pb-boss-checkins — a cron boss re-prompts my own session

Goal

A long mission outlives your attention. Install a cron boss that fires on a
local-time schedule and re-prompts YOUR OWN session with a status question,
so every tick forces a real report: tasks done, children alive, blockers,
next action. Delete the boss when the mission ends.

Prerequisites (reference by name): ap-cron, ap-lifecycle, ap-tasks,
ap-spawn-agent (only for the agent-kind variant). The family map is the
agentproto skill; the supervise-long-missions group covers the wider
supervision playbook.

Steps

1. Get your own session id

The boss targets a session id, so know yours (from your spawn descriptor or
session_list on the daemon).

2. Create the boss

cron_create({
  schedule: '30 4 * * *',
  action: {
    kind: 'prompt-session',
    sessionId: '<my session id>',
    prompt: 'report status: tasks done? agents alive? blockers? next action?'
  }
})

Five-field cron in LOCAL time: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week.
The response returns the job id and nextRunAt — note both. A morning tick
(04:30 Paris in the example) fits the credit-reset cycle; pick whatever
cadence keeps the mission honest.

3. Answer every tick with a real status

When the boss fires, it wakes your session with the prompt. Answer it with
facts, not intentions:

• task_update({taskId, rev, note}) notes on the task board for progress.
• session_tree({}) to confirm children are alive or finished.
• Name the next concrete action, or declare the mission complete.

4. Delete the boss when the mission ends

cron_delete({ jobId: '<jobId>' })

The job is a persistent host-level job that survives daemon restarts — a
forgotten boss pings your session forever. This step is not optional.

Variants

• Machine check-in (kind: 'command'): run an allowlisted command on each
  tick — a build, a test, a heartbeat script. Good when the status you need
  is green/red rather than a report.
• Independent reviewer (kind: 'agent'): spawn a BRAND-NEW agent session on
  each tick with a review prompt. Costs more per tick, but the reviewer has
  no stake in your session's narrative and audits from a fresh context.
• Follow-up on a child: kind: 'prompt-session' also works against a child
  session id, turning a periodic check-in into a per-agent heartbeat.

Gotchas

• prompt-session targets a LIVING session by id. A dead session is a
  SILENT MISS — the job fires, nothing happens. If your session might not
  survive, restart it first or switch to the agent kind, which always
  spawns fresh.
• Cron survives daemon restarts. ALWAYS delete it when done — or it pings
  forever.
• Test with cron_run({jobId}) BEFORE trusting the schedule: it fires the
  job immediately so you confirm the prompt reaches the right session with
  the right wording.
• One-shot missions: pass recurring: false so the job deactivates after a
  single fire instead of lingering until you remember to delete it.

Verify

cron_run({jobId}) produces an actual status turn in the target session
(the prompt appears, you answer it with facts), cron_list shows the job
with a sane nextRunAt, and after the mission cron_delete removes it —
cron_list no longer lists it. A boss you have not test-fired is unverified.