---
id: WARDEN-WP-0021
type: workplan
title: "Enable the scheduled worker tick — conservative inbox triage, unattended"
domain: infotech
repo: ops-warden
status: active
owner: claude
topic_slug: custodian
planning_priority: high
planning_order: 21
created: "2026-06-30"
updated: "2026-06-30"
state_hub_workstream_id: "8c487014-b630-4016-a4f0-31b971a473d2"
---

# WARDEN-WP-0021 — Enable the scheduled worker tick

**Goal:** turn the WP-0020 conservative worker from *built-but-disabled* into a reliable,
unattended schedule — so ops-warden's State Hub inbox is auto-triaged into a digest of
**drafted replies** the operator reviews and approves, without anyone starting a session.
This is the payoff of WP-0020: it ends the cross-session relay toil.

**Posture (unchanged):** schedule the **conservative** tier only — triage + draft, never
auto-send (Option A / build-stage decision `813899f9`). The four guardrails hold. Easy
kill switch is a requirement, not an afterthought (recoverability).

**What "enabled" means here:** (1) the tick runs on a schedule and survives the failure
modes (hub/llm-connect down → graceful degrade), (2) the operator actually *sees* new
drafts, (3) the operator can *act* on a draft with one command, (4) it's trivial to stop.

**Out of scope:** the full-auto (auto-send) path; flipping `policy.enabled`; moving the
worker off the workstation.

**Depends on / relates to:** WP-0020 (the worker + `scripts/worker-tick.sh`); the State
Hub migration to railiance01 (`cust-wp-0011`/`0038`) may change `WARDEN_HUB_URL` later —
the tick already honors that env var.

---

## Decisions to settle (first)

- **Scheduler:** `systemd --user` timer (recommended — clean logs via `journalctl`,
  `systemctl --user status`, built-in scheduling) vs. plain cron (simplest) vs.
  activity-core (ecosystem-native durable trigger; heavier for build stage). Recommend the
  systemd user timer; cron documented as the one-liner fallback.
- **Cadence:** every 15 min (default) — adjustable.
- **llm-connect reachability:** per-tick short-lived port-forward (current behaviour) with
  rule-brain fallback, vs. a persistent forward. Recommend keeping the per-tick forward +
  fallback for build stage (no standing process).

---

## Tasks

### T1 — Scheduler install + enablement + kill switch

```task
id: WARDEN-WP-0021-T01
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "10451fe6-7fab-4ae0-8494-e6cfdfbcf8cf"
```

- [ ] `systemd --user` timer + service units (`ops-warden-worker.{service,timer}`) that run
      `scripts/worker-tick.sh` on the chosen cadence, with `WARDEN_HUB_URL` / `WORKER_BRAIN`
      from an env file. Install script + documented cron fallback one-liner.
- [ ] Concurrency is already guarded by the tick's `flock`; verify under the timer.
- [ ] **Kill switch:** `systemctl --user disable --now ops-warden-worker.timer` (and the
      env-file `WORKER_ENABLED=0` short-circuit) — one command to stop, documented.

### T2 — Scheduled-run robustness (graceful degradation)

```task
id: WARDEN-WP-0021-T02
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "1f35f816-1af5-46ff-b48c-1715f3ae5784"
```

- [ ] Harden `worker-tick.sh` for unattended runs: bounded timeouts, hub-unreachable →
      clean skip + log (no crash loop), llm-connect-unreachable → rule-brain fallback
      (already present; verify), non-zero exit only on real faults.
- [ ] End-to-end verify a real timer-fired tick: new message → digest + progress note;
      no new message → no-op; hub down → graceful skip.

### T3 — Operator visibility (see new drafts)

```task
id: WARDEN-WP-0021-T03
status: todo
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "3c7f6423-8db0-4bc6-b67d-078d9d929c6d"
```

- [ ] Surface new drafts beyond the file: desktop `notify-send` on new digest (when a
      display is present) and/or keep the hub progress note as the durable signal.
- [ ] `warden worker status` — last run time, pending-draft count, digest path, timer state.

### T4 — Review→send loop (`warden worker approve`)

```task
id: WARDEN-WP-0021-T04
status: todo
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "dabc9fc0-abb1-4e9d-b87e-5f0c5950693c"
```

- [ ] Persist structured drafts during the tick (`state_dir/worker-drafts.json`:
      message_id → to_agent, subject, drafted body, thread_id — no secret material).
- [ ] `warden worker approve <message_id> [--edit]` — send the reviewed draft as the
      caller's reply + mark read; `warden worker drafts` to list pending. This is what makes
      the scheduled digest *actionable* in one command instead of hand-composing.

### T5 — Runbook + SCOPE

```task
id: WARDEN-WP-0021-T05
status: todo
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "9915da96-1b33-4d0f-b752-408ea8d43333"
```

- [ ] `wiki/playbooks/scheduled-worker.md` — enable/disable, cadence, the approve workflow,
      failure modes, and the build-stage posture (conservative only). SCOPE note.

---

## Acceptance

- A `systemd --user` timer (or cron) runs the conservative tick unattended; one command
  disables it.
- A timer-fired tick triages new messages into a digest + progress note and degrades
  gracefully when the hub or llm-connect is down.
- The operator is notified of new drafts and can send a reviewed draft with
  `warden worker approve <id>`.
- Still conservative: nothing is auto-sent; no secret value is read, sent, or logged.

## See also

- `WARDEN-WP-0020` (the worker + `scripts/worker-tick.sh`), build-stage decision `813899f9`
- `cust-wp-0011`/`cust-wp-0038` (State Hub → railiance01; future `WARDEN_HUB_URL`)