test: match native continuation replies across whitespace

Use one explicit author-bound reply predicate for continuation readiness and evidence. Preserve literal matching elsewhere and reject wrong markers and output tokens. Keep original failed live measurements unchanged.

Co-Authored-By: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>

tests/runner-e2e/README.md

@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ The five-minute outage is a resilience test, not an HTTP downtime allowance.
 This suite gives its Daytona sandbox a 15-minute provider auto-stop interval,
 leaving headroom for the outage and replacement startup. Native agent idle timing,
 ownership/reconnect limits, archive/delete backstops and owned cleanup remain unchanged.
+The retained continuation accepts whitespace between its exact marker and the
+exact `queue_r` output token; readiness and final grading use the same matcher.
 
 The explicit-only [GitHub review bot journey](GITHUB-REVIEW-JOURNEY.md) tests
 attended bot setup and an automatic PR review against an attached deployment.

tests/runner-e2e/catalog.test.ts

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ describe("runner E2E catalog", () => {
     }
     expect(baseConfig.autoStopInterval).toBe(5);
     expect(daytonaWarmEnvironment.buildEnvironment(environmentInput).config).toMatchObject({ autoStopInterval: 5 });
-    expect(suite.definitionMetadata).toMatchObject({ version: 4, controllerDowntimeMs: 300_000, autoStopIntervalMinutes: 15 });
+    expect(suite.definitionMetadata).toMatchObject({ version: 5, controllerDowntimeMs: 300_000, autoStopIntervalMinutes: 15 });
   });
 
   it.each([

tests/runner-e2e/catalog.ts

@@ -1173,7 +1173,7 @@ export const runnerSuites: readonly RunnerSuiteFixture[] = [
     })),
     tasks: everydayTasks.filter(task => task.id === "recover-controller")
       .map(task => ({ ...task, expectedRunCount: task.expectedRunCount + 1, automaticRetryPolicy: "single_attempt" as const })), expectedMatrixSize: 2,
-    definitionMetadata: { version: 4, scheduling: "explicit-only", controllerDowntimeMs: 300_000, autoStopIntervalMinutes: 15, retainedControllerContinuation: true,
+    definitionMetadata: { version: 5, scheduling: "explicit-only", controllerDowntimeMs: 300_000, autoStopIntervalMinutes: 15, retainedControllerContinuation: true,
       maximumAttemptsPerCell: 1, budgetMonthlyCents: 1000, instructions: "production", grading: "same-active-process-lease-native-prefix-and-workspace-receipt",
       authentication: "api-key", stagingAuthentication: "subscription", stagingQualification: false },
   },

tests/runner-e2e/everyday-flow.ts

@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ import {
   storyLifecycleChecks,
   storyRepliesConsumed,
   storyHasAgentReply,
+  storyAgentReplyMatches,
+  retainedControllerReplyMatcher,
   storyHasPendingHumanInteraction,
   storyReviewContinuationTimeoutDetail,
   storyHasStrandedBlockedLeaf,
@@ -60,6 +62,7 @@ import {
   type StoryCheck,
   type StoryIssue,
   type StoryRun,
+  type StoryReplyExpectation,
 } from "./everyday-observations.js";
 
 type Row = Record<string, any>;
@@ -325,7 +328,7 @@ export async function runEverydayFlow(input: Input) {
       sameConnections: false,
     };
   }
-  async function settled(expectedAgentReply?: string) {
+  async function settled(expectedAgentReply?: StoryReplyExpectation) {
     const settledState = await pollUntil({
       label: `everyday ${caseId} settled`,
       deadlineAt: input.deadlineAt,
@@ -390,9 +393,7 @@ export async function runEverydayFlow(input: Input) {
     if (expectedAgentReply) {
       const issue = settledState.issues.find((candidate) => candidate.id === parent?.id);
       const reply = issue?.comments?.find(
-        (comment) =>
-          comment.authorAgentId === fixtures.agent.id &&
-          String(comment.body ?? "").includes(expectedAgentReply),
+        (comment) => storyAgentReplyMatches(comment, fixtures.agent.id, expectedAgentReply),
       );
       if (reply) {
         // Keep the exact snapshot that satisfied the readiness predicate. A
@@ -1455,15 +1456,16 @@ export async function runEverydayFlow(input: Input) {
         const outage = await input.restart();
         await openParent();
         const requestedAt = new Date().toISOString(), marker = `CONTINUED_${nonce}`;
+        const expectedReply = retainedControllerReplyMatcher(marker);
         await reply(`Run the existing delivered slugify.py on "  Queue--Ready!!  " with --separator _ and --max-length 7. Report its output after the marker ${marker}. Use the saved project; do not rebuild it.`);
-        await settled(`${marker} queue_r`);
+        await settled(expectedReply);
         const after = ev.runs.filter(run => !priorIds.has(run.id) && run.status === "succeeded" && run.agentId === fixtures.agent.id)
           .sort((a, b) => Date.parse(b.finishedAt ?? "") - Date.parse(a.finishedAt ?? ""))[0];
         if (!after) throw new Error("Retained continuation produced no new successful run");
         const events = await collectRunEvents<Row>((afterSeq, limit) => api.get(`/api/heartbeat-runs/${after.id}/events?afterSeq=${afterSeq}&limit=${limit}`));
         const evidence = { before, after: retainedControllerRun(after), outage: outage || undefined, requestedAt,
           completedTool: events.some(row => row.payload?.prpEvent?.eventType === "tool.execution.completed" && row.payload.prpEvent.payload?.status === "completed"),
-          usefulReply: settledAgentReply?.authorAgentId === fixtures.agent.id && String(settledAgentReply.body ?? "").includes(`${marker} queue_r`) };
+          usefulReply: storyAgentReplyMatches(settledAgentReply, fixtures.agent.id, expectedReply) };
         ev.checks.push(...gradeRetainedControllerContinuation(evidence));
         await input.evidence("retained-controller-continuation.json", evidence);
       }

tests/runner-e2e/everyday-observations.ts

@@ -344,17 +344,34 @@ export function storyRepliesConsumed(
   );
 }
 
+export type StoryReplyExpectation = string | ((body: string) => boolean);
+
+export function storyAgentReplyMatches(
+  comment: StoryComment | undefined,
+  agentId: string,
+  expected: StoryReplyExpectation,
+): boolean {
+  if (!comment || comment.authorAgentId !== agentId) return false;
+  const body = String(comment.body ?? "");
+  return typeof expected === "string" ? body.includes(expected) : expected(body);
+}
+
+/** The requested output is one exact token after this continuation's marker. */
+export function retainedControllerReplyMatcher(marker: string): (body: string) => boolean {
+  const escaped = marker.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, "\\$&");
+  const pattern = new RegExp(`(?:^|\\s)${escaped}\\s+queue_r\\s*$`);
+  return body => pattern.test(body);
+}
+
 /** A terminal task is only ready for response assertions after its agent reply is visible. */
 export function storyHasAgentReply(
   issue: StoryIssue | undefined,
   agentId: string,
-  expectedText: string,
+  expectedText: StoryReplyExpectation,
 ): boolean {
   return (
     issue?.comments?.some(
-      (comment) =>
-        comment.authorAgentId === agentId &&
-        String(comment.body ?? "").includes(expectedText),
+      (comment) => storyAgentReplyMatches(comment, agentId, expectedText),
     ) ?? false
   );
 }

tests/runner-e2e/everyday.test.ts

@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ import {
   storyLifecycleChecks,
   storyRepliesConsumed,
   storyHasAgentReply,
+  storyAgentReplyMatches,
+  retainedControllerReplyMatcher,
   storyHasPendingAgentReview,
   storyHasPendingAgentWake,
   storyHasPendingAgentWork,
@@ -385,6 +387,42 @@ describe("lifecycle oracle calibrated failures", () => {
 });
 
 describe("reply completion boundary", () => {
+  it("accepts an explicit reply matcher for continuation output on a new line", () => {
+    const issue = { id: "parent", companyId: "company", title: "Continue", status: "done",
+      comments: [{ authorAgentId: "lead", body: "CONTINUED_nonce\nqueue_r" }] };
+    const expected = (body: string) => body === "CONTINUED_nonce\nqueue_r";
+    expect(storyHasAgentReply(issue, "lead", expected)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it.each([" ", "\n", "\r\n", "\t", "  \n"])("accepts continuation output separated by %j", separator => {
+    const expected = retainedControllerReplyMatcher("CONTINUED_nonce.1");
+    const comment = { authorAgentId: "lead", body: `CONTINUED_nonce.1${separator}queue_r` };
+    expect(storyHasAgentReply({ id: "task", companyId: "company", title: "Continue", status: "done", comments: [comment] }, "lead", expected)).toBe(true);
+    expect(storyAgentReplyMatches(comment, "lead", expected)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    "CONTINUED_nonce.1 queue_ready", "CONTINUED_nonce.1 queue_r_extra", "CONTINUED_nonce.1 wrong",
+    "CONTINUED_other queue_r", "CONTINUED_nonceX1 queue_r", "queue_r", "CONTINUED_nonce.1queue_r",
+    "OTHER_CONTINUED_nonce.1 queue_r", "CONTINUED_nonce.1 queue_r\nqueue_ready",
+  ])("rejects an incorrect continuation reply %j", body => {
+    const expected = retainedControllerReplyMatcher("CONTINUED_nonce.1");
+    const comment = { authorAgentId: "lead", body };
+    expect(storyHasAgentReply({ id: "task", companyId: "company", title: "Continue", status: "done", comments: [comment] }, "lead", expected)).toBe(false);
+    expect(storyAgentReplyMatches(comment, "lead", expected)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("preserves literal string expectations and continuation author checks", () => {
+    const expected = retainedControllerReplyMatcher("CONTINUED_nonce");
+    const comment = { authorAgentId: "other", body: "CONTINUED_nonce\nqueue_r" };
+    expect(storyAgentReplyMatches(comment, "lead", expected)).toBe(false);
+    const issue = { id: "task", companyId: "company", title: "Continue", status: "done", comments: [comment] };
+    expect(storyHasAgentReply(issue, "lead", expected)).toBe(false);
+    expect(storyAgentReplyMatches({ ...comment, authorAgentId: "lead" }, "lead", "CONTINUED_nonce queue_r")).toBe(false);
+    expect(storyAgentReplyMatches({ authorAgentId: "lead", body: "a.b" }, "lead", "a.b")).toBe(true);
+    expect(storyAgentReplyMatches({ authorAgentId: "lead", body: "axb" }, "lead", "a.b")).toBe(false);
+  });
+
   const run: StoryRun = {
     id: "old",
     companyId: "company",