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+# Hand-testing `buzz-agent-core`
+
+The premise: this binary **is** `buzz-agent`. Same name, same ACP contract,
+goose underneath. So hand-testing is a *swap*, not a new setup — you run the
+normal buzz-acp flow and repoint one environment variable.
+
+`buzz-acp` derives harness identity from the command's **basename**
+(`normalize_agent_command_identity`, `buzz-acp/src/config.rs:600-615`) and
+already has a `"buzz-agent"` arm meaning "no extra args"
+(`default_agent_args`, `:617-624`). The binary is emitted as `buzz-agent`
+precisely so buzz-acp cannot tell the difference.
+
+## 0. Build
+
+```bash
+. ./bin/activate-hermit
+cargo build --release -p buzz-acp -p buzz-dev-mcp -p buzz-cli
+cargo build --release --manifest-path buzz-agent-core/Cargo.toml
+```
+
+Takes a few minutes the first time (goose pulls ~700 crates into its own
+lockfile).
+
+## 1. The swap
+
+```bash
+just relay                      # terminal 1
+
+# terminal 2
+just agent-core                 # new: goose-backed buzz-agent
+just goose                      # old: for A/B comparison
+```
+
+`just agent-core` is `just goose` with two lines changed:
+
+```diff
+- BUZZ_ACP_AGENT_COMMAND=goose
+- BUZZ_ACP_AGENT_ARGS=acp
++ BUZZ_ACP_AGENT_COMMAND=<repo>/buzz-agent-core/target/release/buzz-agent
++ BUZZ_ACP_MCP_COMMAND=<repo>/target/release/buzz-dev-mcp
+```
+
+Everything else — relay URL, keys, agent count, heartbeat — is identical.
+
+## 2. What to actually check
+
+Ordered by how likely it is to be broken and how badly it would matter.
+The automated suite covers each of these at the stdio layer; this is about
+the parts only a human can see.
+
+### A. Persona actually arrives — the whole reason for embedding
+
+```
+@fizz who are you?
+```
+
+Should answer *as Fizz*, and should know the `buzz` CLI exists. If it answers
+as generic goose, `systemPrompt` was dropped — the exact failure that makes
+plain-ACP embedding impossible (goose's own ACP server never reads
+`systemPrompt`; both PRs that would have wired it, buzz#1290 and goose#9971,
+are closed unmerged).
+
+### B. `_Stop` veto — buzz-agent's most load-bearing behaviour
+
+```
+@fizz make a todo list with 3 items, then stop immediately without doing them
+```
+
+It must **refuse to stop** while items are open, and keep working. Capped at 3
+vetoes, so it will eventually end regardless. Watch for
+`_Stop hook vetoed end of turn` in the buzz-acp log.
+
+### C. Streaming feel
+
+buzz-agent emitted one chunk per round; goose streams token-by-token. The
+automated tests prove the relay isn't write-amplified (chunks are coalesced by
+identity key, flushed at 500ms, paced at 167ms/90-per-minute), but **only a
+human can tell you whether it feels better or worse in the desktop app.**
+This is the single most likely source of "something feels off".
+
+### D. Cancel mid-tool
+
+Ask for something long (`count slowly to 100 with a shell sleep`), then hit
+stop. Check: the turn ends promptly, and **no tool call is left spinning** in
+the UI. Cancellation is a cooperative drain (5s budget) — dropping the stream
+instead leaves the MCP child running and the spinner stuck forever. That bug
+existed and is fixed; this is the visual confirmation.
+
+### E. Steering
+
+Send a second message while the agent is working. It should be absorbed into
+the running turn, *not* cancel-and-restart it. If the desktop visibly restarts
+the turn, `activeRunId` is at the wrong nesting depth — it must be at
+`params.update._meta.goose.activeRunId`, with `_meta` **inside** `update`
+(`buzz-acp/src/acp.rs:1607-1613`). Wrong depth degrades silently to
+cancel+re-prompt with no error anywhere.
+
+### F. Model picker
+
+Open the model picker in the desktop app. It should list models, not just the
+current one. Absent catalog is degraded UX, never a session failure.
+
+### G. Tool hygiene — known deviation
+
+The model can now *see* `_Stop` and `_PostCompact` (goose's allowlist gates
+advertising and dispatch together, so hiding them would break the veto). A
+system-prompt extension tells it not to call them. Watch for the agent calling
+`_Stop` on its own — if that happens, the guidance text needs strengthening.
+
+## 3. A/B against the old agent
+
+The old binary still exists, so run both against the same relay and compare:
+
+```bash
+just goose                                        # old, terminal 2
+just agent-core                                   # new, terminal 3
+```
+
+Two agents, two identities, same channel. Ask both the same thing.
+
+## 4. Known not-done
+
+* Never run against a **real** provider — all automated coverage uses a fake
+  SSE server. Databricks OAuth in particular is entirely goose's code path now
+  and completely unexercised.
+* Never run inside the **desktop app** — only via buzz-acp on the CLI.
+* `buzz-agent` (old) is not deleted, nothing is wired into packaging or the
+  harness catalog.
+* Binary is +22.7 MiB raw / +6.0 MiB gzip vs the old one.