fix(context): read documented '## P1 — Today' plain tasks in live context (#2186)

resolveTodayTasks only matched a bare '## Today' heading and bold-prefixed
'- [ ] **task**' lines, while the daily-task-manager skill's documented
Output Format writes '## P1 — Today' with plain '- [ ] task' lines — so
documented writes surfaced zero tasks in live context.

Reader now accepts both heading forms and both line forms, two-step: the
legacy bold prefix extracts just the task name (dropping trailing metadata),
falling back to the plain full-line form.

Salvaged from PR #2188 (reader-side half). The skill-doc rewrites in that PR
are dropped: master #2938 kept ops/ synced and made put_page write-through
durable, so the 'gbrain get/put ops/tasks' docs are correct as-is. The PR's
single-regex line matcher is replaced with the two-step match because its
alternation captured '**name** — metadata' verbatim for bold lines.

Takeover of #2188. Fixes #2186.

Co-authored-by: caioribeiroclw-pixel <caioribeiroclw-pixel@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/commands/backlinks.ts

@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
  * checks if back-links exist, and optionally creates them.
  *
  * Usage:
- *   gbrain check-backlinks check [dir] [--dir <brain-dir>] # report missing back-links
- *   gbrain check-backlinks fix [dir] [--dir <brain-dir>]   # create missing back-links
+ *   gbrain check-backlinks check [--dir <brain-dir>]     # report missing back-links
+ *   gbrain check-backlinks fix [--dir <brain-dir>]        # create missing back-links
  *   gbrain check-backlinks fix --dry-run                  # preview fixes
  */
 
@@ -201,40 +201,6 @@ export interface BacklinksResult {
   dryRun: boolean;
 }
 
-export interface ParsedBacklinksArgs {
-  subcommand: string | undefined;
-  brainDir: string;
-  dryRun: boolean;
-}
-
-export function parseBacklinksArgs(args: string[]): ParsedBacklinksArgs {
-  const subcommand = args[0];
-  const dryRun = args.includes('--dry-run');
-  const dirIdx = args.indexOf('--dir');
-  const flagDir = dirIdx >= 0 && args[dirIdx + 1] && !args[dirIdx + 1].startsWith('--')
-    ? args[dirIdx + 1]
-    : undefined;
-
-  let positionalDir: string | undefined;
-  for (let i = 1; i < args.length; i++) {
-    const arg = args[i];
-    if (arg === '--dir') {
-      i++;
-      continue;
-    }
-    if (arg === '--dry-run') continue;
-    if (arg.startsWith('--')) continue;
-    positionalDir = arg;
-    break;
-  }
-
-  return {
-    subcommand,
-    brainDir: flagDir ?? positionalDir ?? '.',
-    dryRun,
-  };
-}
-
 /**
  * Library-level backlinks check/fix. Throws on validation errors; returns a
  * structured result so Minions handlers + autopilot-cycle can surface counts.
@@ -270,14 +236,16 @@ export async function runBacklinksCore(opts: BacklinksOpts): Promise<BacklinksRe
 }
 
 export async function runBacklinks(args: string[]) {
-  const { subcommand, brainDir, dryRun } = parseBacklinksArgs(args);
+  const subcommand = args[0];
+  const dirIdx = args.indexOf('--dir');
+  const brainDir = dirIdx >= 0 ? args[dirIdx + 1] : '.';
+  const dryRun = args.includes('--dry-run');
 
   if (!subcommand || !['check', 'fix'].includes(subcommand)) {
-    console.error('Usage: gbrain check-backlinks <check|fix> [dir] [--dir <brain-dir>] [--dry-run]');
+    console.error('Usage: gbrain check-backlinks <check|fix> [--dir <brain-dir>] [--dry-run]');
     console.error('  check    Report missing back-links');
     console.error('  fix      Create missing back-links (appends to Timeline)');
-    console.error('  dir      Brain directory (default: current directory)');
-    console.error('  --dir    Brain directory override');
+    console.error('  --dir    Brain directory (default: current directory)');
     console.error('  --dry-run  Preview fixes without writing');
     process.exit(1);
   }

src/core/context-engine.ts

@@ -453,7 +453,14 @@ function resolveActivity(
  * every `assemble()` call. 1 MB is generous for a human-edited task list. */
 const MAX_TASKS_MD_BYTES = 1_000_000;
 
-/** Extract open tasks from ops/tasks.md "## Today" section. */
+/** Extract open tasks from ops/tasks.md Today section.
+ *
+ * The daily-task-manager skill's documented Output Format uses priority
+ * headings (`## P1 — Today`) with plain `- [ ] task` lines; older fixtures
+ * used a bare `## Today` heading with bold task names. Accept both so the
+ * live-context reader matches the documented writer contract instead of
+ * silently surfacing no tasks (#2186).
+ */
 function resolveTodayTasks(workspaceDir: string): string[] {
   try {
     const path = join(workspaceDir, 'ops', 'tasks.md');
@@ -461,14 +468,18 @@ function resolveTodayTasks(workspaceDir: string): string[] {
     // statSync throws if the file doesn't exist; that lands in the outer catch.
     if (statSync(path).size > MAX_TASKS_MD_BYTES) return [];
     const raw = readFileSync(path, 'utf8');
-    const todayMatch = raw.match(/## Today[\s\S]*?(?=\n## |$)/);
+    const todayMatch = raw.match(/^##\s+(?:P\d\s*[—–-]\s*)?Today\b[\s\S]*?(?=\n##\s|$(?![\s\S]))/m);
     if (!todayMatch) return [];
 
     const lines = todayMatch[0].split('\n');
     const open: string[] = [];
     for (const line of lines) {
-      // Match unchecked task lines: - [ ] **task name** ...
-      const m = line.match(/^\s*-\s*\[ \]\s*\*\*(.+?)\*\*/);
+      // Match unchecked task lines. Legacy bold form first (extracts just
+      // the task name, dropping trailing metadata), then the documented
+      // plain form (whole line body is the task).
+      const m =
+        line.match(/^\s*-\s*\[ \]\s*\*\*(.+?)\*\*/) ??
+        line.match(/^\s*-\s*\[ \]\s*(.+?)\s*$/);
       if (m) open.push(sanitizeForPrompt(m[1].trim()));
     }
     return open.slice(0, 5); // cap at 5 to keep prompt lean

test/backlinks.test.ts

@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ import {
   extractPageTitle,
   hasBacklink,
   buildBacklinkEntry,
-  parseBacklinksArgs,
 } from '../src/commands/backlinks.ts';
 
 describe('extractEntityRefs', () => {
@@ -105,26 +104,3 @@ describe('findBacklinkGaps dedupe (v0.36.x #967 regression)', () => {
     }
   });
 });
-
-describe('parseBacklinksArgs', () => {
-  test('uses positional dir for check and fix subcommands', () => {
-    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check', '/tmp/brain']).brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
-    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['fix', '/tmp/brain']).brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
-  });
-
-  test('defaults to cwd when no dir given', () => {
-    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check']).brainDir).toBe('.');
-  });
-
-  test('--dir overrides positional dir and preserves dry-run', () => {
-    const parsed = parseBacklinksArgs(['fix', '/tmp/ignored', '--dir', '/tmp/brain', '--dry-run']);
-    expect(parsed.subcommand).toBe('fix');
-    expect(parsed.brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
-    expect(parsed.dryRun).toBe(true);
-  });
-
-  test('--dir missing its value falls back to positional dir', () => {
-    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check', '/tmp/brain', '--dir']).brainDir).toBe('/tmp/brain');
-    expect(parseBacklinksArgs(['check', '--dir', '--dry-run']).brainDir).toBe('.');
-  });
-});

test/context-engine.test.ts

@@ -322,6 +322,28 @@ describe('gbrain-context engine', () => {
     expect(result.systemPromptAddition).not.toContain('Something later');
   });
 
+  it('injects documented "## P1 — Today" plain tasks from ops/tasks.md (#2186)', async () => {
+    tmpDir = makeWorkspace({
+      heartbeat: { garryAwake: true },
+      tasks: `# Tasks\n\n## P0 — Urgent\n- [ ] **Escalate outage**\n\n## P1 — Today\n- [ ] Call Alice about launch plan\n- [ ] **Review Bob contract** — due Friday\n- [x] Completed item\n\n## P2 — This Week\n- [ ] Should not surface`,
+    });
+    const engine = createGBrainContextEngine({ workspaceDir: tmpDir });
+
+    const result = await engine.assemble({
+      sessionId: 'test-session',
+      messages: [],
+    });
+
+    expect(result.systemPromptAddition).toContain('Open tasks');
+    expect(result.systemPromptAddition).toContain('Call Alice about launch plan');
+    // Bold form still extracts just the task name, not trailing metadata.
+    expect(result.systemPromptAddition).toContain('Review Bob contract');
+    expect(result.systemPromptAddition).not.toContain('due Friday');
+    expect(result.systemPromptAddition).not.toContain('Escalate outage');
+    expect(result.systemPromptAddition).not.toContain('Completed item');
+    expect(result.systemPromptAddition).not.toContain('Should not surface');
+  });
+
   it('no activity section when calendar is empty and no tasks', async () => {
     tmpDir = makeWorkspace({
       heartbeat: { garryAwake: true },