nodecode-followups

Follow-ups: the agent writes down a moment worth returning to, and it comes back at the right moment. A Nodecode rewrite of xiaok/hermes-autonomous by xiaok.

Most assistants wait. You ask, it answers, the thread closes — and the thing you mentioned on Tuesday (you were sick, you had a meeting, you bought something) never comes back. This cell keeps that thread.

A follow-up is not an unfinished task. It is a moment worth returning to, in one of four origins: care (they mention a sore throat, an interview, waiting on results), utility (going out tomorrow — check the weather), risk (about to spend money or sign something), curiosity (something minted, a company they talked about). "Did your throat get better?" is worth saying with no action value at all.

Get it

Tell the agent "add the followups cell", or run:

nodecode add nc://nodecode-followups

Set it up

Nothing is required: the section runs on its defaults, and the agent fills the board as the conversation goes. What you may want to set, in ~/.nodecode/config.jsonc or on the Settings page:

"followups": {
  "quiet_start": 23,        // no reminder from this hour...
  "quiet_end": 8,           // ...to this one; equal hours mean no window
  "cooldown_minutes": 90,   // the least time between two reminders
  "max_items": 3,           // how many one reminder may carry
  "max_lines": 6,           // and how many lines it may take
  "mute_days": 30           // how long a pushed-back category stays muted
}

Use it

From a session, through eval:

(followups:add :subject "the sore throat" :why "care" :at "+18h"
               :quote "my throat is killing me" :hint "ask if it is better")
(followups:due)                 ; what has come due, and whether the gate holds it
(followups:board)               ; the whole board
(followups:checked 3)           ; looked at it: back in a day, then two, then four
(followups:retire 3 :note "it healed")
(followups:outcome 3 "annoyed") ; three ignored or one annoyed mutes that category

The model has the same four verbs as tools: followup_add, followup_list, followup_checked, followup_close. /followups in a shell shows the board and its panel, and (help :followups) carries the manual.

How a follow-up comes back. At each model request the cell looks at the board: the follow-ups whose time has arrived and which the gate lets through arrive as one reminder in the round about to be asked — a running turn reads it at its next round, an idle session at its next turn. Nothing runs in the background and nothing polls.

The gate is code, not judgement, so it cannot be talked out of: the quiet window (23:00–08:00 by default), a 90-minute cooldown between two reminders, the categories you pushed back on, at most three follow-ups and six lines in one reminder. A quiet refusal is final for that request; the item stays due for the next one.

Where it lives

One JSON file, followups/board.json under the home, mode 0600. id, key, subject, why, quote, hint, at, status, checks, sends, outcome, note: the board is that file, so it survives a restart and can be read by anything.

The same words with the same key update one item rather than adding a second, so a follow-up with new information (the flight is now at 16:10) is one line in the board, not two.

Credit

Rewritten from xiaok's Hermes Agent plugin hermes-autonomous, MIT. See NOTICE: what was kept, and what was left out.

Run .github/test-cell.sh tools/nodecode-followups from the cells repository.

nc://followups