refactor: remove shell respawn loops from witness and deacon (gt-zxgu)

Shell loops bypassed the proper lifecycle architecture. Now:

- Witness: Launches Claude directly, daemon/deacon health-scan handles restart
- Deacon: Launches Claude directly, daemon detects exit and restarts
- Daemon: ensureDeaconRunning() now checks if Claude is running (pane cmd)
         and restarts it if session exists but Claude has exited
- gt deacon restart: Now does stop+start instead of Ctrl-C

This enforces proper lifecycle flow through LIFECYCLE mail and daemon
heartbeat rather than bypassing it with shell loops.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

internal/cmd/deacon.go

@@ -153,11 +153,10 @@ func startDeaconSession(t *tmux.Tmux) error {
 	theme := tmux.DeaconTheme()
 	_ = t.ConfigureGasTownSession(DeaconSessionName, theme, "", "Deacon", "health-check")
 
-	// Launch Claude in a respawn loop - session survives restarts
+	// Launch Claude directly (no shell respawn loop)
+	// Restarts are handled by daemon via ensureDeaconRunning on each heartbeat
 	// The startup hook handles context loading automatically
-	// Use SendKeysDelayed to allow shell initialization after NewSession
+	if err := t.SendKeys(DeaconSessionName, "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions"); err != nil {
-	loopCmd := `while true; do echo "⛪ Starting Deacon session..."; claude --dangerously-skip-permissions; echo ""; echo "Deacon exited. Restarting in 2s... (Ctrl-C to stop)"; sleep 2; done`
-	if err := t.SendKeysDelayed(DeaconSessionName, loopCmd, 200); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("sending command: %w", err)
 	}
 
@@ -257,16 +256,23 @@ func runDeaconRestart(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("checking session: %w", err)
 	}
 
+	fmt.Println("Restarting Deacon...")
+
 	if running {
-		// Graceful restart: send Ctrl-C to exit Claude, loop will restart it
+		// Kill existing session
-		fmt.Println("Restarting Deacon (sending Ctrl-C to trigger respawn loop)...")
+		if err := t.KillSession(DeaconSessionName); err != nil {
-		_ = t.SendKeysRaw(DeaconSessionName, "C-c")
+			fmt.Printf("%s Warning: failed to kill session: %v\n", style.Dim.Render("⚠"), err)
-		fmt.Printf("%s Deacon will restart automatically. Session stays attached.\n", style.Bold.Render("✓"))
+		}
-		return nil
 	}
 
-	// Not running, start fresh
+	// Start fresh
-	return runDeaconStart(cmd, args)
+	if err := runDeaconStart(cmd, args); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	fmt.Printf("%s Deacon restarted\n", style.Bold.Render("✓"))
+	fmt.Printf("  %s\n", style.Dim.Render("Use 'gt deacon attach' to connect"))
+	return nil
 }
 
 func runDeaconHeartbeat(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {

internal/cmd/witness.go

@@ -312,10 +312,10 @@ func ensureWitnessSession(rigName string, r *rig.Rig) (bool, error) {
 	theme := tmux.AssignTheme(rigName)
 	_ = t.ConfigureGasTownSession(sessionName, theme, rigName, "witness", "witness")
 
-	// Launch Claude in a respawn loop
+	// Launch Claude directly (no shell respawn loop)
+	// Restarts are handled by daemon via LIFECYCLE mail or deacon health-scan
 	// NOTE: No gt prime injection needed - SessionStart hook handles it automatically
-	loopCmd := `while true; do echo "👁️ Starting Witness for ` + rigName + `..."; claude --dangerously-skip-permissions; echo ""; echo "Witness exited. Restarting in 2s... (Ctrl-C to stop)"; sleep 2; done`
+	if err := t.SendKeys(sessionName, "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions"); err != nil {
-	if err := t.SendKeysDelayed(sessionName, loopCmd, 200); err != nil {
 		return false, fmt.Errorf("sending command: %w", err)
 	}
 

internal/daemon/daemon.go

@@ -186,20 +186,39 @@ func (d *Daemon) nextMOTD() string {
 	return deaconMOTDMessages[nextIdx]
 }
 
-// ensureDeaconRunning checks if the Deacon session exists and starts it if not.
+// ensureDeaconRunning checks if the Deacon session exists and Claude is running.
+// If the session exists but Claude has exited, it restarts Claude.
+// If the session doesn't exist, it creates it and starts Claude.
 // The Deacon is the system's heartbeat - it must always be running.
 func (d *Daemon) ensureDeaconRunning() {
-	running, err := d.tmux.HasSession(DeaconSessionName)
+	sessionExists, err := d.tmux.HasSession(DeaconSessionName)
 	if err != nil {
 		d.logger.Printf("Error checking Deacon session: %v", err)
 		return
 	}
 
-	if running {
+	if sessionExists {
-		return // Deacon is running, nothing to do
+		// Session exists - check if Claude is actually running
+		cmd, err := d.tmux.GetPaneCommand(DeaconSessionName)
+		if err != nil {
+			d.logger.Printf("Error checking Deacon pane command: %v", err)
+			return
 		}
 
-	// Deacon is not running - start it
+		// If Claude is running (node process), we're good
+		if cmd == "node" {
+			return
+		}
+
+		// Claude has exited (shell is showing) - restart it
+		d.logger.Printf("Deacon session exists but Claude exited (cmd=%s), restarting...", cmd)
+		if err := d.tmux.SendKeys(DeaconSessionName, "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions"); err != nil {
+			d.logger.Printf("Error restarting Claude in Deacon session: %v", err)
+		}
+		return
+	}
+
+	// Session doesn't exist - create it and start Claude
 	d.logger.Println("Deacon session not running, starting...")
 
 	// Create session in town root
@@ -211,9 +230,9 @@ func (d *Daemon) ensureDeaconRunning() {
 	// Set environment
 	_ = d.tmux.SetEnvironment(DeaconSessionName, "GT_ROLE", "deacon")
 
-	// Launch Claude in a respawn loop - session survives restarts
+	// Launch Claude directly (no shell respawn loop)
-	loopCmd := `while true; do echo "⛪ Starting Deacon session..."; claude --dangerously-skip-permissions; echo ""; echo "Deacon exited. Restarting in 2s... (Ctrl-C to stop)"; sleep 2; done`
+	// The daemon will detect if Claude exits and restart it on next heartbeat
-	if err := d.tmux.SendKeysDelayed(DeaconSessionName, loopCmd, 200); err != nil {
+	if err := d.tmux.SendKeys(DeaconSessionName, "claude --dangerously-skip-permissions"); err != nil {
 		d.logger.Printf("Error launching Claude in Deacon session: %v", err)
 		return
 	}