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Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP

^ Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle (GUPP)

GUPP: The mechanism that keeps all Gas Town agents moving forward through their work. Each worker checks its own state, decides its next step, and acts — then loops. It's effective but still a bit flaky, which is why The Witness exists to help smooth things out when agents get stuck.

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Annotated version of 'Welcome to Gas Town'

Gas Town’s propulsion (Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP) is effective, but still a bit flaky right now, and sometimes you will need to go hustle the Polecatss to get their MR submitted, and then hustle the Refinery to deal with them. The Witness patrol helps smooth this out so it’s almost perfect for most runs.
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Pushing along the worker agents and the specialized agent -- code merge

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In Gas Town, an agent is a Bead, an identity with a singleton global address. It has some slots, including a pointer to its Role Bead (which has priming information etc. for that role), its mail inbox (all Beads), its Hook (also a Bead, used for Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP), and some administrative stuff like orchestration state (labels and notes). The history of everything that agent has done is captured in Git, and in Beads.

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Concepts

Concept Description

Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP The mechanism that keeps all Gas Town agents moving forward

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Glossary

Term Description Kind

Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP The mechanism that keeps all Gas Town agents moving forward concept

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Term -- GUPP Nudge

^ Term -- Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP nudge

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Term -- Hook

a Beads, used for Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP

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Term -- The Witness

The Witness: Once you spin up enough Polecats, you realize you need an agent just to watch over them and help them get un-stuck. Gas Town's propulsion (Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP) is effective, but still a bit flaky right now, and sometimes you will need to go hustle the polecats to get their MRs submitted, and then hustle the Refinery to deal with them. The Witness Patrol helps smooth this out so it's almost perfect for most runs.

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agent problem - agents don't complete on their own, but need external nudging

For example Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP

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spaced repetition prompts - blog section 16 - Planning in Gas Town

Once work molecules are generated, what makes it possible to burn through them autonomously? ? You hook the work to a worker and Gas Town burns through it via Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP — no further intervention needed.

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spaced repetition prompts - blog section 3 - WARNING DANGER CAUTION

Which patrol agent helps smooth out Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP flakiness? ? The Witness patrol — it makes propulsion almost perfect for most runs.

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spaced repetition prompts - blog section 6 - Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle

Which Bead type is used for Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP? ? Hook

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What happens when a worker does a handoff? ? The worker gracefully cleans up and restarts its session. If it's hooked, Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP keeps it working automatically.

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Why doesn't Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP always work in practice? ? Claude Code is too polite — it sometimes ignores the hook and sits waiting for user input instead of running automatically.
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agent problem - Claude Code is polite and waits for user input

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spaced repetition prompts - blog section 7 - The GUPP Nudge

What two mechanisms together keep Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP running reliably? ? The GUPP Nudge and the hierarchical heartbeat from the Deacon downward.

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What enables workers to continue molecules across sessions? ? Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP — as long as work is on their hook, any new session picks it up and continues.

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spaced repetition prompts - blog section 8 - Talking to your Dead Ancestors

Why doesn't the content of a GUPP Nudge message matter? ? Agents' prompting is so strict about Term -- Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle - GUPP and their role in Gas Town that they ignore whatever you type — unless you directly override their Hook instructions.

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