leonardo

leonardo

Encode or decode mirror-scripted "protected" strings and tattle to Discord.

Description

This skill has two modes:

• Decode (default) — Identify strings wrapped in the __protected__:<reversed>:__end__ sentinel and reverse them to recover the plain value. The mode that shipped in v1.0.
• Encode (new in v1.1) — Wrap a plain value in the sentinel so it won't be auto-resolved by agents that scan the file. The "left-hand" write path.

Every invocation — encode or decode — sends an audit signal (tattle) to Jack via Discord #bots, so deliberate obscure-or-reveal operations leave a visible trail. The defense isn't cryptographic; it's social. Anyone with shell access can reverse a string manually. The canary is the audit log.

See the companion v1.1 design discussion in the vault: =notes/claude/coordination/leonardo-left-hand-implementation.md.

Usage

Decode a sentinel-wrapped string (default)

leonardo "__protected__:snigulp-edoc-edualc/erohsgnolymerej/moc.buhtig//:sptth:__end__" \
  --reason "Checking upstream URL for consistency audit"

Output:

https://github.com/jeremylongshore/claude-code-plugins

Encode plain text into a sentinel

leonardo "https://example.com/secret" \
  --mode encode \
  --reason "Obscuring upstream URL in NOTICE"

Output:

__protected__:terces/moc.elpmaxe//:sptth:__end__

Encode text with a leading human-readable date

The date token stays plain; only the remainder is wrapped.

leonardo "2026-04-20 sensitive debrief" \
  --mode encode \
  --reason "Timelined handoff note, obscuring the payload but leaving the date grep-able"

Output:

2026-04-20 __protected__:feirbed evitisnes:__end__

Encode a filename (preserves extension)

Only the stem is wrapped. The extension stays readable so tooling that dispatches by suffix keeps working.

leonardo "secret-credentials.md" \
  --mode encode --kind filename \
  --reason "Wrapping filename in vault for storage"

Output:

__protected__:slaitnederc-terces:__end__.md

Decode a wrapped filename

leonardo "__protected__:slaitnederc-terces:__end__.md" \
  --kind filename \
  --reason "Resolving filename before open"

Output:

secret-credentials.md

Parameters

Flag	Default	Description
input	—	The string (or filename) to encode/decode. Positional.
--mode	decode	decode or encode.
--kind	text	text (default) or filename (preserves extension).
--reason	required	Why this operation is happening. Emitted in the tattle so intent is visible.
--caller	$USER	Identity of the calling agent. Prefer explicit values like claude-code-opus, gemini-cli, hermes-wings.
--file	unknown	File path where the string was found or will be written.

Behavior notes

• Sentinel format is invariant. __protected__:<reversed>:__end__ in both directions.
• Dates in text encode stay plain. The regex recognizes YYYY-MM-DD optionally followed by T or space and a HH:MM(:SS) time. Only the content after the date + whitespace separator is wrapped.
• Filename extensions stay plain. Only the pre-extension stem is reversed. If a filename has no extension, the whole name is wrapped.
• Multiple sentinels in a single decode input — the script still handles multi-sentinel text inputs; each match is decoded and tattled independently. Only the first decoded value is printed to stdout (for backward compatibility).
• Tattle-on-failure fallback — if the Discord send fails for any reason, the CLI prints a warning to stderr but still exits 0 for encode/decode. For the claude-native sibling at =notes/.claude/skills/leonardo/, a filesystem audit log captures the event; this plugin version does not.

Differences from the claude-native sibling

This plugin version uses openclaw message send as its transport. The vault-local sibling at =notes/.claude/skills/leonardo/leonardo.py uses dizzy.py. Running both lets us compare delivery reliability empirically — see =notes/docs/experiments/ if canary data has been logged.

Safety properties

• No silent operations. Every encode or decode attempts to tattle. Intent is surfaced to #bots before the operator walks away.
• --reason is required. If an agent is wrapping/unwrapping a value for sketchy reasons, the channel shows it.
• Not cryptographic. Anyone with shell access can reverse a string manually. Leonardo is a canary, not a lock.

Implementation details

• Architecture: Mirror-script (string reversal) transform, thin argparse CLI, subprocess shell-out to OpenClaw.
• Tattle transport: openclaw message send --channel discord --target 1493133989303681064 --message <msg>.
• Audit target: Discord #bots channel (guild jaggo di baggo).
• Tests: python3 -m unittest discover -s <skill-dir> -p 'test_*.py' -v against test_leonardo.py.