nc://scratchpad

Scratchpad: a per-session set of named draft buffers the model edits in place, removed with the session. A Nodecode rewrite of Zek-Takai/hermes-devkit by Zek-Takai.

Drafts used to land as a new file per revision — page.html, page_v2.html, page_final.html. The scratchpad gives each session one home for the drafts you look at and discuss: code, HTML pages, notes. The model writes a buffer once and then patches it, so a revision is a change in place and not another file. A short rule rides every request asking it to put drafts here rather than in a loose temp file. Buffers are removed with the session's folder, and an idle folder is cleaned up after idle_days.

Get it

Tell the agent "add the scratchpad cell", or run nodecode add nc://scratchpad.

Use it

Ask for a draft — a snippet, a page, a note — and the model calls the scratchpad tool: action=write with a name and the content, action=patch with the exact text to replace, action=read, action=list, action=delete. A patch whose old_text matches twice is refused rather than guessed, and the model is told to add context or set replace_all. When the work becomes a real project the model promotes the buffer: action=promote with an absolute or ~ destination writes it as a normal file, refusing to replace one already there unless overwrite is set.

From a shell, /scratchpad lists this session's buffers and carries a picker; /scratchpad read NAME shows one, /scratchpad delete NAME removes one, and /scratchpad prune removes idle folders now. From eval the same verbs are (scratchpad:write-buffer "main.py" "..."), patch-buffer, read-buffer, list-buffers, delete-buffer, promote-buffer and (scratchpad:prune); (help :scratchpad) is the page the model reads.

Nothing leaves the machine and there is no key. Two settings, both optional:

{
  "scratchpad": {
    "idle_days": 90,       // remove a session's buffers after this many idle days
    "max_buffer_kb": 2048  // how large one buffer may be, in kilobytes
  }
}

Buffers live under the Nodecode home, one folder per session, marked with the session id; cleanup touches only folders that carry that marker and only ever its own.

Tests

Run .github/test-cell.sh tools/nodecode-scratchpad from the cells repository, or just scratchpad-test from Nodecode. The tests cover the lifecycle, every action through the tool seam, an ambiguous patch, promotion and its overwrite refusal, a name that climbs out of the folder, a call with no session, /scratchpad, the per-turn rule, and cleanup leaving a stranger's folder alone.