STEERING, NOT FOLLOW-UPS — pi-agent-core's two rails, used deliberately:
agent.steer() injects at the next response boundary INSIDE the live run
(one logical turn, the model changes course); followUp() would only extend
an ended run — not built. The same rail job markers already ride
(steeringMode 'all', the 2026-09-26 doctrine).
- POST /api/chats/[id]/steer: 404/400 honest guards; no live turn → 409
and the client silently falls back to a plain text send (the settle
race); live → steerLiveChat hands the message to the live agent's
steering queue AND parks it in the userSteers registry — the stranding
safety net. A steer stranded behind a question termination or abort
stays parked and rides the chat's NEXT run (handOffEligible), the same
deliver-or-requeue lifecycle as job markers. Reconciliation at settle:
delivered ids drop (reconcileUserSteers).
- Client: steer(text) queues + POSTs without flipping any turn state;
the drain's verbatim message events upsert the real user card by the
client-minted id (steer_<localid>) and the indicator fold drops the
line. canSend no longer gates on turnInFlight — Enter mid-turn steers;
Enter with an empty composer still stops; the square button stays Stop.
- The queued-steer indicator (owner spec): quiet one-liners above the
composer shell — right-aligned to where its corner rounding starts,
truncated with an ellipsis, fixed max width, ~half opacity, no
background, no container. Tunable later.
- Verified from pi-agent-core source: steering drains per completed turn
inside the loop; injected messages emit message_start/end verbatim;
finishTurn {action:'end'} (our question stopper) exits BEFORE the
steering poll — hence the registry.