/dashboard — Harness Observability Dashboard

SkillMonitoring & ops

Real-time harness observability dashboard. Reads campaigns, fleet sessions, telemetry, and pending queues to present a snapshot of harness state at a glance. Invoked by /dashboard, /do status, or phrases like "what's happening" and "show activity".

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the /dashboard — Harness Observability Dashboard skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by sethgammon/citadel in skills/dashboard/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

When to Use

  • "What's happening?" / "Status?" / "What's going on?"
  • "Show activity" / "Show me the dashboard"
  • After returning to a project after time away
  • When /do routes "status", "dashboard", "what's happening", "what's going on", "show activity"
  • Directly: /dashboard

Inputs

None required. Works with whatever state exists on disk.

Protocol

Step 0: RUN DASHBOARD IMPLEMENTATION

Run the local dashboard implementation from the project root:

node scripts/dashboard.js

If the package scripts are available, this equivalent command is also valid:

npm run dashboard

The script is read-only. It renders a user-facing control-plane snapshot from .planning/, telemetry, hook config, coordination state, worktrees, and cost data. Use the manual collection protocol below only as a fallback if the script is missing or fails in the current project.

Step 1: COLLECT STATE

Read the following sources. Each is optional — if a file or directory doesn't exist, treat it as empty. Never crash on missing state.

Campaigns:

  • Glob .planning/campaigns/*.md
  • For each file, read the first 40 lines to extract:
    • Status: field
    • Direction: field (truncate to 60 chars)
    • Phase progress (search for Phase N of M or ## Phase headings)
    • Most recent line starting with - [ from the Decision Log
  • If all phases are complete but status is still active, report needs-completion and show: node scripts/campaign.js complete <slug> --archive
  • If a campaign is marked completed but still lives in .planning/campaigns/, report needs-archive and show the same archive command.
  • If prior build/verify phases are complete but the review-package Exit Evidence row is still pending, missing, or points at a missing local package, report a repair before campaign completion: node scripts/package-delivery.js <slug>

Cost Data (two sources, prefer real):

  • Primary: run node scripts/session-tokens.js --today and --all — reads Claude Code's native session JSONL for exact token counts
  • Fallback: read .planning/telemetry/session-costs.jsonl; cost priority real_cost > override_cost > estimated_cost; group by campaign_slug, sum cost/agents/minutes, compute grand total
  • Live session: read .planning/telemetry/cost-tracker-state.json for burn rate
  • Label real data "(real)" and estimates "(est)"

Fleet Sessions:

  • Glob .planning/fleet/session-*.md
  • For each file, read the first 30 lines to extract:
    • status: field
    • wave: or wave number
    • agents: or agent count

Recent Telemetry:

  • Read last 50 lines of .planning/telemetry/hook-timing.jsonl (if it exists)
  • Read last 50 lines of .planning/telemetry/audit.jsonl (if it exists)
  • Merge and sort by timestamp (descending). Take the 10 most recent entries.
  • For each entry: extract ts (or timestamp), hook (or event), and a short description field. Format as relative time.

Recent Hook Activity (separate from general telemetry):

  • Read last 20 lines of .planning/telemetry/hook-timing.jsonl
  • For event: "timing" entries: extract hook, duration_ms, timestamp (relative), and outcome (pass if no matching error in hook-errors.jsonl within 1s; block if a block entry exists)
  • For event: "counter" entries: extract metric name as the "event" column with count context

Hook Overhead (timing percentiles):

  • Read all of .planning/telemetry/hook-timing.jsonl (if it exists)
  • Keep only entries with a numeric duration_ms; group by hook
  • Per hook compute: count, p50, p95, max (nearest-rank percentile over the sorted durations)
  • Sort rows by p95 descending
  • If the file is missing or contains no timed entries, render the one-line note instead

Routine Quota (account-wide 15 runs / 24h cap):

  • Read .planning/telemetry/routine-runs.jsonl (if it exists)
  • Expected JSONL shape, one record per quota-consuming run: {"ts": "<ISO timestamp>", "kind": "RemoteTrigger" | "CronCreate" | "ScheduleWakeup"}
  • Count records with ts inside the last 24 hours; compare against the cap of 15
  • Warn when the count exceeds 12 (hitting the cap pauses every routine on the account; see docs/ROUTINE-QUOTA.md)
  • The harness does not write this file automatically yet — remote-run logging populates it when a routine mechanism is actually used. Local runners (local-watch.js, local-daemon.js, local-schedule.js) never consume quota and must not be counted.

Pending Queues:

  • Count actionable entries in .planning/telemetry/doc-sync-queue.jsonl where status is pending or needs-review (or 0 if missing)
  • Count lines in .planning/telemetry/merge-check-queue.jsonl (or 0 if missing)
  • Count files in .planning/intake/ (or 0 if missing)

Hook Value Data (for HOOKS VALUE section):

  • Read .planning/telemetry/hook-errors.jsonl (if it exists, last 200 lines)
    • Count entries where hook = "protect-files" (blocked file access)
    • Count entries where hook = "external-action-gate" (gated external actions)
    • Count entries where hook = "quality-gate" (quality violations)
  • Read .planning/telemetry/hook-timing.jsonl (if it exists, last 200 lines)
    • Count entries where hook = "circuit-breaker" and metric = "trips"
    • Count total entries from today (entries containing today's ISO date prefix)
  • Read .planning/telemetry/audit.jsonl (if it exists, last 200 lines)
    • Count entries mentioning "circuit-breaker" or "circuit_breaker"

Hook Problem Taxonomy:

  • Read last 100 entries from .planning/telemetry/hook-errors.jsonl.
  • Classify protect-files blocks and hard external-action-gate blocks as safety-block with info severity; they prove protection fired and do not create a repair action by themselves.
  • Classify error and parse-fail actions as hook-failure with high severity; these are actionable.
  • Classify blocked-restricted as restricted-scope-block with high severity; this is actionable.
  • Classify first-encounter and consent-block from external-action-gate as approval-needed with medium severity; this is actionable.
  • If an external-action-gate approval entry has a later matching tool-call entry in audit.jsonl, classify it as resolved-approval with info severity; it should not create a repair action. Treat git push -u and git push as equivalent for the same branch, and allow a small near-simultaneous timestamp skew between hook and tool-call entries.
  • If an unresolved external approval entry is older than 15 minutes, classify it as stale-approval with low severity; it should not create a current repair action.
  • Classify entries older than 24 hours as stale with low severity and do not create a repair action from stale entries.
  • The /telemetry repair action should appear only when actionable entries are present. Safety blocks remain visible in PROBLEMS and HOOKS VALUE.

Health:

  • Count circuit breaker entries from audit.jsonl (from hook value data above)
  • Count total lines in .planning/telemetry/audit.jsonl written today
  • Count entries in hooks array of .claude/hooks-template.json (or .claude/hooks.json if template not present); use 0 if neither exists
  • Read .claude/harness.jsontrust object:
    • sessions_completed, campaigns_completed counters
    • Compute level: novice (sessions < 5), familiar (5-19), trusted (20+ with 2+ campaigns)
    • If trust.override is set, use that and note "(override)"

Step 2: FORMAT RELATIVE TIMESTAMPS

Convert ISO timestamps: <60s → "just now" | <60min → "{N} min ago" | <24h → "{N} hr ago" | else → "{N} days ago". Display unparseable timestamps as-is.

Step 3: RENDER DASHBOARD

Output verbatim, substituting real values. Always show section headers even when content is "(none active)".

=== Citadel Dashboard ===
As of: {relative timestamp of most recent event, or "now"}

NEXT ACTION
  Command: {exact command}
  Why: {why this is next}
  Confidence: {low | medium | high}
  Repair available: {yes | no}
  Runbook: {docs or skill path}

REPAIR CONSOLE
  {repair|review} | {confidence} | {label}
    command: {exact command}
    why: {short reason}
    runbook: {docs or skill path}

CAMPAIGNS
  {slug}: Phase {N}/{total} — {direction, max 60 chars, ellipsis if truncated}
  Last event: {most recent telemetry entry for this campaign, or "no telemetry"}
  (none active)

COSTS
  This session: ${cost} | {duration} min | ${rate}/min | {messages} msgs | {agents} agents
  Today:        ${today_total} across {today_sessions} sessions
  All time:     ${all_time_total} across {all_time_sessions} sessions ({data_source})

  By campaign:
    {slug}: ${total_cost} across {sessions} sessions ({agents} agents, {minutes} min)
    _unattached: ${total_cost} across {sessions} sessions
  (no cost data recorded yet)

ROUTINE QUOTA
  Runs (last 24h): {N}/15
  WARNING: {N} of 15 routine runs used in the last 24h. Hitting the cap pauses every routine on the account. See docs/ROUTINE-QUOTA.md.
  (remote-run logging populates .planning/telemetry/routine-runs.jsonl - local runners do not consume quota)

HOOKS VALUE
  Circuit breaker: {N} trips (prevented token spirals)
  Quality gate:    {N} violations caught pre-commit
  Protect-files:   {N} blocks (path traversal, secrets)
  External gate:   {N} actions gated
  Total hook fires today: {N}
  (raw facts only -- no inflated savings claims)

FLEET SESSIONS
  {slug}: Wave {N} — {agent count} agents — {status}
  (none active)

RECENT ACTIVITY (last 10 events)
  {relative time} | {hook/event name} | {description}
  (no telemetry recorded yet)

HOOK ACTIVITY (last 10 hook fires)
  {relative time} | {hook name} | {duration_ms}ms | {outcome: pass/block/warn}
  (no hook timing recorded yet — set CITADEL_DEBUG=true in settings.json for verbose output)

HOOK OVERHEAD (sorted by p95 descending)
  hook                        count      p50      p95      max
  {hook name}                   {N}   {N}ms    {N}ms    {N}ms
  (no hook timing data recorded yet)

PROBLEMS
  Actionable: {N} | Safety blocks: {N} | Resolved approvals: {N} | Stale: {N}
  {relative time} | {severity} | {category} | {hook name} | {description}
  (none recorded)

PENDING
  Doc sync:     {N} items queued
  Merge reviews: {N} items queued
  Intake items:  {N} in .planning/intake/

HEALTH
  Circuit breaker trips this session: {N}
  Audit entries today:                {N}
  Hooks installed:                    {N}
  Operator tier:                      {novice | familiar | trusted} ({N} sessions, {N} campaigns)

QUICK COMMANDS
  /do continue    — resume active campaign
  /do rollback    — restore last checkpoint
  /telemetry      — cost breakdown, hook activity, telemetry settings
  /triage prs     — review open PRs
  /pr-watch       — watch PR CI
  /learn          — extract patterns from last completed campaign

Step 4: FRINGE CASE HANDLING

.planning/ missing: All zeros, "(none active)"; add "Run /do setup --express to initialize." harness.json missing or malformed: Show "not configured" for hooks count; do not crash. Malformed campaign file: Skip it; note (N campaign file(s) skipped — malformed). Large telemetry files: Read last 50 lines only. Missing timestamps: Fall back to file modification time; display entry without timestamp if unavailable. All campaigns completed: Note "No active campaigns" at top of CAMPAIGNS section. Completed campaign still active: Show the exact node scripts/campaign.js complete <slug> --archive repair command; suggesting /do continue here is wrong because the campaign is already finished. Campaign ready for review package: Show the exact node scripts/package-delivery.js <slug> repair command before showing campaign completion. All fleet sessions idle: Note "No active fleet sessions" under FLEET SESSIONS. routine-runs.jsonl missing or no runs in window: Show Runs (last 24h): 0/15 plus the one-line population hint; only show the WARNING line when more than 12 runs are counted. Mixed state: Proceed with whatever state exists; note each missing directory inline. Doc-sync backlog: Surface /learn --doc-sync as a repair action with skills/learn/SKILL.md as runbook. Dirty worktree: Surface git status --short as a review action; do not suggest destructive cleanup. Only safety blocks recorded: Show them in PROBLEMS and HOOKS VALUE, but do not surface /telemetry as NEXT ACTION. Actionable hook problem recorded: Surface /telemetry as repair action with skills/telemetry/SKILL.md as runbook.

Contextual Gates

Disclosure: "Displaying harness dashboard. No files modified." Reversibility: green — read-only; no files modified Trust gates:

  • Any: view the full dashboard

Quality Gates

  • Dashboard must render even when all state files are missing
  • Never display raw JSON to the user — always parse and format
  • Relative timestamps required — never show raw ISO strings in output
  • Campaign direction truncated to 60 chars with "..." if longer
  • NEXT ACTION must include command, why, confidence, repair availability, and runbook when known
  • REPAIR CONSOLE must list actionable repairs before raw activity logs
  • Safety blocks must not be treated as urgent repairs unless paired with an actionable hook failure, approval, or restricted-scope block
  • Total output must be skimmable in under 30 seconds

Exit Protocol

/dashboard does not produce a HANDOFF block. It is a read-only observability tool. After displaying the dashboard, wait for the next user command.

Signals

GitHub stars
921
Forks
82
Last commit
Sep 2026
Hacker News mentions
20
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
dashboard-sethgammon
Source
github.com/sethgammon/citadel