed by steering.applied. Merely queued inputs do not belong to the completed generation. Native steering.accepted appears in accepted_input_ids until an adapter emits steering.applied; accepting a correction does not prove that its successor response has used it. Existing native adapters that emit only acceptance must add an applied event at their confirmed successor boundary before hosts can resolve those requests.

Finished text is the final ordinary assistant message from the Amplifier context, without tool calls. It excludes provisional messages that the base streaming engine may concatenate into its returned string. Empty text is valid and does not mean work completed successfully.

A generation stays open through its final checkpoint while accepted request-boundary steering remains. Such input can require another engine invocation within the same generation, without another generation.started or replay of earlier work. Terminal publication closes admission before awaiting context reads.

Ordinary Input("user", ...) addresses the conversation, not a captured generation. During an active native request the loop first calls steer_live when eligible. False is a definitive no-effect refusal and uses the existing request-boundary queue. True transfers ownership to the provider, not proof of remote acceptance or application; the provider may own its own definite-refusal fallback. Exceptions or an indeterminate return never enqueue an alternate. Later input cannot overtake an earlier boundary batch, including while context insertion and request preparation await. The barrier releases at the engine's prepared-request boundary, not when the pending deque becomes empty.

At normal completion, the existing completion marker can yield once to already accepted inbox commands after the final checkpoint. Pending ordinary user or unanchored steer input can then continue the same generation, without replaying the original prompt or tools. Job/service callbacks alone do not require that continuation. Work arriving after closure starts a normal new generation; explicit generation-anchored steering still never falls forward.

Ordinary input.queued and input.delivered carry delivery (new_turn or request_boundary), source, and the current generation_id when one exists. On shutdown, local unconsumed input emits input.held and is removed, never implicitly replayed. An interrupted context insertion or native attempt emits input.unknown with its route instead of claiming no effect. Provider-owned native pending work is not relabeled held by the loop. Stop fences new work admission while identical accepted IDs still acknowledge without replay.

A finished manager generation is not completion of all delegated work. active_job_ids identifies still-running local delegate jobs. Their results reenter the manager through service observations. A host should show the manager's answer plus pending work, and continue processing later generations. Do not replay a job to obtain its result.

This contract changes no finite-session behavior, imports no app/CLI/provider SDK, and adds no provider protocol fields. Existing consumers can ignore the added metadata. Fixtures cover steering during a request, provisional text before a background tool, final text selection, native acceptance versus application, correlated failure, and cancellation without a success event.