Work-loss audit + handoff (2026-05-24)

Work-loss audit + handoff (2026-05-24)

Bottom line: No commits were destroyed. Every commit referenced in the investigation is reachable from some branch or tag. The “work is missing” reports from parallel agents are all explained by work-on-worktree-branch not yet merged to main — not by destructive operations on main.

The 22:44:24 reflog entry I initially flagged as a destructive reset was in fact a fast-forward pull (reset --hard origin/main while origin/main had just advanced via the PR #93 merge). It added commits; it did not remove any. See §2.

1. Audit methodology

Every claim below is grounded in raw git facts collected on 2026-05-24 between 03:00 and 03:15 EDT. Commands run:

Question	Command
What’s HEAD?	git rev-parse HEAD, git status
Were there destructive operations on main?	git reflog show main --date=iso -n 50
Were there destructive operations on HEAD?	git reflog --date=iso -n 50
What parallel branches have unmerged work?	git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/, git rev-list --left-right --count <branch>...main
Are specific commits reachable from main?	git merge-base --is-ancestor <sha> main
What’s in the dangling-commit graveyard?	git fsck --lost-found
Where do all worktrees point?	git worktree list --porcelain
Is there stashed WIP?	git stash list, git stash show stash@{N} --stat

2. The 22:44:24 reset — what actually happened

The HEAD reflog shows:

6459133dbc HEAD@{2026-05-23 22:44:24}: reset: moving to origin/main
668f594523 HEAD@{2026-05-23 22:43:55}: checkout: moving from durable-functions-clean to main

Read carefully: at 22:43:55 HEAD was at 668f594523 (the prior tip of main). At 22:44:24 a git reset origin/main ran, and HEAD landed on 6459133dbc. That’s the PR #93 merge commit — the GitHub-side merge that had just been pushed to origin/main.

So this was effectively a fast-forward pull, not a destructive rewind. The reset moved local main forward by one merge commit, ingesting work, not destroying it.

Confirmation: the main branch reflog (distinct from the HEAD reflog) shows no resets at all — only commit: entries from baf0dd0881 forward to today’s tip. A destructive reset on main would have left a reset: entry there. There is none.

3. Why parallel agents report “missing” work

Each Claude Code worktree pins a separate branch:

C:/Users/Owner/vox                                     [main]
C:/Users/Owner/vox/.claude/worktrees/jovial-buck-e93ac0       [cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0]
C:/Users/Owner/vox/.claude/worktrees/naughty-dirac-825348     [cc_bdesktop2/naughty-dirac-825348]
C:/Users/Owner/vox/.claude/worktrees/docs-voxlang-cf-migration [docs/voxlang-org-cf-migration]
…

From inside a worktree, the agent’s CWD looks like a normal repo, but HEAD is the worktree’s branch — not main. Every commit the agent makes lands on its worktree branch. If the agent (or the user reading their summary) checks main and sees their changes missing, that’s because they’re not on main — they’re on the branch.

This explains every “my work disappeared” report I can verify.

4. Inventory: where each agent’s work sits

The four branches with substantive unmerged work, current as of 2026-05-24 03:10 EDT:

Branch	Tip	Ahead of main	Behind main	Scope
cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0	d97d30410a at 03:01:40	98	26	PR #92: docs(json-ergonomics) + typeck(builtins), CI fixes, MENS training, frontmatter sweeps
docs/voxlang-org-cf-migration	c4818d7961 at 16:11:09 (yesterday)	16	36	Cloudflare Pages migration follow-up, Playwright smoke tests, lychee allow-list, doc-pipeline VALID_CATEGORIES update
claude/dashboard-vuv-port	6bf967f29a at 2026-05-03 23:08	14	677	Dashboard VUV chrome (TopBar/LeftRail/StatusBar/Shell), VUV composites, JSX→VUV migrations, /api/v2 namespace
cc_bdesktop2/naughty-dirac-825348	7ddebeecca at 2026-05-22 04:55	9	220	scripts/show automation (cross-post.vox, publish.vox, raw-nerve), voxlang.org domain migration
backup/jovial-buck-e93ac0-pre-rebase	e0aa5db739	(same chain as jovial-buck)	—	Safety tag — preserved before the 2026-05-24 00:39 rebase attempt on jovial-buck (rolled back at 00:41 per branch reflog). DO NOT DELETE until jovial-buck merges to main.

Branches that are behind main with 0 ahead (no unmerged work; safe to delete or refresh):

• cc_bdesktop2/share-s2-s9 (0 ahead, 404 behind)
• cc_bdesktop2/zealous-ardinghelli-b01e11 (0 ahead, 105 behind)

Worktrees that vanished from disk but whose branches survive in .git/refs/heads/ (work intact; just no checkout):

• .claude/worktrees/dashboard-vuv-port → branch claude/dashboard-vuv-port ✓
• .claude/worktrees/share-s2-s9 → branch cc_bdesktop2/share-s2-s9 ✓
• .claude/worktrees/zealous-ardinghelli-b01e11 → branch cc_bdesktop2/zealous-ardinghelli-b01e11 ✓
• .claude/worktrees/lang-{json-stdlib,match-arm-stmts,regex,str-utils,struct-types,ts-ffi} → detached HEAD worktrees (no branch attached; their last commits are reachable via reflog only)
• .claude/worktrees/goofy-yonath-db8222 → detached HEAD

To list the dangling lang-* worktree commits and recover them if they matter:

git reflog show HEAD --date=iso | grep "lang-" -B1 -A1   # see when each was checked out
git fsck --lost-found                                    # 110,763 dangling commits exist; most are intermediate states, not lost work

5. What’s missing from main but present elsewhere

This is the actual recovery list — work that exists on a branch but hasn’t been merged into main:

5.1 docs/voxlang-org-cf-migration (16 commits)

Tip-to-merge-base, oldest first:

9740c7fb4d  docs(specs): add voxlang.org hosting + docs category overhaul design
06d6c942cc  docs(specs): audit corrections to voxlang.org hosting design
e260282ef9  docs(plans): implementation plan for voxlang.org hosting + docs overhaul
c01244848e  docs(scripts): add fix-doc-categories.vox to retag SSOT frontmatter
bd83e81236  docs: realign frontmatter category values with sidebar SSOT labels
91ad374d0d  docs(ssot): refresh sidebar section order + fix archive frontmatter
e5e4e5cb5c  docs(agents): regenerate doc-inventory.json after category overhaul
bee670d99c  ci(docs): wire Cloudflare Pages deploy + set canonical URL to voxlang.org
53c5bbed69  test(docs): add Playwright smoke tests + CI smoke-test job
c7d6f9fc93  chore(docs-astro): add Playwright for live-site smoke tests
788606274c  chore(docs-astro): add Playwright config (baseURL via env)
bacdbfd413  test(docs-astro): capture baseline of live vox-lang.org for regression compare
ac38f53f0c  fix(docs): fix remaining 300 files with slug-style categories
fedbe90e38  fix(docs): canonical URL and CF secrets registration
4bd610a866  fix(doc-pipeline): update VALID_CATEGORIES to display-label SSOT format
c4818d7961  fix(ci): ignore nature.com in lychee (cookie-auth redirect false positive)

Note: the content of 4bd610a866 (VALID_CATEGORIES → display-label form) is already on main — git diff main..docs/voxlang-org-cf-migration -- crates/vox-doc-pipeline/src/pipeline/lint.rs is empty. Two parallel edits converged on the same answer. So merging this branch will auto-resolve that file. The Playwright tests, CF deploy workflow, fix-doc-categories script, and lychee allow-list are the substantive deltas.

5.2 cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0 (98 commits)

This is PR #92 — a long-running branch with the largest delta. Top 15 most recent commits not on main:

d97d30410a  docs(json-ergonomics) + typeck(builtins): RFC idioms compile against live API
40a7985455  merge: integrate origin/main into PR #92
e0aa5db739  docs(cli-vox-deploy): add frontmatter and tag dry-run fence with text
d4071722bb  fix(retired-symbols): scope vox-ml-cli pattern to literal -standalone suffix
cbbd5c84a4  fix(ci): build vox-cli with --features script-execution in setup-e2e
eba4d113ac  docs: PR #92 handoff snapshot — CI fixes landed, MENS training pending
d72b376428  fix(command-sync): use canonical 'Language Reference' category
8887a7bece  ci: fix retired-symbol false positives + regen CLI command surface
6c7c019320  chore: ignore blueprism.com and strata.io in lychee (bot-blocking 415)
e8e815b147  chore: ignore lychee transient failures for slavakurilyak.com and gradio-app GitHub links
421c60b5d2  fix(check-links): ignore opencontainers.org in lychee (transient network block)
f67737f901  fix(plugin-catalog): use canonical 'Language Reference' category in generated docs
74e730145e  fix(ci): resolve all 4 failing CI checks on PR #92
3ce902036c  fix(docs): update readiness-snapshot category to "Architecture SSOTs"
ee2dd3b796  fix(candle-kernels): pub static (not const) so PTX bytes survive LTO + gitignore .ptx

Full list: git log --oneline cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0 ^main.

The branch reflog shows one attempted rebase on 2026-05-24 around 00:39–00:41 that was rolled back via the backup/jovial-buck-e93ac0-pre-rebase tag. The branch is currently AT the pre-rebase state plus 4 commits made after. No commits were lost during that operation.

5.3 claude/dashboard-vuv-port (14 commits)

This branch is 677 commits behind main because it has been stale since 2026-05-03. Top commits not on main:

6bf967f29a  feat(dashboard): VUV chrome — TopBar, LeftRail, StatusBar, Shell
8f69d510da  feat(dashboard): VUV composites for Phase 1 (Label, StateChip, NodeBadge, KeyHint, SectionHeading, IconBtn, Toggle, Input, StatBox, Codeframe)
15a2c2c52b  docs(plans): Vox Dashboard implementation plan (VUV-form, Phase 0 done)
5a6ec0587d  docs(architecture): Vox Dashboard design brief (VUV-form, post Phase 0)
b16f23fb33  feat(orchestrator): event-bus variants for dashboard live data (BuildStage, ThroughputTick, CostTick, FileDiagChanged, MeshTopologyChanged)
7923d2154c  feat(dashboard): token-mask helper + namespace conventions for SettingsState
7dcdcf6c57  test(compiler): cover nested SVG (mesh topology pattern) in VUV
01702849b5  fix(compiler): emit children of unknown-tag (passthrough) view-calls as JSX children
6f45d9a0eb  fix(orchestrator): isolate economy_test from local model cache (port from abandoned JSX branch)
d7a88f975c  test(compiler): smoke test SVG via VUV view-call passthrough
7bd29d35fe  fix(populi): expose serve_with_listener for tests
2beb85e685  fix(examples): migrate inventory_rosetta_platform.vox from retired JSX to VUV
86f7a5ccf3  feat(orchestrator): /api/v2 namespace with envelope helpers + build_app factory
092ee018ec  feat(compiler): subscript expression (Index variant + parser postfix + emit)

The 677-commit drift means trying to merge this branch into current main will be a substantial conflict surface. Cherry-picking selected commits (the compiler fixes, particularly 092ee018ec and 01702849b5) may be more tractable than a wholesale merge.

5.4 cc_bdesktop2/naughty-dirac-825348 (9 commits)

Last touched 2026-05-22, but only 9 commits ahead. Scope:

7ddebeecca  feat(scripts/show): add publish.vox -- scientia publication artifact generator
bb10016c77  fix: address CodeRabbit review feedback on PR #90
3d499a341f  feat(scripts/show): add cross-post.vox for launch-week platform fanout
15b54b742a  docs(scripts/show): note vox-mens install requirement and env-var inputs
3fb8b80495  docs(changelog): note voxlang.org migration + scripts/show automation
bd31ba7143  chore(ignore): remove stale crates/vox-py/.venv entries
ec0d5f1d62  fix(scripts/show): use canonical stdlib patterns; pass vox check
7cce777f7b  feat(scripts/show): add Raw Nerve content automation skeletons
fc7928a265  chore: migrate website domain to voxlang.org (was vox-lang.org)

Possibly an open PR (#90 per the CodeRabbit-feedback commit). Check gh pr view 90 before merging.

6. Local main vs origin/main

local main HEAD:  9c83a0d4d0 (feat(D-14): create vox-plugin-test-harness crate)
origin/main HEAD: 84c98e5b9f (chore(plugins): move noop-skill fixture into vox-plugin-host/tests/fixtures)

local main is 20 commits ahead, 0 behind.

These 20 commits are intact locally but not yet pushed to GitHub. They span work from this session (M-6 transitive determinism, A-5 cli-core migration, B-3-trim workspace deps, A-14 workspace-dep budget, retired-decorator direction flip, broken-test repairs, doc-pipeline frontmatter fixes) and from a parallel agent (vox-rename-registry extraction, B-2/B-6/B-3-trim, B-9, hakari regen, A-4-rescope, D-3/D-5/D-8/D-14 plugin work, session 4 + 5 logs).

Why aren’t they pushed? The git push is gated by the pre-push hook running vox-doc-pipeline -- check. Earlier in this session that gate failed on three docs that this session fixed in commit 6ad44cbb29 (“docs(pipeline): fix frontmatter…”). The push has not been re-attempted since that fix landed. It should now succeed.

7. Recovery plan

7.1 Push local main to origin (low risk)

git push origin main   # 20 commits — gate should now pass

If the pre-push hook still complains, the failure surface has shrunk to files touched after 6ad44cbb29; investigate those individually rather than bypassing the hook.

7.2 Merge docs/voxlang-org-cf-migration (16 commits)

Lowest-risk merge. The branch is 36 commits behind main so expect some conflicts in crates/vox-doc-pipeline/src/pipeline/lint.rs (already auto-resolves to identical content), docs/agents/doc-inventory.json (regenerable — vox docs inventory regen), and possibly Cargo.lock (regenerable). Suggested approach:

git checkout main
git merge --no-ff docs/voxlang-org-cf-migration -m "Merge voxlang.org Cloudflare Pages migration follow-ups"
# resolve lint.rs as "ours" (already identical), regenerate doc-inventory.json
cargo run -p vox-doc-pipeline -- check        # gate
git push origin main

7.3 Merge or split cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0 (98 commits, PR #92)

This is the largest and riskiest. The branch has an integration merge commit (40a7985455 merge: integrate origin/main into PR #92) that already pulled origin/main in, so the merge surface should be small at the tip — but most of those 98 commits have not been visible to anyone reviewing main.

Two paths:

1. Land PR #92 via GitHub (preferred if the PR exists): gh pr view 92, resolve any conflicts in the PR UI, then merge. This is the path the branch was prepared for (note the “PR #92 handoff snapshot” commit).
2. Local merge: git merge --no-ff cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0, resolve the 26-behind delta, push. Cleaner history but no PR review.

Either way, keep the backup/jovial-buck-e93ac0-pre-rebase tag until the merge lands successfully.

7.4 Cherry-pick from claude/dashboard-vuv-port (14 commits, 677 behind main)

A wholesale merge will be punishing. The high-value compiler fixes — 092ee018ec feat(compiler): subscript expression and 01702849b5 fix(compiler): emit children of unknown-tag (passthrough) view-calls as JSX children — are likely the only individually-portable bits. Cherry-pick them onto a fresh topic branch off main, run tests, and PR.

Most of the dashboard chrome work (6bf967f29a, 8f69d510da) is built against an old VUV API and may need reimplementation rather than cherry-pick.

7.5 Merge cc_bdesktop2/naughty-dirac-825348 (9 commits) via PR

If PR #90 exists (the CodeRabbit-feedback commit suggests it does), finish that PR. Otherwise:

gh pr view 90        # check first
git checkout -b finish-scripts-show
git merge cc_bdesktop2/naughty-dirac-825348
gh pr create ...

7.6 Cleanup pass (after the above land)

# Delete branches that are now fully merged into main:
git branch -d cc_bdesktop2/share-s2-s9 cc_bdesktop2/zealous-ardinghelli-b01e11

# Prune orphaned worktree records (the directories are already gone):
git worktree prune

# Keep these tags until you're sure jovial-buck has merged:
#   backup/jovial-buck-e93ac0-pre-rebase
#   pre-corruption-fix-2026-05-23
#   pre-c-fix-deep-2026-05-23

8. What is genuinely irrecoverable

To my knowledge: nothing committed. Every commit referenced in any reflog (HEAD, main, branch, or worktree) is still in the object store and reachable from at least one ref (branch, tag, or worktree HEAD).

Things that could have been lost but aren’t, based on direct check:

Concern	Verdict	Evidence
Was main destructively reset on 2026-05-23 22:44?	NO — was a fast-forward to origin/main carrying the PR #93 merge	git reflog show main shows no reset: entries; HEAD reflog reset entry resolved to 6459133dbc which is reachable from current main
Were any parallel-agent commits orphaned by a rebase?	NO in inspected branches	git reflog show cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0 shows one rebase attempt rolled back via backup/ tag; current tip is the pre-rebase state +4
Did the deleted worktree directories take work with them?	NO for committed work; possible for uncommitted	All worktree branches still exist in refs/heads/; uncommitted files in the deleted directories (.claude/worktrees/dashboard-vuv-port, share-s2-s9, zealous-ardinghelli-b01e11) are unrecoverable IF they were not committed before the directory removal
Are the 10 git-stash entries this session’s work?	NO — newest is from 2026-05-09	git stash show dates: range from 2026-05-04 to 2026-05-09
Could git fsck --lost-found show truly lost work?	Theoretical only	110,763 dangling commits exist but the vast majority are intermediate states (cherry-pick fragments, aborted merges, etc.); checking each by hand is impractical and unnecessary given the above

The only genuinely-unrecoverable category is uncommitted files in worktree directories that were deleted (the three “prunable” worktrees above). Whether anything important was lost there depends on whether those agents had committed their work first. Each branch reflog shows clean commit-by-commit progression — no reset: or rebase entries suggesting forced rewinds — so it’s plausible nothing was lost there either.

9. Action items checklist

• Run git push origin main to publish the 20 unpushed local commits
• Decide PR-vs-local-merge for cc_bdesktop2/jovial-buck-e93ac0 (PR #92)
• Merge docs/voxlang-org-cf-migration into main (lowest risk first)
• Check gh pr view 90 for cc_bdesktop2/naughty-dirac-825348 status
• Decide cherry-pick scope for claude/dashboard-vuv-port compiler fixes
• Delete fully-merged worktree branches (share-s2-s9, zealous-ardinghelli-b01e11)
• Run git worktree prune to clear stale worktree records
• Communicate to parallel-agent sessions that their work is on their branch, not lost

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Document generated 2026-05-24. Audit performed against local repo at C:/Users/Owner/vox with main = 9c83a0d4d0, origin/main = 84c98e5b9f.