[Stage 1 / P0] governance: event log + per-request authorize + anomaly channel

[modacker]

[Stage 1 / P0] governance: event log + per-request authorize + anomaly channel

Author: @modacker
Source review: docs/REVIEW-sihankor-baselines-2026-08-28.md Part 4
Tier 1 items #1 (first-run token modal) deferred to Stage 2; this
issue bundles the three work items that share server/lib/events.js
as their foundation.
Source borrow: docs/BORROW-dsh-deepseek-harness-2026-08-28.md
borrows #1 (event log) and #2 (authorize).
Related PR: modacker/MiniMax-Code-Plugins#23 (round 7
Token Plan integration already shipped; this is the next
governance layer).

Why

The mcode-webui plugin is a thin shell over the mcode agent runtime.
Today it has no audit trail, no authorization envelope for
destructive actions, and no anomaly channel. Three SiHankor
engineering baselines fail:

• Baseline 1 (LLM is symbol-material generator, not governor):
  destructive routes (DELETE /api/sessions/:id, slash
  delete/clear/reset) are executed as side effects of an LLM
  reply, with no user-facing confirmation beyond a hidden modal.
• Baseline 3 (human attention only to anomaly signals): errors
  get appended to cs.chat as ! [error] msg, mixed with normal
  flow. The user has to scan the whole conversation to find them.
• Baseline 4 (verifiability — traceable / checkable / tamper-proof):
  settings.json and sessions.json are full-file overwrites, no
  diff, no transaction, no checksum. Concurrent POST /api/settings
  would race. There is no event log anywhere.

The deepseek-harness (dsh) project demonstrates a clean pattern
for all three: append-only SessionEvent log + per-request
"ask human" authorization + /api/alerts SSE channel. dsh's
package boundaries map cleanly to plugin-scope work in
mcode-webui.

What

Three changes, sharing a new server/lib/events.js module. They
must land together because the authorize helper and the anomaly
channel both write event-log entries, and the event log itself
needs the same append-only semantics.

1. server/lib/events.js — append-only event log

NDJSON line per write to ~/.mcode-webui/events.ndjson. Inspired
by dsh's SessionEvent row format:

{
  "seq": <monotonic>,
  "ts": "<ISO-8601>",
  "actor": "user" | "mcode" | "system",
  "kind": "settings.write" | "sessions.create" | "sessions.delete"
        | "upload.create" | "slash.exec" | "authz.request"
        | "authz.resolve" | "alert.raise",
  "target": "<file path or session id>",
  "before_hash": "<sha256 of prev state or 'null'>",
  "after_hash":  "<sha256 of new state or 'null'>",
  "cid": "<connection id from state-bus>",
  "data": { ...event-specific payload... }
}

Properties (copied from dsh):

• Append-only — never update, never delete (except by retention
  policy)
• Monotonic sequence — easy to detect gaps
• Hash-chained: after_hash includes prev_after_hash for
  tamper-evidence
• 200 ms write-behind window for high-frequency events (chat ticks)
• Reverse + forward read passes for replay

Effort: ~300 lines for events.js + tests, plus ~50 lines per write
site.

2. server/lib/authorize.js — per-request "ask human"

// in routes/sessions.js
const r = await authorize({ action: 'delete-session', sessionId: id, ctx });
if (!r.ok) return;  // user declined or timed out
// ... existing delete logic

Helper that:

1. Sends a needs_authorization event to the requesting connection's
   SSE channel (via state-bus.js)
2. Blocks the action in a Promise
3. Resolves when the user clicks allow/deny in the UI
4. Times out with AuthorizationDeclinedError after N seconds
   (default 5 min)
5. Writes an events.ndjson line for both the request and the
   resolution

Wrap destructive routes with this:
DELETE /api/sessions/:id, slash delete / clear / reset,
token rotation (if you want explicit confirmation), workspace reset.

This is the cleanest way to enforce SiHankor prohibition 1 ("LLM
must not directly modify knowledge/intent") without rewriting
the host.

Effort: ~250 lines for the helper + 4–5 wrapping sites.

3. server/lib/alerts.js + /api/alerts — anomaly channel

Parallel to state-bus.js and /api/events. Replace
console.warn for user-facing errors with
pushAlert({ level, msg, src }).

Frontend:

• Top-right bell icon with unread count, click → toast history
• cs.chat's ! [error] becomes a secondary indicator that
  highlights when an alert is live

Effort: ~300 lines across server + frontend.

Acceptance criteria

• events.ndjson exists after a settings change, contains
  before_hash / after_hash / actor / kind / cid
• Tampering with a row (delete or modify) is detectable by
  forward + reverse read pass (test in test/lib-events.test.js)
• Concurrent POST /api/settings from two connections does
  NOT race (test in test/lib-events-concurrency.test.js)
• DELETE /api/sessions/:id shows a top-bar modal asking for
  confirmation; declining in the modal leaves the session
  intact; the action emits 2 events (request + resolve)
• A server-side error in any route pushes to /api/alerts,
  the top-bar bell increments, the toast history shows it
• npm test passes (target 450/0/2)
• SiHankor Baseline 1 + 3 + 4 + prohibition 1 + 4 + 5 status
  changes from ✗ to ✓ in the review doc

Out of scope (covered in other issues)

• First-run token modal — see Stage 2 issue
• ?token= drop on first access — see Stage 2 issue
• Slash command autocomplete — see Stage 2 issue
• mcode-side hooks (event:audit, event:anomaly,
  permission:request) — see host-scope issue