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apps/cli: build WP sites incrementally - #3198

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dereksmart wants to merge 4 commits into
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apps/cli: build WP sites incrementally#3198
dereksmart wants to merge 4 commits into
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try/no-mega-one-shot

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@dereksmart

@dereksmart dereksmart commented Apr 22, 2026 •
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Related issues

See p1776889791701059/1776881604.011089-slack-C08LZ79MKG9

The turn immediately after site_create (and after any "redesign / rebuild /
start over" prompt) was consistently producing one huge assistant response —
planning essay + multiple Writes + full theme scaffold all in one turn. At
Anthropic streaming rates that's 10–15 minutes of model generation. The CLI
TUI only renders complete assistant messages (no stream_event handler), so
the whole window is a silent "Meandering…" spinner; upstream gateways
sometimes time out with 504 before the response finishes.

How AI was used in this PR

Proposed Changes

  • Add a "Working cadence" section to the local system prompt: one Write/Edit per turn, skeleton-first for long files (>~200 lines), short prose between tool calls, and a hard cap on the turn that immediately follows any site-wide scaffolding trigger.
  • Frame cadence as a quality lever (screenshot loop) alongside UX, so the model doesn't read it as a cap on ambition.
  • Expand the site-spec skill's "After site_create returns" section with matching rules at the single biggest offending point.

Testing Instructions

  • studio ai → "make me a site" → runs site-spec, creates site, next turn is small (site_info or short Write), not a 15-minute silent span
  • studio ai with existing site → "redesign the site" → cadence rule for scaffolding triggers kicks in; no mega-turn
  • Visual quality on the final build is on-par with or better than before (screenshots mid-build are exercised)
  • Existing test suites (apps/cli/ai/tests/*) still green — tests mock buildSystemPrompt, so content changes don't affect them

Pre-merge Checklist

  • Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?
@dereksmart dereksmart changed the title apps/cli: cap post-site_create turn size to prevent 10-min agent hangs Apr 22, 2026
@dereksmart
dereksmart marked this pull request as ready for review April 22, 2026 20:46
@dereksmart dereksmart changed the title apps/cli: keep site-spec skill incremental after site_create Apr 22, 2026
@wpmobilebot

wpmobilebot commented Apr 22, 2026

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📊 Performance Test Results

Comparing 4100410 vs trunk

app-size

Metric trunk 4100410 Diff Change
App Size (Mac) 1491.75 MB 1491.75 MB +0.00 MB ⚪ 0.0%

site-editor

Metric trunk 4100410 Diff Change
load 1602 ms 1908 ms +306 ms 🔴 19.1%

site-startup

Metric trunk 4100410 Diff Change
siteCreation 8107 ms 8128 ms +21 ms ⚪ 0.0%
siteStartup 4956 ms 4950 ms 6 ms ⚪ 0.0%

Results are median values from multiple test runs.

Legend: 🟢 Improvement (faster) | 🔴 Regression (slower) | ⚪ No change (<50ms diff)
youknowriad added a commit that referenced this pull request Apr 22, 2026
@youknowriad
apps/cli: consolidate cadence rules; merge with PR #3198's working-ca…
7414966 
…dence approach

Combines the complementary halves of the two approaches to the
"silent mega-turn" problem:

- From #3198 (Derek): the broad "one Write/Edit per turn" rule and the
  small-turn rule for the turn immediately after site_create. Without
  these, the agent packs an entire theme scaffold into one turn.

- From this branch (section-by-section anchors): the concrete skeleton
  patterns for style.css (`/* === <concern> === */`) and page content
  (`<!-- section:<concern> -->` + `--post_content-file=`). Without
  these, the "skeleton-first" guidance alone was ignored for
  style.css — session 8 still wrote 12KB in a single Write (46.6s gap).

Replaces the earlier verbose step 3a/4a blocks with a single compact
"Working cadence" section after step 6 (roughly half the line count)
while retaining the concrete anchor patterns.

Also adds a short post-site_create reminder to the site-spec skill at
the point where the rule matters most.

Session 9 with the combined rules is in progress: longest
content-generation gap measured so far is 18.3s (a 3.5KB style.css
section fill). The 30s perceptual threshold is no longer breached on
the generation side.
@dereksmart

dereksmart commented Apr 23, 2026

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done in #3199
@dereksmart dereksmart closed this Apr 23, 2026
@youknowriad
youknowriad deleted the try/no-mega-one-shot branch April 23, 2026 14:15
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