Leases

Two AI sessions on one repository will happily edit the same file, and nobody notices until the changes collide.

1. oah start --task T --agent A --scope PATH… takes a lease; oah start --packet PACKET.md takes the scope from the packet and binds its intent in the same step.
2. A scope that overlaps another lease is refused with OAH_LEASE_CONFLICT, which names the holder. The scope repo means the whole repository.
3. oah status lists every lease as active or STALE and only reads; oah renew extends a lease and can replace its scope; oah release --reason drops it without finishing.
4. oah finish compares the files really changed since the lease started with the scope and refuses with OAH_SCOPE_EXCEEDED when they go outside it.
5. Workers that oah call launches run with OAH_WORKER=1 and use your lease; they never start, renew, release or finish one (OAH_WORKER_LEASE_REFUSED).

Check the start and take the lease in the worked example.

oah preflight --task hello-name
oah start --task hello-name --agent claude --packet .oah/tasks/hello-name/PACKET.md

• A git repository. Lease state lives in oah/ inside the repository's git folder, shared by every worktree and never shown in git status.

• A lease cannot stop an editor from writing elsewhere; oah finish checks what happened instead.
• A lease lasts 4 hours by default (--ttl-hours, up to 168). An expired lease shows as STALE, cannot be renewed (OAH_LEASE_EXPIRED) and is pruned by the next oah start; you can still finish or release it.
• To widen the scope, run oah renew --task <task> --agent <agent> --scope <path> … repeating every path, or pass --allow-out-of-scope, which is recorded.
• Using the right task with another agent's name gives OAH_LEASE_NOT_YOURS.

• Concepts › Leases ↗Open in the explorer
• Troubleshooting › Leases ↗Open in the explorer
• hello-oah › 4. Check the start and take the lease ↗Open in the explorer

• Intent, scope and packets
• Impact map
• Landing after you confirm
• Opt-in hooks