A run needs reliable boundaries.
Session, prompt, task, and worktree events make it possible to reconstruct where work started, what intent entered, which unit completed, and what workspace was touched.
Field Note 06ControlMay 7, 2026
Deep implementation
29 Lifecycle Events
At fleet scale, lifecycle events become the control plane.
Autonomous engineering becomes governable when the system can observe, enforce, preserve, and reconstruct every meaningful boundary around the agent.
Read the original on XThe evidence card
A concrete break is more useful than a general warning.
The final note is the implementation map: 29 Claude Code lifecycle events organized into session, prompt, tool, turn, compaction, subagent, permission, environment, task, and worktree boundaries. Citadel turns those events into an operating layer rather than leaving them as callbacks.
29lifecycle events integrated
10operational categories
109waves made reconstructable
1control plane around the agent
The model
The lifecycle control plane.
The visual is an editorial compression of the source essay: enough structure to orient a reader, without pretending that the model replaces the underlying evidence.
Citadelcontrol plane
01SessionStart, end, recover
02PromptObserve intent entering
03Tool loopGate, check, adapt
04TurnVerify at the seam
05CompactionPreserve durable state
06FleetAttribute work and handoff
The argument
What changed when the break became visible.
The site version keeps the source's operational insight while making its sequence easier to inspect, share, and connect to the rest of the archive.
The tool loop is where policy becomes action.
Pre-tool gates, post-tool checks, failure signals, and stop-time verification turn repository rules into a living operating surface.
Long work must survive memory loss.
Compaction, subagent, permission, environment, and MCP events surface the state that otherwise disappears when context compresses or an agent silently stalls.
The boundary
Useful systems name what they cannot prove.
Most agent systems focus on prompting. Citadel focuses on lifecycle.
Limit
A control plane improves observability and operating discipline; it does not make the underlying agent wise or remove the need for review.