workspace: record reader thread handle inline in _read_agent_stream

Co-authored-by: Ralphify <noreply@ralphify.co>

Author: 2 people

workspace/ralphs/improve-codebase/coverage/_agent.md

@@ -1,9 +1,25 @@
 # `_agent.py` coverage
 
-Valid at: e1ad87a
+Valid at: b24accf
 
 ## Recent changes
 
+- b24accf — inlined the `reader` thread handle in `_read_agent_stream`.
+  The local served only to call `.start()`; the thread is never joined
+  explicitly (termination is signalled through the queue's `None`
+  sentinel produced by `_readline_pump`'s `finally` and through the
+  daemon flag).  Collapsing into the fluent
+  `threading.Thread(target=_readline_pump, args=(stdout, line_q),
+  daemon=True).start()` drops an unused binding and matches the
+  fire-and-forget intent.  Python keeps live threads reachable via
+  `threading._active`, so no GC risk.  Side effects preserved: the
+  reader still closes cleanly on `_close_pipes` (OSError in
+  `readline`), and the main loop still relies on `line_q.get` for
+  deadline enforcement.  Pinned by the full `tests/test_agent.py`
+  suite (streaming-path coverage).  This is the same alias/handle-drop
+  shape as e1ad87a / 497c028 / b19625e, specialised to a Thread —
+  thread-return values aren't special, they're just another handle
+  whose only use was `.start()`.
 - e1ad87a — inlined the `binary = Path(cmd[0]).stem` local in
   `_supports_stream_json`.  The alias was read exactly once on the
   following line as `binary == CLAUDE_BINARY`.  Collapsing to

workspace/ralphs/improve-codebase/iterations.md

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 One line per iteration: `<sha> <summary>`.
 
+b24accf refactor: inline `reader` thread handle in `_read_agent_stream` — the local served only to call `.start()`; the thread is never joined because termination flows through the queue's None sentinel plus the daemon flag, so the handle had no further role.  Collapsing into the fluent `threading.Thread(..., daemon=True).start()` form matches the fire-and-forget intent and drops an unused binding.  Python's `threading` module keeps live threads reachable via `threading._active`, so dropping the local reference does not affect thread lifetime — verified by the full agent test suite (628 passed).  Same alias/handle-drop shape as 2fda4f0 / e1ad87a / 497c028 / b19625e, specialised to a Thread.
+
 2fda4f0 refactor: inline `visible` alias in `_LivePanelBase._build_body` — the `visible = self._scroll_lines[-_MAX_VISIBLE_SCROLL:]` local was read exactly once, as the iterable of the very next `for line in visible:` loop.  Collapsing to `for line in self._scroll_lines[-_MAX_VISIBLE_SCROLL:]:` matches the inline-alias pattern from 497c028 / fc5e1cb / 52e0272 / ce487d3 / e1ad87a.  Behavior unchanged — the slice still materializes the last `_MAX_VISIBLE_SCROLL` items, and each loop iteration still mutates the Text in-place (`no_wrap` / `overflow`) before appending to `rows`.  Pinned by the broad `test_console_emitter.py` suite (peek-visible rendering paths).
 
 e1ad87a refactor: inline `binary` alias in `_supports_stream_json` — the local was assigned to `Path(cmd[0]).stem` and then read exactly once on the next line as `binary == CLAUDE_BINARY`.  Collapsing to the chained form `Path(cmd[0]).stem == CLAUDE_BINARY` matches the already-inline sibling check in `_console_emitter.py:_is_claude_command` (`return Path(parts[0]).stem == CLAUDE_BINARY`) and the inline-alias pattern from ce487d3 / 52e0272 / 497c028 / fc5e1cb.  Same behavior — `_supports_stream_json` still short-circuits on empty `cmd` first, and the final boolean result is unchanged.  Pinned by `tests/test_agent.py::test_streaming_mode_used_for_claude` and the broader agent-selection tests.