---
status: reconciled-partial
coverage_depth: deep
last_reconciled: 2026-07-17
specs:
  - apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-continuity-journey.spec.ts
  - apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-handoff-deepening.spec.ts
  - apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-session-bff.spec.ts
  - apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-not-entitled-fallback.spec.ts
  - apps/oshun/web/e2e/shell-utility-dock.spec.ts
source: WALKTHROUGH/journeys/assistant-handoff-context-carry.md
---

# Journey result: Assistant handoff context carry

- **Walked**: 2026-05-29 by Claude (Opus 4.8) against commit `bf12b0f7d8`.
- **Reconciled**: 2026-07-17 against the current customer shell, context
  sanitizer, assistant session engine, Iris bridge, persona/tool policy, client
  storage, and focused browser/real-HTTP suites. This review does not rerun the
  historical walker.
- **Verdict**: **partial** — current coverage deeply proves selected
  cross-domain handoffs, memory disclosure, evidence inspection, persona
  restrictions, tool- grant policy, storage scope, and honest degradation. The
  BFF assistant engine still holds sessions in process memory, and the sampled
  routes do not amount to universal cross-surface or restart continuity.
- **Historical runner**:
  `/tmp/claude-oshun-lt-2-walkthrough/walk.mjs assistant-handoff-context-carry`.
  The temporary path remains provenance only; the repository suites below are
  the portable evidence.

## Result at a glance

| Evidence lane           | Current result                                                                                                             | Authority limit                              |
| ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Shell context handoff   | Real Tara→Veritas, Library, Explore, Search, Profile, and Nisaba launches with sanitized artifact/entity/selection context | Representative routes, not every surface     |
| Assistant session API   | Authenticated create/message/list/delete, ownership gates, turn count, continuity envelope, and not-entitled fallback      | Engine sessions are process-local            |
| Iris memory             | Consent-gated profile/notebook recall, visible `Remembered context`, memory-off path, and crisis suppression               | Memory durability does not persist sessions  |
| Persona and tool policy | Customer/admin candidates, restricted persona no-op, audit row, and domain-scoped grant lists                              | Grant presence is not every tool's execution |
| Grounding               | Live Veritas response carries sources/citations; inspection overlay reads source and support count                         | Bounded to the exercised grounded route      |
| Browser persistence     | Dock mode in localStorage; transcript/context in tab-scoped sessionStorage; reload and second-tab behavior proven          | No cross-device transcript continuity        |

## Evidence map

The handoff is sanitized before session creation. Browser state and server state
have deliberately different lifetimes; Iris recall can survive as memory without
making the active assistant session restart-durable.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A[Shell route and selected context] --> B[Context sanitizer]
    B -->|safe artifact or null| C[BFF assistant session]
    B -->|wrong shell or PII| D[Drop or redact]
    C --> E[Process-local assistant engine]
    E --> F[Iris consent-gated recall]
    E --> G[Persona and tool policy]
    E --> H[Grounded response]
    H --> I[Transcript and disclosure UI]
    I --> J[sessionStorage: tab transcript]
    I --> K[localStorage: dock mode]
    E -. restart loses active session .-> L[Durable session store absent]
```

## Proven observations

### Historical walk and later repair

- The 2026-05-29 walker proved `/tara`, `/explore`, `/messages`, and the newly
  added assistant-context endpoint rendered/responded. It did not exercise full
  cross-surface carry.
- A later hydration repair removed stale server/client profile snapshots. That
  useful rendering fix is historical provenance, not current continuity proof.

### Current browser continuity

- The browser starts on Tara from Explore, navigates through the real Veritas
  shortcut, opens the assistant, and preserves `origin=explore&stack=tara` in
  the session payload and return-thread/return-anchor links.
- A Nisaba notebook launch writes consented profile and notebook memories,
  carries the notebook id in the handoff, and renders the real
  `Remembered context:` profile/notebook recall with `Memory: profile`.
- Search supplies a wrong-shell entity. The sanitizer sends `entity: null`,
  records `entity-shell-mismatch`, and renders the safe removal chip without
  exposing the rejected label. Selected email, phone, and SSN-shaped strings are
  redacted before the live session-create request.
- A Veritas turn returns a grounding envelope. “Inspect evidence” opens the
  shared overlay with the named source, support count, citations, and source-
  directory action.

### Current policy, API, and storage evidence

- Real HTTP covers session create, two messages with turn count 1→2, list
  read-back, ownership-safe errors, delete, and the no-domain-access branch.
- Profile memory can be turned off through real preferences; the create payload,
  response, handoff chip, disclosure, transcript, and first turn all remain
  `memoryScope='off'`.
- Persona recommendations enforce customer/admin shell and domain scope. A
  restricted admin persona is disabled in the customer shell, force activation
  is a no-op, and an applied customer handoff emits a visible audit row.
- Tool grants vary by domain: Profile exposes navigation, Library adds save, and
  Tara exposes domain action. The result proves policy projection, not every
  downstream tool implementation.
- Dock `expanded/collapsed/closed` mode persists in localStorage. The transcript
  persists across same-tab reload in sessionStorage and is absent in a second
  tab, which receives only the dock mode.
- A real operator crisis frame suppresses ordinary assistant synthesis: no cards
  or actions are returned and the turn count does not advance.

## Boundaries and gaps

- **Browser continuity is not restart durability.** `AssistantEngine` stores its
  sessions in a `Map`, and the BFF keeps one module-level engine. A process
  restart discards the active session/list even when separate Iris memory rows
  remain available.
- **Storage scopes are intentionally different.** Dock mode crosses tabs via
  localStorage; transcript/context is sessionStorage and tab-scoped. Neither is
  cross-device continuity.
- **Representative routes are not universal coverage.** Deep tests exercise the
  named shell routes and handoff variants, not every customer, studio, admin,
  mobile, and degraded surface that can host assistant chrome.
- **Grant projection is not tool completion.** The UI and policy expose domain-
  appropriate grant names. This result does not prove every granted tool's
  authorization, side effect, compensation, and audit lifecycle.
- **Grounding is route-bounded.** The live Veritas turn and inspection overlay
  are source-backed. Other domains may use different adapters and do not inherit
  this exact evidence automatically.
- **External delivery and voice quality are outside this record.** The result
  does not certify provider-backed voice, avatar behavior, accessibility audio,
  or an outbound assistant channel.

## Re-run evidence

The portable focused suites are:

```bash
PW_BROWSER_CHANNEL=chrome pnpm exec playwright test \
  -c apps/oshun/web/playwright.config.ts \
  apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-continuity-journey.spec.ts \
  apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-handoff-deepening.spec.ts \
  apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-session-bff.spec.ts \
  apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-not-entitled-fallback.spec.ts \
  apps/oshun/web/e2e/shell-utility-dock.spec.ts \
  --workers=1
```

They require the real-development-infrastructure web/BFF harness. Source
reconciliation alone must not be reported as a fresh cross-surface walk.

## Source trail

- [Customer shell orchestration](../../apps/oshun/web/src/components/ShellLayout.tsx)
- [Assistant panel and tab-scoped transcript](../../apps/oshun/web/src/components/assistant/AssistantPanel.tsx)
- [Assistant BFF routes](../../apps/oshun/bff/src/routes/assistant.ts)
- [Process-local assistant engine](../../libs/oshun/shell-assistant/src/assistant-engine.ts)
- [Context sanitizer](../../libs/oshun/shell-assistant/src/context-handoff.ts)
- [Persona handoff policy](../../libs/oshun/shell-assistant/src/persona-handoffs.ts)
- [Continuity browser suite](../../apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-continuity-journey.spec.ts)
- [Persona/tool deepening suite](../../apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-handoff-deepening.spec.ts)
- [Session real-HTTP suite](../../apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-session-bff.spec.ts)
- [Not-entitled fallback suite](../../apps/oshun/web/e2e/assistant-not-entitled-fallback.spec.ts)
- [Storage-boundary suite](../../apps/oshun/web/e2e/shell-utility-dock.spec.ts)

## Cross-references

- [Source-reconciled journey](../journeys/assistant-handoff-context-carry.md)
- [Journey coverage matrix](../journeys/coverage.md)
- [Tara→Nisaba handoff result](./tara-to-nisaba-handoff.md)
- [Sophia grounded-answer result](./sophia-grounded-answer.md)
- [Crisis-aware tone-policy result](./crisis-aware-tone-policy.md)

## Open questions

- Which durable, owner-scoped store should replace the process-local session
  map, and what is the restart/reconnect contract for a tab holding an old
  session id?
- Which tool-grant policies have end-to-end execution, audit, rollback, and
  failure evidence rather than projection-only coverage?
- What route matrix defines the minimum continuity contract across customer,
  studio, admin, mobile, offline, and entitlement-degraded surfaces?
- How should cross-device continuation distinguish durable Iris memory from the
  private, tab-scoped transcript the user did not ask to synchronize?