[Meta] Dogfood Ace end to end

The team dogfoods Ace together this week, ahead of Universe. This issue is the dogfooding policy and the open backlog. It absorbed #218 on October 15. Closed items were removed; their history stays in the issues and PRs and in this issue's edit history.

Policy

All Ace development happens in Ace.
Record any external-tool escape in the PR's Built in Ace section and link the gap.
File bugs and missing capabilities as issues and link them here.

Items are ordered by importance within each list.

Blocking the team

Validate desktop tool use in Ace and track known gaps #427: validate desktop tool use in Ace and track known gaps. The engine work is [Meta] Complete native computer use in Ace desktop-tools#11.

Core and quality of life

Show typing and participant presence in chats #35: see who's in a chat and who's typing.
Edit and delete queued messages, and choose steer or follow-up #24: edit and delete queued messages, and choose steer or follow-up.
Start work from issues and PRs #28: start work from issues and PRs, and see who is already on them.
Expose several chats in a channel's UI #19: show more than one chat in a channel (the app only shows chat 1).
Let agents supervise and follow up with subagents #52: supervise subagents and send follow-up work.
Manage background and interactive jobs from channel tools #53: manage background and interactive jobs.
Add a File tab for browsing files #22: browse files in Ace (read-only).
Open a lane's dev server from its channel #16: open a lane's dev-server preview.
Attach every image from a multi-file Finder paste #105: attach every image from a multi-file Finder paste.

Hosted and cloud channels

Create hosted channels from the new-channel picker #177: create hosted channels from the new-channel picker. Until then, create locally and use Move to.
Keep a cloud channel's listing in step with its compute service #430: show a cloud channel as stopped after the service's idle stop.
Preserve and recover cloud workspace files beyond the pilot checkpoint limit #413: keep cloud workspace files beyond the checkpoint limit and across the idle stop.

The cloud compute pilot is done (#216 closed after scenarios 26 and 26b).

Development loop

Dev app: reload action and reporting an open launch that exits early #97: dev app reload, and reporting an open launch that exits early.
Verify native development and recovery end to end in Ace #55: verify the native development loop and recovery end to end.

Later

These aren't needed to dogfood this week:

Inspect and debug browser pages from an Ace channel #50: browser DOM tools.
Let agents discover and message channels on peer hosts #57: agents message channels on peer hosts.
Make required skills and tool integrations usable in native channels #56: required skills and tool integrations.
Operate a teammate host's desktop from an Ace channel #202: operate a teammate's desktop.

Other hosted and cross-host work is tracked in #58. The stable release is #217.

Study 17c (hosted recheck, 0.0.35):

Passes: fix(host): read move credentials before fencing the channel, and report keychain waits #353 (move confirmation), feat(app): show where a hosted channel runs and what waits for its workspace #357 (hosted visibility).
fix(host): reach a hosted channel while its owner's host is unreachable #349: B's chat works while A is away.
New: Hosted channel: model-only runs wait on an unresponsive workspace #372 (model-only runs wait on an unresponsive workspace; cause traced) and Move: 'The channel is moving' offers Try again during a normal move #373 (Try again during a normal move).

Study 20 (native desktop, 0.0.36):

Pass: Desktop app can't open a second window #330 New Window, remote image previews, live captions.
Filed: Desktop tools can't operate a Save sheet: target could not be revalidated before mutation #378 (desktop tools fail on Save sheets) and Turning desktop tools off doesn't stop shell screen capture #379 (shell screencapture works with desktop tools off).
Open chat stays on "Disconnected from the host" after Ace Helper recovers #362 and Move: 'The channel is moving' offers Try again during a normal move #373 are fixed in fix(app): say when Ace Helper isn't responding and re-watch a chat a relay dropped #371 and fix(app): show a move's progress instead of Try again while it runs #375; Hosted channel: model-only runs wait on an unresponsive workspace #372 is fixed in fix(channel): fail workspace calls fast when the workspace host stops answering #376 (Worker redeployed). All are rechecked on 0.0.37.

Study, 01:00–02:45 EDT:

17c/17d: Hosted channel: model-only runs wait on an unresponsive workspace #372 fixed (fix(channel): fail workspace calls fast when the workspace host stops answering #376) and fix(app): show a move's progress instead of Try again while it runs #375 verified; fix(app): say a hosted channel's tools fail while its workspace is away #381 and fix(host): reach a teammate's hosted channel directly while its host is up #383 merged by the lead.
18c/18d: Open chat stays on "Disconnected from the host" after Ace Helper recovers #362 and A teammate's view of a frozen host says nothing, and a send there shows 'Starting channel' #385 verified.
20/20b: Desktop tools can't operate a Save sheet: target could not be revalidated before mutation #378 verified, Turning desktop tools off doesn't stop shell screen capture #379 reworded; desktop_insert can't type into a Save sheet's filename field #390 waits on a desktop-tools decision.
21: feat(app): pin channels to the top of the sidebar #305, feat(channel): show live tool progress in the running tool call #308 and feat(app): open a command palette with Cmd+K for channels, tabs, and actions #311 pass; new bug Sidebar row's pin button doesn't pin #394.
Infra: 17e was blocked by the Cloudflare DO free-tier write quota. Fixed by fix(directory): write only changed channel listings on each publish #391; waiting for the 00:00 UTC reset.

Study scenario 25 (lobby/presence): verified on #17. Filed #406 and #407.

Hosted compute dogfooding evidence for #216 is in draft #416. Two actual hosted Ace model runs used the lane/file/shell tools in Cloudflare, pushed a lane, and continued after filesystem restore and resize. Deployment, lifecycle validation and most checks ran through an isolated source Ace terminal.

External escapes are recorded in the PR: Codex implementation/orchestration and some initial checks because the harness integration remains #9; Chrome automation for Wrangler OAuth authorization relates to #50. An early Docker check used the external terminal while the installed host was unavailable; later checks used the isolated source host. These existing gaps remain linked here; no new native UI behavior is claimed.

A lifecycle constraint relevant to #53: a detached child can outlive its shell tool. The pilot now refuses checkpoint/resize while later background processes are still live, rather than claiming that cleanup preserved a consistent filesystem. Both local detached-writer and deployed detached-process refusal checks passed.

Study scenario 26 (cloud compute beta) passes end to end (see #216). Filed #420 and #421.

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[Meta] Dogfood Ace end to end #5

Policy

Blocking the team

Core and quality of life

Hosted and cloud channels

Development loop

Later

90 remaining items

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[Meta] Dogfood Ace end to end #5

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Policy

Blocking the team

Core and quality of life

Hosted and cloud channels

Development loop

Later

Activity

90 remaining items

iamnbutler commented on Oct 15, 2026

iamnbutler commented on Oct 15, 2026

iamnbutler commented on Oct 15, 2026

iamnbutler commented on Oct 15, 2026

iamnbutler commented on Oct 15, 2026

iamnbutler commented on Oct 15, 2026

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