narratio/docs/operations.md

Operations Guide

Operator workflow for running, recovering, and publishing Narratio sessions.

For command syntax, see docs/cli.md. For field-level config, see docs/config.md.

Campaign and Session Selection

Campaign selection priority:

• --campaign-file
• --campaign
• pipeline.campaigns.default_campaign_id

Session source priority:

• --session
• local default search paths
• remote session object (S3) when local session file is not found and storage is configured

Session Initialization

Use session init to generate a concrete session file for local or remote use.

Local file:

narratio session init 2026-04-04 --output ./session.yml --date 2026-04-04 --title "Session 12"

Remote session object:

narratio session init 2026-04-04 --remote --force

If campaign.yml sets session_template_file, session init renders it. Template variables must resolve to concrete values.

Campaigns must provide stable input files for speakers, autocorrect, glossary, players, and party. Session files may override those paths for one session. The prepare stage materializes them under inputs/; configured Scriptorium artifacts can reference prepared players, party, and glossary files with narratio.input.players, narratio.input.party, and narratio.input.glossary.

Standard Session Workflow

1. Select pipeline/campaign/session config.
2. Validate session readiness:

narratio session validate 2026-04-04

3. (Optional) inspect stage decisions:

narratio session plan 2026-04-04

4. Run the pipeline:

narratio run 2026-04-04

5. Check state:

narratio session status 2026-04-04

Stage Execution and Continuation Behavior

Canonical stage order:

1. prepare
2. transcribe
3. merge
4. polish
5. normalize
6. trim
7. extract
8. render
9. analyze
10. publish
11. notify

Execution rules:

• succeeded stages are skipped unless --force is set;
• run continues interrupted or partially completed sessions by running non-succeeded stages;
• forcing an upstream stage marks succeeded downstream stages as stale before the replacement runs; and
• an executed failure, changed self-skip, or success that replaces a different effective upstream outcome also marks succeeded downstream stages stale. A repeated self-skip with the same reason and no outputs is stable and does not perpetually rerun downstream work.

Single-stage execution:

narratio run-stage normalize 2026-04-04 --force

Artifact Selection

--artifacts can be used on run, run-stage, analyze, and publish.

Selection behavior:

• validates names against pipeline.scriptorium.artifacts;
• filters analyze execution to selected configured artifacts;
• filters publish rules for narratio.artifact.<name> sources only;
• does not suppress built-in transcript, bounds, or explicitly configured narratio.extraction.<name> publish sources; and
• never partially selects Notarius lanes.

Extraction Workflow

When Notarius is omitted or disabled, extract records an explicit skipped outcome with reason notarius_disabled and no outputs. A later invocation reconsiders the skipped stage, so enabling Notarius does not require force.

When Notarius extraction is enabled, the stage consumes the final trimmed JSON and preserves the complete validated Notarius bundle at:

• artifacts/notarius/{narratio_run_id}/

The directory is immutable once promoted. Configured lanes become narratio.extraction.<name> sources for Scriptorium and explicit publish rules; the bundle and index.json are retained for audit and resume validation but are not selectable or published implicitly.

Starting a replacement clears the previous extraction payload from the current session-stage record. If that replacement fails or self-skips, the current record does not fall back to the earlier outputs. The earlier run manifest and immutable bundle remain available for inspection, but downstream resolution requires a new current successful extraction record.

Atomic Notarius bundle promotion is supported on Linux and macOS. On Windows and other operating systems, extraction fails before copying the bundle into a temporary promotion tree because Narratio has no verified atomic no-replace directory primitive there. This is an extraction limitation, not a broader platform-support guarantee for every Narratio workflow.

External Command Lifecycle

When an external command is cancelled or times out, Narratio terminates its owned descendants as well as the command itself. Cancellation first requests termination where the platform supports it, then force terminates after a bounded wait. A command is not considered finished until its leader has been reaped, and descendants that keep standard output or error open cannot keep the invocation blocked. Other operating systems fail closed rather than launch a command without tree ownership.

Subprocess stdout and stderr diagnostics are separately redacted and capped at 8 MiB per invocation. Narratio does not retain configured credential values in these logs or their error tails; reaching a capture limit terminates the command tree and reports which stream exceeded the limit.

Run-local diagnostics are:

• runs/{run_id}/extract/notarius.receipt.json
• runs/{run_id}/extract/notarius.stderr.log
• runs/{run_id}/extract/notarius-output/ before durable promotion

The run-record upload is an allowlist derived from the validated run manifest, not a workspace scan. Each declared source is opened without following symlinked ancestors or the leaf, verified as a regular file, and streamed from that verified descriptor. Unlisted files and unsafe entries are never uploaded. The durable bundle is never scanned for implicit publication; only lanes named by explicit pipeline.publish.outputs rules are uploaded.

To intentionally replace the current extraction result, run:

narratio run-stage extract 2026-04-04 --force

Narratio automatically reruns extraction when its recorded invocation contract or durable output validation changes. It cannot fingerprint configuration files, profiles, prompts, modules, or references loaded transitively by Notarius. Force extraction after changing any of those inputs, even when the top-level Narratio and Notarius config paths remain the same. A forced extract marks successful downstream stages stale. Ordinary extraction failures or outcome changes also stale affected downstream stages, while an identical repeated notarius_disabled self-skip does not repeatedly invalidate them.

Publish Workflow

Run publish only:

narratio publish 2026-04-04

Equivalent:

narratio run-stage publish 2026-04-04 --force

Publish commit model:

• uploads eligible run files under {session_prefix}/runs/{run_id}/, excluding audio and the run-local Notarius staging bundle;
• uploads configured published outputs, including only explicitly configured extraction lanes;
• uploads previous/** cache files when present;
• writes current/manifest.json;
• writes current/run_id.txt last.

current/run_id.txt is the remote current-state commit marker.

Remote Commit Migration

The immutable remote commit contract uses runs/{run_id}/commit.json to declare a run's complete object set and a small current/commit-pointer.json to select it. The pointer binds the selected commit by version, checksum, size, and storage generation; committed artifacts are also checksum- and generation-bound. Readers accept this contract now and strictly reject mismatched or unknown data.

The publish workflow above remains the legacy writer until its planned cutover. Legacy reads are limited to a coherent current/manifest.json and current/run_id.txt pair; a torn pair is rejected. New remote commit state does not carry local current_pointer_written metadata.

Publish Locks

Lock sources:

• static locks in pipeline.publish.locks
• mutable remote locks in {session_prefix}/locks.yml

Effective lock rules:

• static and remote locks are merged;
• static locks win on source collisions;
• locked outputs are intentional skips;
• lock add/remove commands mutate only remote lock state.

Examples:

narratio session locks 2026-04-04
narratio session locks add 2026-04-04 narratio.artifact.session_recap --reason "manual edits" --force
narratio session locks remove 2026-04-04 narratio.artifact.session_recap

Restore Workflow

Use restore when local durable session state is missing or stale and remote committed current state is authoritative.

Dry run:

narratio session restore 2026-04-04 --dry-run

Apply:

narratio session restore 2026-04-04

Default restore scope:

• manifest.json
• transcripts/**
• artifacts/**
• previous/** when needed by configured previous-session artifact inputs

Optional:

• --include-audio to include audio/**
• --force to overwrite local conflicts

Restore writes an execution report at reports/restore-latest.json.

Local State Layout

Session root:

• {workspace.root}/work/{campaign}/{session_id}

Durable session paths:

• manifest.json
• inputs/**
• audio/**
• transcripts/**
• artifacts/**
• previous/**
• reports/**
• logs/**
• config/**
• runs/**

Validated Notarius bundles live below artifacts/notarius/{run_id}/; receipt, stderr, and pre-promotion output remain in the producing run's extract directory as described in Extraction Workflow.

Run-local layout:

• runs/{run_id}/{stage}/outputs
• runs/{run_id}/{stage}/logs
• runs/{run_id}/{stage}/reports
• runs/{run_id}/{stage}/config
• runs/{run_id}/{stage}/scratch

Spool layout (runtime/transient):

• {spool.root}/{campaign}/{session_id}/{run_id}/...
• restore audio spool under {spool.root}/{campaign}/{session_id}/restore/audio

Cache layout (durable S3 audio cache):

• {cache.root}/s3/{bucket}/...

Workspace Permissions

Ordinary Narratio workspace content is intentionally shareable with the workspace group. On POSIX systems, Narratio-created workspace, spool, and cache directories converge on setgid 02775; ordinary files, including manifests, transcripts, generated configuration, logs, reports, and Notarius artifacts, converge on 0664. Narratio explicitly applies these modes so a restrictive caller umask does not remove group write or setgid. It does not change file or directory ownership: the configured workspace's existing group is inherited.

Windows does not implement POSIX mode bits or setgid semantics. Configure the workspace, spool, and cache locations with an ACL that grants the collaborating group read/write access, and configure credential locations with an ACL limited to the intended credential owner. Do not use POSIX mode displays as evidence of Windows access control.

API keys are credentials, not ordinary workspace data. Store them outside the shared workspace or in a separately restricted credential location; ordinary workspace group access must never be treated as authorization to read keys. On POSIX, provision a credential directory as 0700 and credential files as 0600; Narratio rejects group- or other-readable configured credential paths. On Windows, restrict the directory and files with ACLs to the credential owner.

External adapter results are individually bounded before Narratio validates or materializes them. These per-file limits do not reserve disk space: prevent hard disk exhaustion with filesystem, service, container, or volume quotas sized for the session workload.

Cleanup

Session-scoped cleanup:

narratio clean 2026-04-04

Global cleanup:

narratio clean --all

Dry-run and cache variants:

narratio clean 2026-04-04 --dry-run --clear-cache
narratio clean --all --dry-run --clear-cache

Rules:

• clean deletes work/spool session state;
• cache is preserved unless --clear-cache is set;
• each deletion is confined beneath its configured workspace, spool, or cache root and refuses symlinked paths;
• automatic post-publish cleanup is gated by successful publish commit plus:
  • pipeline.spool.delete_audio_after_publish=true
  • pipeline.workspace.cleanup_after_publish=true

Operational Caveats

• Local and S3 audio modes are mutually exclusive.
• Publish requires prerequisite stages through render and analyze to be succeeded.
• Markdown publish defaults require render outputs (transcripts/final.md and transcripts/final.trimmed.md).
• Restore requires configured object storage and committed remote current state.
• Storage-backed commands load filesystem secrets before object-store initialization.