jabulari's measurement of 67,074 public OpenHands runs claims 77.8% of coding-agent runs carry at least one request with a stale post-edit file view (about 1 in 7 requests) because original reads persist after edits; adoption of state-tracking or auto-refresh mitigations would establish post-edit context staleness as a material harness failure mode.

state: corroboratedheat: mediumuncertainty: mediumconvergesscott: highagent-harnesses context-staleness agent-evaluation

What is this?

A Reddit user 'jabulari' analyzed 67,074 public OpenHands (coding agent) runs and reports that 77.8% of runs contain at least one request where the agent's prompt includes a stale post-edit file view — the original file read persists in context after the agent has edited that file. A second independent Reddit measurement (Sea-Perception1619, Claude Code handoff notes) found 16% of carried PR/issue state references were already wrong when read. Both posts have minimal engagement (score ~1, few comments) and no official vendor response or reproduction yet. The web search returned no external coverage; grounding rests entirely on the two Reddit self-reports.

Why it matters to Scott

Two independent Reddit measurements quantify a context-staleness failure mode (stale post-edit file views in OpenHands; stale PR/issue refs in Claude Code handoff notes) that Scott's canon already identifies as a first-class harness integrity problem: his context-engineering framework treats the context window as an attention budget requiring structural forgetting; signal-density is a first-class context-quality metric; stale-context-check is a validity gate for historical judgment; long-running-agents architecture mandates context hygiene and externalized durable state; model-plus-harness-benchmark-unit makes harness-induced failure a measured property; evaluation-driven-development gates releases on offline evaluation; agent-receipts demand reconstructable traces. The measurements give Scott dated, quantified evidence for a failure class his frameworks already name — a publishing and audit opportunity.

dev:project.coding-agent-harnessdev:project.agent-loopdev:project.askip:framework.context-engineeringip:concept.signal-densityip:concept.stale-context-checkip:framework.long-running-agentsip:concept.model-plus-harness-benchmark-unitip:concept.evaluation-driven-developmentip:concept.agent-receiptsip:concept.context-rotip:concept.context-bloatip:concept.attention-diffusiondev:concept.persistent-delta-event-logdev:concept.stale-while-revalidatedev:concept.agent-authored-context-compactionip:concept.checkpoint-disciplineip:concept.session-isolationip:concept.working-fidelityip:source.handover-notes-for-robots-ebookip:framework.three-tier-error-budgetsip:concept.answer-failure-classesip:source.observability-for-agentic-systems-what-to-log-how-to-redact-how-to-debug-ebookip:source.production-ready-ai-systems-ebookip:source.the-intelligent-rfp-ebookradar:concept.agent-harnessesradar:concept.agent-evaluationradar:concept.context-managementradar:concept.agent-benchmarksradar:agentgauntlet-failure-benchmarkradar:frontierharness-17x-cost-variationradar:harnessopt-agent-harness-optimization-benchmarkradar:ship-harness-benchradar:swe-bench-pro-harness-cost-parityradar:cache-hunter-prompt-cache-debuggingradar:ontoprune-context-pruningradar:futureos-context-compaction-recallradar:distil-decision-equivalent-context-compressionradar:headroom-reversible-context-compressionradar:recirculation-running-contextradar:coalent-source-aware-cache-invalidationradar:driftwatch-ast-token-pruningradar:automaton-durable-agent-stateradar:agent-memory-leaderboard-validationradar:concept.agent-memoryradar:concept.persistent-agentsradar:charter-durable-agent-control-planeradar:dropstone-persistent-agent-runtimeradar:headlong-persistent-agent-microharnessradar:exo-self-modifying-agent-harnessradar:seed-self-modifying-agent-harnessradar:evoharnessrl-self-evolving-agent-harnessradar:agent6-jailed-state-machine-harnessradar:hermes-agent-open-harnessradar:hermes-missions-durable-agent-executionradar:oh-my-subagents-persistent-workflowsradar:session-migrate-cross-harness-portabilityradar:teleport-cross-harness-session-portabilityradar:txcript-cross-harness-session-conversionradar:cache-tax-idle-session-warmingradar:awareness-local-agent-memoryradar:anansi-open-memory-apiradar:deposition-claude-code-memoryradar:drive9-agent-filesystem

queries asked of Scott's wikis

ip:concept.agent-harnesses evaluation failure modes
ip:concept.context-integrity prompt-assembly stale-file-view
dev:project.coding-agent-harness state-tracking auto-refresh
ip:concept.agent-evaluation measurement methodology context-staleness
ip:ebook.agent-memory file-state persistence across turns
dev:project.agent-loop file-view-cache invalidation

Measured heat

now 0 pts/hpeak 1 pts/hcomments 0/hpeers p33momentum: steady1 platformsage 314h

points/hour across evidence · reading as of 2026-10-12 02:59:37.977291+11:00 · deterministic, not a model opinion

How the heat travelled

09-28 13:39	⭐ origin directly observed	Your coding agent's prompt often contains old versions of files it already edited. Here's what I measured, and what I learned trying to fix it jabulari on r/ClaudeAI	—
10-10 03:15	first on r/ClaudeAI · published · +277.6h	49 of 307 PR and issue states in my Claude Code handoff notes were already wrong when a later session read them Sea-Perception1619	—
09-28 13:39	amplified on r/ClaudeAI	reddit.post.1wsewkf jabulari	peak 1 · 1 comments · 15% of case engagement
10-10 03:15	amplified on r/ClaudeAI 👑	reddit.post.1x24pot Sea-Perception1619	peak 1 · 10 comments · 84% of case engagement
09-28 15:20	our radar first saw it · +1.7h	discovery anchor: reddit.post.1wsewkf	—

pace: p22 vs 1188 stories at the 168h mark (now 314h old) — ahead of aafp-commons-signed-agent-notebook (2.0x), behind agentgate-signed-agent-receipts (0.7x)

Evidence (2) — ⭐ canonical anchor

source	object	author	score	comments
🟠 reddit ⭐	Your coding agent's prompt often contains old versions of files it already edited. Here's what I measured, and what I learned trying to fix it ClaudeAI	jabulari	1	1
🟠 reddit	49 of 307 PR and issue states in my Claude Code handoff notes were already wrong when a later session read them ClaudeAI	Sea-Perception1619	0	10

Interpretation history

2026-10-10T05:47:44Z
grounded: converges/high — Two independent Reddit measurements quantify a context-staleness failure mode (stale post-edit file views in OpenHands; stale PR/issue refs in Claude Code hando
2026-10-10T05:34:41Z
Second independent measurement attached (Sea-Perception1619: 16% of PR/issue state refs in handoff notes already stale when read) corroborates the stale-context failure mode measured by jabulari on OpenHands. Two distinct methodologies, same root cause — moves case from seed to corroborated.
2026-10-10T04:39:54Z
evidence attached: reddit.post.1x24pot — Independent measurement confirming stale handoff notes: 16% of PR/issue state references were already wrong when read, directly corroborating the stale-context failure mode.
2026-09-28T16:19:50Z
grounded: novel/medium — No meaningful intersection with Scott's recorded canon — wiki_hits and radar_hits are both empty, so there is no existing position of his to converge with or ch
2026-09-28T16:17:55Z
case created — Original quantified measurement of a context-integrity failure mode with no open case carrying it, in a hot agent-harnesses band.

Decision trace

10-10 20:31sensor_dirtycomment_update
10-10 17:04attention_communicatedA second independent Reddit measurement (Sea-Perception1619) now corroborates the context-staleness failure mode: 16% of PR/issue references in Claude Code handoff notes were already wrong when read (
10-10 17:04attention_routePrevious judgment kept this on watch (low confidence, single source). The new corroboration — a second independent measurement on a different substrate measuring a different manifestation of the same
10-10 16:50attention_routePrevious judgment kept this on watch (low confidence, single source). The new corroboration — a second independent measurement on a different substrate measuring a different manifestation of the same
10-10 16:47attention_candidatematerial_reprice
10-10 16:47repriceSecond independent measurement attached (Sea-Perception1619: 16% of PR/issue state refs in handoff notes already stale when read) corroborates the stale-context failure mode measured by jabulari on Op
10-10 16:47groundTwo independent Reddit measurements quantify a context-staleness failure mode (stale post-edit file views in OpenHands; stale PR/issue refs in Claude Code handoff notes) that Scott's canon alread
10-10 15:40attention_routeThe editor compared this story and chose to keep watching.
10-10 15:39attention_candidateattach
10-10 15:39attachIndependent measurement confirming stale handoff notes: 16% of PR/issue state references were already wrong when read, directly corroborating the stale-context failure mode.
10-10 15:38propose_attachIndependent measurement confirming stale handoff notes: 16% of PR/issue state references were already wrong when read, directly corroborating the stale-context failure mode.
09-29 02:19groundNo meaningful intersection with Scott's recorded canon — wiki_hits and radar_hits are both empty, so there is no existing position of his to converge with or challenge, ruling out known/converges
09-29 02:17createOriginal quantified measurement of a context-integrity failure mode with no open case carrying it, in a hot agent-harnesses band.