Stop showing harness-written records as user turns in Claude sessions

internal/claude/claude.go

@@ -17,8 +17,9 @@
 //
 // Ignored by default: tool_use, successful tool_result, thinking, queue/mode/
 // permission bookkeeping, file-history snapshots, last-prompt, subagent
-// (isSidechain) and injected (isMeta) entries, subagent files under
-// */subagents/*, and .claude/transcripts/ses_*.jsonl (v1).
+// (isSidechain) and injected (isMeta) entries, user records the harness wrote
+// itself (see harnessWrappers), subagent files under */subagents/*, and
+// .claude/transcripts/ses_*.jsonl (v1).
 package claude
 
 import (
@@ -289,6 +290,9 @@ func readThread(fi fileInfo) (session.Thread, error) {
 		if role == "" {
 			continue
 		}
+		if role == session.RoleUser && harnessOnly(text) {
+			continue // a user record the harness wrote itself, not a turn
+		}
 		entries = append(entries, session.Entry{Kind: session.KindMessage, Role: role, Text: text, Time: ts})
 	}
 
@@ -367,6 +371,66 @@ func joinText(blocks []claudeBlock, raw json.RawMessage) string {
 	return strings.Join(parts, "\n")
 }
 
+// harnessWrappers are the XML wrappers Claude Code writes into type:"user"
+// records that are neither the user's words nor the user's act: a background
+// task's report, what a local command printed, its caveat, and an injected
+// reminder. The wrappers that record something the user did — the
+// slash-command trio, a ! bash line — stay on the timeline, however noisy,
+// because their text is the request.
+//
+// Only these names, and only spelled in full: markup a user pasted (<div>,
+// <my-element>) is a turn they meant to send, and <system-reminder-notes> is
+// not <system-reminder>.
+var harnessWrappers = map[string]bool{
+	"local-command-caveat": true, "local-command-stdout": true,
+	"system-reminder": true, "task-notification": true,
+}
+
+// harnessOnly reports whether a user message is nothing but harness wrappers.
+// One record can carry several in a row. A wrapper with no closing tag is not
+// one the harness wrote, so the record is kept.
+//
+// Nothing but: a record that still says something once its wrappers are read
+// off is kept whole, text and wrappers together. Every injected record in the
+// corpus this was measured against is wrapper-only, so trimming a mixed one
+// would buy no quiet while risking the words of a user whose message happens to
+// open with <command-name> or a pasted reminder.
+func harnessOnly(text string) bool {
+	rest, seen := strings.TrimSpace(text), false
+	for {
+		name, ok := openTag(rest)
+		if !ok || !harnessWrappers[name] {
+			return seen && rest == ""
+		}
+		seen = true
+		_, end := session.IndexFold(rest, "</"+name+">")
+		if end < 0 {
+			return false
+		}
+		rest = strings.TrimSpace(rest[end:])
+	}
+}
+
+// openTag returns the lowercased name of a bare <name> element opening s.
+// Anything else — attributes, a closing tag, a name with punctuation — is not
+// one of the wrappers, which the harness always writes bare.
+func openTag(s string) (string, bool) {
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(s, "<") {
+		return "", false
+	}
+	end := strings.IndexByte(s, '>')
+	if end < 2 {
+		return "", false
+	}
+	name := s[1:end]
+	for _, r := range name {
+		if r != '-' && r != '_' && !('0' <= r && r <= '9') && !('a' <= r && r <= 'z') && !('A' <= r && r <= 'Z') {
+			return "", false
+		}
+	}
+	return strings.ToLower(name), true
+}
+
 func normalizeRole(role string) string {
 	switch role {
 	case session.RoleUser, session.RoleAssistant:

internal/claude/claude_test.go

@@ -126,6 +126,79 @@ func TestCwdIsWhereTheSessionStarted(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// The harness files records of its own under role user: a background task's
+// report, what a local command printed, reminders. Every record below is
+// synthetic. The ones that keep their text are the reason the rule is a name
+// list rather than "starts with a tag" — and why a slash command and a ! bash
+// line, which are things the user did, stay on the timeline.
+const harnessTranscript = `{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","cwd":"/home/u/src/catchup","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:00:00Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"land the parser fix"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:00:10Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<task-notification><task-id>t1</task-id><status>completed</status><result>the agent reported back</result></task-notification>"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:00:20Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<command-name>/review</command-name>\n<command-message>review</command-message>\n<command-args>the parser branch</command-args>"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:00:30Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<local-command-stdout>branch is clean</local-command-stdout>"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:00:40Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<bash-input>ls internal</bash-input>"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:00:50Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<bash-stdout>claude\nsession</bash-stdout><bash-stderr></bash-stderr>"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:01:00Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"\n\n  <SYSTEM-REMINDER>mind the budget</SYSTEM-REMINDER>"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:01:10Z","message":{"role":"user","content":[{"type":"text","text":"<local-command-caveat>the command was run locally</local-command-caveat>"}]}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:01:20Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<task-notification><result>cut short"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:01:30Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<system-reminder>be brief</system-reminder>\n\nwhy did the build fail?"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:01:40Z","message":{"role":"user","content":[{"type":"text","text":"<command-name>/mine</command-name> is my own tag, keep it"}]}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:01:50Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<div>hello</div> why does this not render?"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:02:00Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"<system-reminder-notes>my own notes</system-reminder-notes>"}}
+{"type":"user","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:02:10Z","message":{"role":"user","content":"the log shows <task-notification> after every run"}}
+{"type":"assistant","sessionId":"sess-h","timestamp":"2026-06-26T10:02:20Z","message":{"role":"assistant","content":[{"type":"text","text":"reading it now"}]}}
+`
+
+func TestHarnessWrittenUserRecordsDropped(t *testing.T) {
+	root := t.TempDir()
+	writeTranscript(t, root, "-home-u-src-catchup", "sess-h", harnessTranscript, time.Now())
+
+	p := New()
+	roots := session.Roots{Claude: root}
+	src, err := p.Resolve(context.Background(), roots, "sess-h")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	th, err := p.Read(context.Background(), src)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	want := []string{
+		"land the parser fix",
+		// A slash command and a ! bash line are things the user did: the args
+		// and the command are the request, so both records stay.
+		"<command-name>/review</command-name>\n<command-message>review</command-message>\n<command-args>the parser branch</command-args>",
+		"<bash-input>ls internal</bash-input>",
+		"<bash-stdout>claude\nsession</bash-stdout><bash-stderr></bash-stderr>",
+		// A wrapper that never closes is not the harness's spelling: kept.
+		"<task-notification><result>cut short",
+		"<system-reminder>be brief</system-reminder>\n\nwhy did the build fail?", // mixed: kept whole
+		"<command-name>/mine</command-name> is my own tag, keep it",
+		"<div>hello</div> why does this not render?",
+		"<system-reminder-notes>my own notes</system-reminder-notes>",
+		"the log shows <task-notification> after every run",
+		"reading it now",
+	}
+	var got []string
+	for _, e := range th.Entries {
+		got = append(got, e.Text)
+	}
+	if len(got) != len(want) {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d entries, want %d: %q", len(got), len(want), got)
+	}
+	for i, w := range want {
+		if got[i] != w {
+			t.Errorf("entry %d = %q, want %q", i, got[i], w)
+		}
+	}
+	// A dropped record's text is searchable nowhere: not in a query, not in a row.
+	for _, gone := range []string{"the agent reported back", "branch is clean",
+		"mind the budget", "run locally"} {
+		if strings.Contains(th.VisibleText(), gone) {
+			t.Errorf("harness text %q survived into the timeline", gone)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestListSkipsSubagents(t *testing.T) {
 	root := t.TempDir()
 	writeTranscript(t, root, "-proj", "main-1", transcript, time.Now())