fix: make plan extraction and journal persistence resilient to agent format variations

- Plan fallback: try multiple header patterns (## Session Plan, # Session Plan, ## Plan)
- Plan fallback: accept output containing Task structure even without exact header
- Journal: write fallback entry when agent doesn't output '## Day' prefix
- Journal: handle both '## Day' and '# Day' markers
- Journal: normalize any heading level to '## Day N' format

Author: Patel230

internal/evolution/git_test.go

@@ -367,9 +367,13 @@ func TestPersistJournalEntry_NoDayMarker(t *testing.T) {
 	e.persistJournalEntry(entry, "5")
 
 	data, _ := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(dir, "docs/JOURNAL.md"))
-	// should not modify the file
-	if string(data) != "# iterate Evolution Journal\n" {
-		t.Errorf("journal should be unchanged, got:\n%s", string(data))
+	content := string(data)
+	// should write a fallback entry wrapping the agent output
+	if !strings.Contains(content, "## Day 5") {
+		t.Errorf("should contain Day 5 header, got:\n%s", content)
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(content, "This has no day marker at all") {
+		t.Errorf("should contain agent output, got:\n%s", content)
 	}
 }
 

internal/evolution/phases.go

@@ -42,8 +42,19 @@ func (e *Engine) RunPlanPhase(ctx context.Context, p iteragent.Provider, issues
 	// If the agent didn't write SESSION_PLAN.md via tool call, extract it from text output.
 	planPath := filepath.Join(e.repoPath, "SESSION_PLAN.md")
 	if _, err := os.Stat(planPath); os.IsNotExist(err) && lastContent != "" {
-		if idx := strings.Index(lastContent, "## Session Plan"); idx >= 0 {
-			extracted := strings.TrimSpace(lastContent[idx:])
+		// Try multiple extraction patterns — agents format things differently.
+		extracted := ""
+		for _, prefix := range []string{"## Session Plan", "## Session plan", "# Session Plan", "## Plan"} {
+			if idx := strings.Index(lastContent, prefix); idx >= 0 {
+				extracted = strings.TrimSpace(lastContent[idx:])
+				break
+			}
+		}
+		// Last resort: if output looks like it contains task structure, use the whole thing.
+		if extracted == "" && (strings.Contains(lastContent, "Task 1") || strings.Contains(lastContent, "### Task")) {
+			extracted = strings.TrimSpace(lastContent)
+		}
+		if extracted != "" {
 			if writeErr := os.WriteFile(planPath, []byte(extracted), 0o644); writeErr == nil {
 				e.logger.Info("extracted SESSION_PLAN.md from agent text output")
 			}

internal/evolution/phases_communicate.go

@@ -212,15 +212,26 @@ Rules:
 
 // persistJournalEntry extracts and writes a valid journal entry to JOURNAL.md.
 func (e *Engine) persistJournalEntry(journalEntry string, day string) {
-	if idx := strings.Index(journalEntry, "## Day"); idx >= 0 {
+	if journalEntry == "" {
+		e.logger.Warn("journal entry is empty — skipping journal write")
+		return
+	}
+
+	// Try to find the journal header. Agents format things differently.
+	idx := strings.Index(journalEntry, "## Day")
+	if idx < 0 {
+		idx = strings.Index(journalEntry, "# Day")
+	}
+
+	if idx >= 0 {
 		extracted := journalEntry[idx:]
 		if nextIdx := strings.Index(extracted[1:], "\n## "); nextIdx >= 0 {
 			extracted = extracted[:nextIdx+1]
 		}
 		extracted = strings.TrimSpace(extracted)
 		dayNum, _ := strconv.Atoi(day)
 		if dayNum > 0 {
-			dayPattern := regexp.MustCompile(`^## Day \d+`)
+			dayPattern := regexp.MustCompile(`^(#+)\s*Day\s*\d+`)
 			extracted = dayPattern.ReplaceAllString(extracted, fmt.Sprintf("## Day %d", dayNum))
 		}
 		journalPath := filepath.Join(e.repoPath, "docs/JOURNAL.md")
@@ -231,9 +242,22 @@ func (e *Engine) persistJournalEntry(journalEntry string, day string) {
 		}
 		header := "# iterate Evolution Journal\n"
 		newContent := header + "\n" + extracted + "\n\n" + strings.TrimPrefix(strings.TrimPrefix(string(journal), header), "\n")
-		_ = os.WriteFile(journalPath, []byte(newContent), 0o644) // best-effort; journal is append-mostly
+		_ = os.WriteFile(journalPath, []byte(newContent), 0o644)
 	} else {
-		e.logger.Warn("agent output does not contain '## Day' — skipping journal write")
+		// Fallback: wrap the agent's output in a proper journal entry.
+		e.logger.Warn("agent output does not contain '## Day' — writing fallback journal entry")
+		now := time.Now().UTC().Format("15:04")
+		dayNum, _ := strconv.Atoi(day)
+		fallback := fmt.Sprintf("## Day %d — %s — Evolution session\n\n%s\n", dayNum, now, strings.TrimSpace(journalEntry))
+		journalPath := filepath.Join(e.repoPath, "docs/JOURNAL.md")
+		_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(journalPath), 0o755)
+		journal, err := os.ReadFile(journalPath)
+		if err != nil {
+			e.logger.Warn("failed to read JOURNAL.md for journal update", "err", err)
+		}
+		header := "# iterate Evolution Journal\n"
+		newContent := header + "\n" + fallback + "\n" + strings.TrimPrefix(strings.TrimPrefix(string(journal), header), "\n")
+		_ = os.WriteFile(journalPath, []byte(newContent), 0o644)
 	}
 }