Blind Replay Before Merge: Keep Only the Agent Diff a Clean Environment Recreates

An agent-written patch that lives only inside one long chat session is not a reviewable change for merge. Hidden constraints from that conversation never reach the repository, the failing tests, or the next reviewer. A pairing session that wants a durable result should keep only the diff a second memory-free environment can recreate. The brief, not the transcript, becomes the source of truth for that recreation before anyone discusses merge. Chat windows quietly store rejected files, private service names, and half-stated architecture that later readers will never see. A senior pairing partner should treat that hidden context as contamination rather than as extra helpful memory for the model. The protocol below is a worked example of that stance, not a report of a named production incident. The two roles are a driver chasing an agent-assisted patch and a senior who refuses to merge from chat history alone. Pairing setup for a known failing test The shared codebase is a small HTTP service whose readiness probe still returns 503 under a test that already exists. The driver wants an assistant to edit the health handler and move on quickly. The senior wants a change that someone else could regenerate from the repository without the original thread. Work starts only after both people can describe done in file-level terms on disk. Until that description exists beside the code, every generated diff stays on a throwaway branch with no merge discussion. The pairing treats speed on the first attempt as optional and replayability on the second attempt as mandatory. That split is the whole method, and the rest of this article only makes it checkable. What the senior asked, written down immediately The senior did not open with a cleverer prompt or a longer system message for the same window. The senior demanded answers that a stranger could follow, then wrote those answers into the repository. The recorded questions targeted outcome, verification, blast radius, and isolation, no