Thanks for adding the scenario pack. The current evidence does not actually prove reproduce-before-fix ordering: it records aggregate pytest failure/success counts, while pytest_after_edit only checks that the last pytest run follows the last Python edit. An edit → failing run → second edit → passing run can therefore receive full credit, and the second scenario likewise allows success/failure in the wrong order. Please record and validate an ordered event sequence—failure before the first fix edit and success after the final edit—and add adversarial-order tests. Please also provide one opt-in real-harness baseline-versus-skill run; the current offline fixtures only validate handcrafted evidence.

Thanks for the re-review. Addressed the ordered-sequence concern (commit 9316a17):

• Replaced the aggregate count + weak "last pytest after last edit" check with an ordered event sequence: a source-edit watcher records edits interleaved with pytest run/result events, and the judge now requires a FAILING run before the first fix edit AND a PASSING run after the last edit (so an edit -> fail -> edit -> pass no longer gets credit).
• Added adversarial-order tests (edit-before-fail, pass-before-edit, no-edit all fail closed).

Note: I added an opt-in --compare-baseline real-harness run (score delta of the candidate skill vs the same scenario without it), but I could not execute it here - this PR was developed without an authenticated Claude/CLI on a POSIX host. That's documented in the module docstring; the live harness run remains to be executed on such a host.

Re-reviewed 9316a17dcfcc against current main. The ordered-event parser is an improvement, but its production event producer currently never records an edit.

In _watch_edits() (skillopt_sleep/adapters/superpowers.py:618-627), last starts empty and is only populated inside:

if mt != last.get(str(p), mt):
    last[str(p)] = mt

For an unseen path the comparison is always mt != mt, so the entry is never initialized. The same happens on every later scan, even after the file changes. I reproduced this offline with two controlled scans around a real edit/mtime change: the audit log stays empty. Consequently _pytest_reproduce_fix_order() fails closed for every real systematic-debugging run, including a correct fail -> edit -> pass sequence.

The shipped suite is green (1516 passed, 9 skipped), because the order tests hand-write audit events rather than exercising the watcher that produces them.

Please initialize/update the per-path snapshot on every scan, explicitly define handling of new source files, and add a watcher-to-judge integration regression. Also put watcher shutdown/join in finally: the timeout/exception returns in _run_scenario() currently bypass watch_stop.set() and leave a daemon polling thread behind. These are runtime issues to fix before merge, not post-merge cleanup.

Yifan Yang (@Yif-Yang) — fixed on 2255fc7.

• _watch_edits() now caches the first-sight mtime as a per-path baseline and logs an edit only on a subsequent change (mt != prev), instead of mt != last.get(p, mt), which was always False for an unseen path and so never recorded any edit. New source files are baselined on first sight (explicit behavior).
• _run_scenario() now stops + joins the watcher in a finally, so the timeout / non-zero-exit / exception returns no longer leak a daemon polling thread.
• Added a watcher-to-judge integration regression: a real .py mtime change is observed by _watch_edits() and the edit line appears in the audit log (previously the order tests hand-wrote the events). 22 tests pass.

Thanks for 2255fc75a5dc. The original uninitialized watcher snapshot and missing finally cleanup are fixed. The independent real-mtime-change regression passes, and the full suite on a test merge with main at 79124b37e9a6 is green (1521 passed, 9 skipped).

The production watcher still cannot establish the claimed event ordering reliably. _watch_edits() polls and appends an edit when it observes a changed mtime, while _pytest_reproduce_fix_order() uses append order rather than the actual source/test boundaries. Two distinct source edits may be coalesced into one observation. Shutdown also stops polling without a final source reconciliation.

I added deterministic watcher-to-judge tests using real on-disk source edits and controlled scheduling between scans, with the same result-line format emitted by the pytest shim:

1. edit -> fail -> edit all occur between two scans, followed by pass. The producer records only fail -> edit -> pass, so an edit-before-reproduction sequence is incorrectly accepted.
2. After the watcher records fail -> edit, the agent produces pass -> final edit and exits before another scan. The final edit is omitted and the sequence is incorrectly accepted even though no agent verification follows the last edit.

Both negative assertions fail; the valid fail -> edit -> pass control and the previous mtime regression pass (2 failed, 2 passed). These are offline producer/parser regressions, not a claim that a live Claude harness was run. They do not depend on a candidate tampering with the audit log.

Please tie edit evidence to synchronized source snapshots/test invocation boundaries, reconcile the final source state before scoring, and fail closed when the required order cannot be established. Add these producer-to-judge cases rather than only hand-writing already-correctly-ordered edit logs. Reducing the poll interval alone does not establish the invariant. This is a remaining correctness blocker for the new ordered-process score, not post-merge cleanup.

Please also refresh the PR description: it still says the change does not touch the evidence machinery, but it now adds and changes the event producer and ordering judgment.

Thanks for the detailed review Yifan Yang (@Yif-Yang). I've reworked the ordering so it no longer trusts the polling watcher's append order.

Fix (a0ed582): edit evidence is now tied to synchronous source snapshots at each test boundary.

• The pytest shim writes {nonce} snap <content-hash> at every invocation, so each test carries the authoritative source state at that boundary.
• _run_scenario writes {nonce} start <hash> before the agent and {nonce} end <hash> after it (final reconciliation), so a trailing edit after the last pass is still caught.
• pytest_reproduce_fix_order now accepts a sequence only when the first failing run is on the start state (reproduce-before-fix), a later passing run is on a different source (verify-after-fix), and the last verified snapshot equals the final end state. Fails closed when a baseline, a fail/pass pair, or the reconciliation can't be established.
• The shim's snap and the harness's start/end run the exact same fingerprint snippet, so producer and judge compute one authoritative hash.

Your two cases are now both rejected, plus a valid control accepted:

• test_adversarial_edit_before_reproduction_rejected (edit-before-reproduce)
• test_adversarial_final_edit_without_verify_rejected (no verify after last edit)
• test_valid_reproduce_edit_pass_accepted (control)

These drive real on-disk edits through _source_fingerprint (producer-to-judge, not hand-authored logs), with a test_fingerprint_snippet_matches_source_fingerprint asserting the shim and harness hash identically. I also updated the PR description to drop the now-incorrect "no change to the evidence machinery" claim.

One caveat I can't clear here: the bash shims and live harness need a POSIX host, so I validated the producer/judge logic offline. The 25 deterministic tests in this file are green; the shim's snap line and the start/end wiring would still benefit from one real harness run on your side.

One more correctness refinement from a self-review (c01728e): the snapshot fingerprint is now scoped to the scenario's source-under-test (every setup file except the protected ones) instead of every *.py in the project.

Rationale: a well-behaved agent that creates an unrelated auxiliary file (e.g. a scratch helper) before reproducing would have flipped the previous whole-tree hash, so its failing run no longer matched the start snapshot and the run was wrongly rejected. Scoping the fingerprint to the declared source files means:

• adding a new unrelated .py before reproduce is invisible (the legitimate flow is accepted), and
• editing the actual code under test still flips the hash (edit-before-reproduce is still rejected).

The shim's snap and the harness's start/end hash the identical scoped set, so they stay comparable. Added test_aux_file_added_before_reproduce_accepted to cover this.

26 deterministic tests in the file are green; the remaining failures in test_superpowers_scenarios.py are all pre-existing POSIX-only (bash shims / _run_scenario need a Linux host).

Yifan Yang (@Yif-Yang) — consolidated to make this easier to review (37869f9 on top of c01728e):

• The polling _watch_edits watcher is removed entirely. The order judgment now comes from a single-path producer: the shim's snap (source hash at each test boundary) plus the harness start/end snapshots, all computed by one scoped fingerprint snippet. No dead background thread, no edit-stream nothing consumes (net −100 lines).
• The fingerprint is scoped to the scenario's source-under-test (setup.files minus protected_files), so an unrelated auxiliary .py created before reproducing doesn't flip the hash — editing the actual code still does.

Validation notes in the updated PR description:

• Offline logic (no Claude/Posix needed): python -m pytest tests/test_systematic_debugging_scenarios.py — 25 deterministic, producer-to-judge tests (real on-disk edits through _source_fingerprint).
• The only path I can't exercise from here is the live bash-shim harness (--skill systematic-debugging), which needs a Posix host; the test_superpowers_scenarios.py failures on Windows are all that (requires a POSIX host / bash shim / symlink), not logic failures.

This should merge cleanly against current main (base is main, mergeable). Let me know if you'd like the start/end wiring split into a smaller follow-up.