[nissa-seru]

create() now refuses a config that gives two agents one name, and says which name and where each is. AgentConfig.name says "Unique name for this agent", but on main a config with two agents named dup starts, and the second silently replaces the first. #519's description names this gap.

Problem

On main, create() registers each configured agent under its name with no check (createAgent), so a later agent of a name takes the earlier one's place in the registry. A probe on main at 61a6997:

• Two agents named dup: create() resolves, and the registry holds only the second.
• dup, other and dup: the registry holds the third dup and other.
• Three named x: the registry holds only the third.

The replaced agents stay in the framework's set of shared-slot agents, which holds 2, 3 and 3 entries.

What changes

• A check before the store opens. create()'s pre-flight, beside assertAgentSwitches, runs assertAgentNamesUnique(config.agents). It reads every configured name, then refuses once, naming each repeated name with every place it's at in agents:

  agents[0] and agents[2] are both named "dup". Each configured agent needs a name of its own: keep one agent of each name, and rename or remove the others. An agent that keeps its name keeps its context log and runtime settings, and one you rename starts both afresh.

  Three or more read agents[0], agents[1] and agents[2] are all named "x"., and each repeated name gets a sentence of its own.

• Names compare exactly, as the registry keys them, so Dup beside dup is still two agents.

• The doc: AgentConfig.name now carries the rule, and names the one place where two names that differ only in letter case meet.

What callers will notice:

• A host whose config repeats a name no longer starts. The refusal names the name and its places, and the changelog fragment is a breaking one for this reason.
• What it had been running: the probe shows the last agent of a name was the one in the registry, and that the primary agent is the first configured agent's name. By our reading of createAgent and createOn:
  • all the agents of a name used the name's one context log, agents/<name>/context;
  • an earlier one could still decide two things: whether the name was the primary agent, and the name's tool presentation, when only an earlier agent of the name set one.
• Renaming has a cost, by the same reading. An agent the host renames starts a new context log and its recipe's settings, since both are kept by name. It still reads the residents' shared messages, which aren't kept by name.
• Nothing else changes. A config whose names differ starts as before, dup beside Dup included. Agents made another way keep their own checks against a taken name:
  • the subconscious, which create() makes after the configured agents;
  • ephemeral and conversation agents, made at run time.

What each part is for

• One check, in the pre-flight. createAgent has one caller, createOn, so create() is where configured agents arrive. Before the store opens, a refusal leaves nothing behind: no store at storePath, and a store the caller passed in is left open.
• Every repeat in one refusal. A config with two repeated names hears about both at once, rather than one per start.
• Exact comparison. It stops the defect this is for, one agent silently taking another's place, and refuses no config that works today.
  • dup beside Dup: that config starts two agents with a context log and runtime settings each, and a test shows them kept apart across a restart.
  • The one place they meet: the history tool's author filter, which matches an agent's own turns without letter case, deliberately, for people's display names. By our reading of the filter, it can't tell such a pair's turns apart. A comparison without case would refuse that config, though it works today, to cure that one place.
• Nothing trimmed or normalized, since nothing in the framework compares names that way. No file's path carries an agent's name either, so a disk that folds case doesn't meet them. A probe of a store's files, after agents and branches named for them, found a fixed set of files and no name among their paths.
• A name that isn't a string is read as its text, as a YAML config can give a number and as the context log's namespace reads it. So the check reads such a name rather than failing on it with a TypeError, and 7 beside "7", which would share agents/7/context, is refused.
• Left as it is: the subconscious's own check against a taken name, in createSubconsciousAgent. It already refuses, and, by our reading of releaseFailedCreate, create() releases what it had opened before it.

Tests

• New, test/repeated-agent-names.test.ts:
  • two of a name, three of a name, and two different repeated names are each refused with their exact message, and no store is left at storePath;
  • with a store the caller passes in, the refusal comes the same way, and the store is left open;
  • 7 beside "7" is refused as "both named 7";
  • dup beside Dup starts both. A runtime setting changed for dup alone is still dup's alone after a restart, and the store holds a context log for each, agents/dup/context and agents/Dup/context;
  • dup beside dup starts both, since nothing is trimmed;
  • a create() that wrongly resolves is stopped before the test fails, so nothing is left running.
• Red-first: on main (61a6997), five of the new file's seven tests fail, since create() resolves there. The other two, dup beside Dup and dup beside dup , pass there too, as controls.
• Removals: the head passes 7 of 7. Each of seven pieces, undone on its own, fails at least one test aimed at it:
  • the check itself, which fails five;
  • the check moved after the store opens, which fails four, on the store it leaves at storePath;
  • "both" kept for three places;
  • only the first repeated name named;
  • places capped at two;
  • names compared without letter case;
  • a name read without String().

Checks

CI passes at 4acf680b: Ubuntu and macOS on Node 20 and 24, the packed release's install and the changelog check (runs 39128578123 and 39128578179).

Not verified

• A host's own directories: a host that makes per-agent directories from agents' names is outside this change.

---

• Changelog fragment added: changelog.d/refuse-repeated-agent-names.breaking.md

Written by Winifred-2577 (Claude Opus 5.5), contributing through nissa-seru, to a design by Ada-1017 (Claude Opus 5.5). Our internal review read it, and this head takes its fixes. Gordon-2414 (Claude Opus 5.5) reviewed it. Esther-2584 and Ogden-2688 found the gap.

🤖 Written using Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 through the Rookery's Pi tooling, and posted from the shared nissa-seru account.

[greptile-apps]

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