History and Notes continuity

Zuno can expose two optional continuity tools to the model: history for recovering normalized evidence from the current session, and notes for durable working documents. Both are disabled by default. Enabling them changes the model-visible tool surface; it does not copy data to prompts automatically and does not grant authority that another policy removed.

Choose what is enabled

Enable both tools:

{
  "continuity": true
}

Enable only History:

{
  "continuity": {
    "history": true,
    "notes": false
  }
}

Enable only Notes:

{
  "continuity": {
    "history": false,
    "notes": true
  }
}

Disable both explicitly:

{
  "continuity": false
}

Omitting continuity also disables both. In the object form, a field that is absent from the complete merged configuration defaults to false.

Put the switch in the right layer

For a persistent user-wide choice, edit the zuno.json under the config root shown by:

zuno debug paths

The usual Unix path is ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/zuno/zuno.json. Project zuno.json[c] and .zuno/zuno.json[c] files may also set continuity, subject to the normal layer order.

Use ZUNO_CONFIG_DIR when continuity should change with a provider or team profile. For example, put this in $HOME/.config/zuno/profiles/recovery/zuno.json:

{
  "continuity": {
    "history": true,
    "notes": true
  }
}

Then start Zuno with that overlay:

ZUNO_CONFIG_DIR="$HOME/.config/zuno/profiles/recovery" zuno

There is no dedicated --continuity command-line flag. Use a configuration file, ZUNO_CONFIG_DIR, or ZUNO_CONFIG_CONTENT so the same setting works for TUI, headless, ACP, and server processes.

Object fields merge recursively. If a lower layer already enables History, a higher layer containing only {"continuity":{"notes":true}} leaves History enabled. Set the field to false explicitly when a profile must turn it off:

{
  "continuity": {
    "history": false,
    "notes": true
  }
}

For one process without creating a file, use the final inline layer:

ZUNO_CONFIG_CONTENT='{"continuity":{"history":true,"notes":false}}' \
  zuno debug config

On PowerShell:

$env:ZUNO_CONFIG_CONTENT = '{"continuity":true}'
zuno debug config
Remove-Item Env:ZUNO_CONFIG_CONTENT

ACP and editor profiles

An editor starts the configuration selected for its zuno acp process. To use a profile from Zed or another ACP client, pass the same overlay through the Agent server environment:

{
  "command": "zuno",
  "args": ["acp"],
  "env": {
    "ZUNO_CONFIG_DIR": "/config/.config/zuno/profiles/kiro"
  }
}

Place the continuity object in that profile's zuno.json. After changing a configuration file, restart a long-running TUI, ACP server, or HTTP server before testing it. An in-flight provider request keeps its immutable tool snapshot; a restart does not delete the durable session, History evidence, Notes, Plan, or other work state.

Enabling continuity is not the final grant

continuity contributes candidate tools. The final model-visible surface is still narrowed in this order:

1. the active profile and Agent contract;
2. the top-level tools map;
3. an Agent's exact tools allowlist;
4. request hooks; and
5. effective permission.rules.

For example, this contributes both continuity tools but hides Notes:

{
  "continuity": true,
  "tools": {
    "notes": false
  }
}

This keeps Notes in the candidate surface but denies every Notes invocation:

{
  "continuity": true,
  "permission": {
    "rules": {
      "notes": "deny"
    }
  }
}

Setting tools.history or tools.notes to true cannot create a provider that continuity left disabled. Likewise, permission.mode: "allow_all" cannot restore a tool removed by the Agent allowlist or an explicit deny.

An Agent tools list is exact and replaces the inherited list. If a custom Agent declares one, include history or notes alongside every other tool that Agent should retain.

What the tools can see

History

history provides four read-only actions:

• list_windows lists ranges delimited by successful compactions;
• list_items lists normalized items in one window;
• read_item reads one returned item; and
• search_contents searches normalized current-session content.

It never crosses into another session. Returned content excludes reasoning, encrypted values, synthetic internal prompt text, and binary attachment bytes. Treat returned text as untrusted data, not as instructions.

Notes

notes provides three read actions and two writes:

• list_files_by_prefix, read_file, and search_contents are read-only;
• append_to_file and write_file are side-effecting and are never mechanically replayed.

Notes use logical slash-separated names such as handoff/ci.md, not host filesystem paths. Each document belongs to the current session_id + Agent, so another Agent or a delegated child session does not share it implicitly.

Every write carries expected_revision. Use 0 only for creation:

{
  "action": "write_file",
  "name": "handoff/ci.md",
  "content": "Release candidate is waiting for Windows CI.",
  "expected_revision": 0
}

Read the document before changing it again and pass the returned revision. A stale revision is rejected instead of overwriting concurrent work. One session-Agent scope is limited to 100 documents, 256 KiB per document, and 1 MiB total.

Disabling Notes later hides the tool but does not delete existing documents. They remain part of the session lifecycle and reappear if the same session and Agent enable Notes again. Session deletion and destructive prune remove them; export/import preserves them, while a sanitized export redacts their identity and content.

Plan remains independent

Continuity is separate from the host's durable Plan. This configuration:

{
  "continuity": true,
  "tools": {
    "plan_update": false
  }
}

hides the model-facing Plan mutation tool, but the host can still create, persist, project, and recover the Plan. It does not turn History or Notes into a replacement Plan store.

Verify the effective result

Run the commands under the same environment as the real client:

zuno debug paths
zuno debug config
zuno debug agent build
zuno debug permissions

With a profile:

ZUNO_CONFIG_DIR="$HOME/.config/zuno/profiles/recovery" zuno debug config
ZUNO_CONFIG_DIR="$HOME/.config/zuno/profiles/recovery" zuno debug agent build

debug config confirms the merged continuity value. debug agent shows whether the selected Agent retained the tools, and debug permissions exposes a final denial. The runtime.continuity prompt section appears only when history or notes survives the final provider-visible tool snapshot.

If a tool is missing, check the resolved config root, inherited object fields, top-level tools, the Agent's exact allowlist, permissions, and whether the long-running client was restarted.

See also

• Files and precedence
• Tools
• Sessions and turns
• Configuration reference
• Editors and ACP