feat: show the session's lich errands in the prompt footer

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -9,12 +9,26 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Added
 
+- **The prompt footer shows the session's errands.** Who it owes an answer, the
+  tasks it handed out that are still running (and how many wait on a human),
+  and the answers waiting to be collected: `lich: owes "docs" an answer, 2
+  tasks out (1 waiting), 1 answer to collect`. Reading never collects an
+  answer. While it shows, the worker count is left out, since it already counts
+  every worker. Needs a lich that takes the mod-status contract; an older one
+  shows nothing.
+
 - **The edit guard tells you too, not only the model.** When a file you edit
-  was also edited by another lich session in the last 10 minutes, the status
-  line under the prompt reads `lich: app.js also edited by "quiet-comet"` until
-  that edit leaves the window. It shares the line with the worker count:
+  was also edited by another lich session in the last 10 minutes, the prompt
+  footer reads `lich: app.js also edited by "quiet-comet"` until that edit
+  leaves the window. It shares the line with the worker count:
   `lich: 2 workers · app.js also edited by "quiet-comet"`.
 
+### Changed
+
+- **The lich line moved from the yellow warning to the prompt footer.** The
+  worker count and the notes above are drawn dim at the footer's right, beside
+  Claude Code's own mode labels, instead of as a `⚠` warning under the prompt.
+
 ## [0.17.0] - 2026-10-05
 
 ### Added

CLAUDE.md

@@ -17,13 +17,14 @@ hooks/crush-hooks.json            # hook registration, Crush (hand-merged into c
 hooks/                            # hook scripts (all four run them; only how they are addressed differs)
 hooks/detail.jq                   # what a tool call acts on, shared by two of those scripts
 hooks/win-run.cmd                 # runs one of those scripts on Windows (Codex)
-hooks/lich.js                     # the one module hooks/hooks.json names under `modules`: registers the five mods below
+hooks/lich.js                     # the one module hooks/hooks.json names under `modules`: registers the six mods below
 hooks/mod-control.js              # Claude Code mod: lich drives the session
 hooks/agent-cards.js              # Claude Code mod: a general-purpose subagent runs as a lich session
 hooks/mod-usage.js                # Claude Code mod: the session reports its own context, rate limits and cost
 hooks/edit-guard.js               # Claude Code mod: an edit says which other lich session edited the file
 hooks/worker-answer.js            # Claude Code mod: a lich subagent worker's last message answers its task
-hooks/status-line.js              # the one status line Claude Code gives the plugin, shared by the mods above
+hooks/mod-status.js               # Claude Code mod: the session's relay errands in the prompt footer
+hooks/status-line.js              # the lich line in the prompt footer, shared by the mods above
 opencode/lich.js                  # opencode client: a module, not a command
 omp/lich.js                       # omp client: a module, not a command
 docs/                             # lich ⇄ plugin communication contracts
@@ -63,6 +64,7 @@ Contracts are **canonical in the lich repository** (`docs/hooks/` there); this p
 - [docs/agent-cards.md](docs/agent-cards.md): a general-purpose subagent Claude Code starts runs as a lich session, through the `lich open` CLI rather than an HTTP contract; Claude Code only
 - [docs/mod-usage.md](docs/mod-usage.md): a Claude Code session reports the context window, rate limits and cost it measured itself, through a mod hooking `session.measure`; Claude Code only
 - [docs/mod-answer.md](docs/mod-answer.md): a lich subagent worker answers the task it was handed with its turn's final message, through a mod reading the main loop's `classic.Stop` and `turn.complete`; Claude Code only
+- [docs/mod-status.md](docs/mod-status.md): a Claude Code session shows the relay errands it is part of (owed, out, ready) in its prompt footer, through a mod reading `/mod/status`, which never collects; Claude Code only
 - [docs/edit-guard.md](docs/edit-guard.md): an edit to a file another lich session edited in the last minutes carries a note naming it, through markers in the checkout's git dir rather than an HTTP contract; Claude Code only
 - [docs/providers.md](docs/providers.md) — the per-harness map, including what installing on omp takes and what it cannot report
 
@@ -97,14 +99,16 @@ lich it subscribes to nothing at all.
 Claude Code mod, handing it a fake `$` and asserting its acks against the
 mod-control fixtures and its polls against the commands lich sends;
 [tests/mod-usage.test.mjs](tests/mod-usage.test.mjs) does the same for its
-usage reports against the mod-usage fixtures, and
+usage reports against the mod-usage fixtures,
 [tests/worker-answer.test.mjs](tests/worker-answer.test.mjs) for a worker's
-answer against the mod-answer fixtures.
+answer against the mod-answer fixtures, and
+[tests/mod-status.test.mjs](tests/mod-status.test.mjs) for the footer line it
+draws from the mod-status response.
 [tests/edit-guard.test.mjs](tests/edit-guard.test.mjs) hands the edit guard a
 fake `$` with an in-memory git dir and asserts the markers it leaves and the
 note another session's marker adds, and
 [tests/status-line.test.mjs](tests/status-line.test.mjs) that the mods share
-the one status line Claude Code gives the plugin.
+one lich line in the prompt footer.
 [tests/agent-cards.test.mjs](tests/agent-cards.test.mjs) hands the agent-cards
 mod the same kind of fake `$` and asserts the `lich open` argv
 it runs, the Agent result it answers each outcome with, and that a call it does
@@ -115,6 +119,7 @@ dependencies.
 [tests/mod-control.engine.test.ts](tests/mod-control.engine.test.ts) and
 [tests/agent-cards.engine.test.ts](tests/agent-cards.engine.test.ts) and
 [tests/mod-usage.engine.test.ts](tests/mod-usage.engine.test.ts) and
+[tests/mod-status.engine.test.ts](tests/mod-status.engine.test.ts) and
 [tests/worker-answer.engine.test.ts](tests/worker-answer.engine.test.ts) and
 [tests/edit-guard.engine.test.ts](tests/edit-guard.engine.test.ts) run the
 mods under Claude Code's own engine (`claude plugin test .`); they need a
@@ -168,6 +173,6 @@ Same standard as the `lich` repository (Keep a Changelog + SemVer). Releases are
 
 1. Move the `[Unreleased]` entries in `CHANGELOG.md` under the new version heading (with date) and refresh the compare links at the bottom.
 2. Pick the number by what changed: a release that sends anything lich's contract did not already accept (a new endpoint, header, field or value) bumps the **minor** (the major, from 1.0); anything else bumps the **patch**. lich accepts every release below the next minor of the contract it implements, so a contract change released as a patch reaches a lich that refuses it. `docs/hooks/README.md` in lich, Versioning, is the rule.
-3. Align `version` in `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` **and** `.codex-plugin/plugin.json` with the tag, and `plugin_version` in each `hooks/report-*.sh` and `PLUGIN_VERSION` in `opencode/lich.js`, `omp/lich.js`, `hooks/mod-control.js`, `hooks/mod-usage.js` and `hooks/worker-answer.js`, the header every report sends. The suite fails while any of them disagrees with the Claude Code manifest. The root `plugin.json` is not a third one to bump: Antigravity's manifest takes only a `name`, and lich writes its own carrying the tag when it installs a release.
+3. Align `version` in `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` **and** `.codex-plugin/plugin.json` with the tag, and `plugin_version` in each `hooks/report-*.sh` and `PLUGIN_VERSION` in `opencode/lich.js`, `omp/lich.js`, `hooks/mod-control.js`, `hooks/mod-usage.js`, `hooks/mod-status.js` and `hooks/worker-answer.js`, the header every report sends. The suite fails while any of them disagrees with the Claude Code manifest. The root `plugin.json` is not a third one to bump: Antigravity's manifest takes only a `name`, and lich writes its own carrying the tag when it installs a release.
 4. Annotated tag `vX.Y.Z` + push with the tag.
 5. `gh release create vX.Y.Z` with the notes taken from the matching `CHANGELOG.md` section.

README.md

@@ -62,12 +62,13 @@ hooks/report-tool.sh              # session-state hook: the tool a turn is runni
 hooks/report-session-start.sh     # session-start hook
 hooks/report-title.sh             # session-title hook
 hooks/report-touched.sh           # session-touched hook
-hooks/lich.js                     # the Claude Code mods' entry, which registers the five below
+hooks/lich.js                     # the Claude Code mods' entry, which registers the six below
 hooks/mod-control.js              # mod-control client, a Claude Code mod
 hooks/agent-cards.js              # a general-purpose subagent as a lich session, a Claude Code mod
 hooks/mod-usage.js                # mod-usage client, a Claude Code mod
 hooks/edit-guard.js               # names the other lich session that edited a file, a Claude Code mod
 hooks/worker-answer.js            # mod-answer client: a lich worker's last message answers its task, a Claude Code mod
+hooks/mod-status.js               # mod-status client: the session's errands in the prompt footer, a Claude Code mod
 opencode/lich.js                  # opencode client: all four reports plus the seven tools, one module
 omp/lich.js                       # omp client: the reports, one module
 docs/                             # client-side docs, one per contract

docs/agent-cards.md

@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ Nothing runs after that: the delivery `lich open` printed decides the answer.
 
 | delivery                      | the Agent call answers                                              |
 |-------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
-| `pending`                     | `async_launched` at once, plus a note on how the report comes back; the worker is counted in the status line |
+| `pending`                     | `async_launched` at once, plus a note on how the report comes back; the worker is counted in the footer |
 | `answered`                    | `completed`: the report, then the checkout (and branch) it is on    |
 | `unanswered`                  | `async_launched`, as for `pending`: a turn that ended unanswered usually left a background command running, and the report still arrives as a [lich] note |
 | `unread`, `undelivered`       | denied: the task never reached the card                             |
@@ -110,10 +110,11 @@ for an isolated call.
   committed.** Uncommitted
   changes are not in the worker's checkout. On a detached HEAD, or when git
   cannot answer, the base is left to lich, which uses the project's current branch.
-- **Claude Code's status line counts the workers still running**, as its own
-  "N agents" hint counts background agents: `N workers` under the prompt
-  (`$.ui.status`), which Claude Code shows after the plugin's name as
-  `lich: N workers`, cleared at none. Every 5 seconds while any runs, the mod reads
+- **The prompt footer counts the workers still running**, as Claude Code's own
+  "N agents" hint counts background agents: `lich: N workers` in the lich line
+  of the footer (`hooks/status-line.js`, see [mod-status.md](mod-status.md)),
+  cleared at none, and left out while that line shows lich's errands, which
+  count every worker. Every 5 seconds while any runs, the mod reads
   `$LICH_BIN sessions --json`. A worker in this checkout is finished once lich
   no longer lists it: lich closes it after it reported and its turn ended
   (`lich open --subagent` in lich's docs/cli.md), while a turn it ended with a

docs/edit-guard.md

@@ -52,12 +52,11 @@ unless `LICH_SESSION_ID` is set.
    after the tool's result: the path, the session, the time and how long
    ago, and that `send_to_session` or `lich send` reaches that session. A
    refused call carries the line too, since it explains the refusal.
-6. The same edit puts `<file name> also edited by <session>` in the status
-   line under the prompt, for the user, who never reads the `context` line.
+6. The same edit puts `<file name> also edited by <session>` in the lich line
+   of the prompt footer, for the user, who never reads the `context` line.
    It stays until the marker leaves the 10-minute window, or a newer one
-   replaces it. Claude Code keeps one status line per plugin, so it shares the
-   line with the worker count of [agent-cards.md](agent-cards.md), through
-   `hooks/status-line.js`.
+   replaces it. The line is shared with the other mods through
+   `hooks/status-line.js` ([mod-status.md](mod-status.md), What the line reads).
 
 The line names the session by the label on its card, the name the user and
 `lich send` know it by. lich puts no label in a session's environment and no

docs/mod-status.md

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+# Mod: status
+
+Client side of the [mod-status contract](https://github.com/omartelo/lich/blob/main/docs/hooks/mod-status.md)
+(the endpoint and the response are defined in the lich repository; this plugin
+only implements them).
+
+Shows, in the prompt footer, the relay errands the session is
+part of: who it owes an answer, the tasks it handed out that are still running,
+and the answers waiting to be collected. The card shows these in the window;
+this puts them in front of the person at the terminal.
+
+| client                | Claude Code                                             | Codex               | Antigravity         | opencode            | omp                 | Crush               |
+|-----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
+| `hooks/mod-status.js` | mod, registered by `hooks/lich.js`, the `modules` entry | none: no mod system | none: no mod system | none: no mod system | none: no mod system | none: no mod system |
+
+| when                                        | read                                                     |
+|---------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
+| `session.start`, then every 5 seconds       | `GET /mod/status?token=…&session_id=…`, `X-Lich-Plugin`  |
+
+## What the line reads
+
+Each list that is not empty adds a piece, in this order, joined by commas:
+
+| list    | piece                                                                                   |
+|---------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
+| `owed`  | `owes "Session 26" an answer` for one asked by a session, `owes N answers` otherwise    |
+| `open`  | `N tasks out`, plus `(M waiting)` for those whose session waits on a human               |
+| `ready` | `N answers to collect`                                                                  |
+
+The line reads `lich: 1 task out, 1 answer to collect`. With all three lists
+empty the piece is gone.
+
+The mods share one lich line, built by `hooks/status-line.js`: the errands,
+then the worker count of [agent-cards.md](agent-cards.md), then the note of
+[edit-guard.md](edit-guard.md), joined by ` · `. While the errands show, the
+worker count is left out: every worker that mod opens is an errand of this
+session, so `open` already counts it. The line is drawn dim among the mode
+labels at the right of the prompt footer, by a `ui.render` hook on
+`SessionMode` that adds it after Claude Code's own labels. `$.ui.status` is
+not used: Claude Code draws it as a yellow warning under the prompt, and keeps
+only one per plugin.
+
+## How it behaves
+
+- **Outside lich it never reads.** It reads the three variables in
+  `session.start` and stops there when one is missing.
+- **Only an interactive session reads.** A `claude -p` run from a tool inside a
+  lich session inherits that session's variables, and would show the parent's
+  errands. Its `session.start` hook matches `isInteractive: true`.
+- **Reading never collects.** An answer under `ready` stays in the inbox for
+  the agent's `wait_for_answer`.
+- **A failed read is not retried.** The piece is cleared until a read works
+  again, 5 seconds later.
+- **A `404` stops the reads for the session**: that lich predates the contract.
+
+## Limits
+
+- **Up to 5 seconds late.** lich pushes nothing; an errand that opens or
+  closes shows at the next read.
+- **Labels are the ones at send time**, as lich keeps them.
+- **Claude Code only.** Every other harness has no mod system; there the card
+  is the only place these errands show.

docs/providers.md

@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ This repository is one plugin, packaged for each harness it supports:
 | `hooks/mod-control.js`          | Claude Code | the mod-control client, a mod |
 | `hooks/agent-cards.js`          | Claude Code | runs a general-purpose subagent as a lich session, a mod |
 | `hooks/mod-usage.js`            | Claude Code | the mod-usage client, a mod |
+| `hooks/mod-status.js`           | Claude Code | the mod-status client, a mod |
 | `hooks/edit-guard.js`           | Claude Code | names the other lich session that edited a file, a mod |
 | `hooks/worker-answer.js`        | Claude Code | the mod-answer client: a worker's last message answers its task, a mod |
 | `opencode/lich.js`              | opencode    | the whole client, as a module |

hooks/agent-cards.js

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 // Every function that takes `$` is declared at the top level: the loader
 // refuses a module that hands `$` to a nested function or keeps it in a variable.
 
-import { statusLineWith } from "./status-line.js"
+import { setStatusPart } from "./status-line.js"
 
 // lich's `promptLimit` (internal/relay). lich checks it only after the session
 // was opened, so a task over it would leave an empty card behind.
@@ -326,17 +326,16 @@ async function runAsSession($, state, e, next) {
 }
 
 /**
- * Pins how many workers this session waits on under its prompt, as Claude
- * Code's own hint does for its background agents, and clears it at none.
- * Claude Code puts the plugin's name before the line, so it reads
- * "lich: 2 workers" (measured on 2.1.289).
+ * Shows how many workers this session waits on in the footer's lich line, as
+ * Claude Code's own hint does for its background agents, and clears it at none.
  *
  * @param {Engine} $
  * @param {State} state
  */
 function showWorkers($, state) {
   const count = state.workers.size
-  $.ui.status(statusLineWith("workers", count === 0 ? undefined : `${count} worker${count === 1 ? "" : "s"}`))
+  setStatusPart("workers", count === 0 ? undefined : `${count} worker${count === 1 ? "" : "s"}`)
+  $.ui.invalidate("ui.render")
 }
 
 /**

hooks/edit-guard.js

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 // Every function that takes `$` is declared here at the top level: the loader
 // refuses a module that hands `$` to a nested function.
 
-import { statusLineWith } from "./status-line.js"
+import { setStatusPart } from "./status-line.js"
 
 // Long enough to span the other session's turn that made the edit, short
 // enough that a marker from work long finished stops raising notes.
@@ -147,7 +147,8 @@ let shownMarker
 function showEditBy($, marker, who) {
   shownMarker = marker
   const name = marker.path.slice(Math.max(marker.path.lastIndexOf("/"), marker.path.lastIndexOf("\\")) + 1)
-  $.ui.status(statusLineWith("edits", `${name} also edited by ${who}`))
+  setStatusPart("edits", `${name} also edited by ${who}`)
+  $.ui.invalidate("ui.render")
 }
 
 /**
@@ -157,7 +158,8 @@ function showEditBy($, marker, who) {
 function clearEditBy($, marker) {
   if (shownMarker !== marker) return
   shownMarker = undefined
-  $.ui.status(statusLineWith("edits", undefined))
+  setStatusPart("edits", undefined)
+  $.ui.invalidate("ui.render")
 }
 
 /** @param {Engine} $ @param {unknown} error */