A code-mode cell is a single JavaScript execution that can produce
output, call tools, wait for asynchronous work, resume, or be
terminated. This PR extracts the existing per-cell run loop into a
dedicated actor that owns the cell’s lifecycle state. It is primarily an
ownership change rather than a new lifecycle contract: existing behavior
now has one clear implementation boundary.
### Architecture
The session service remains responsible for session-wide concerns:
allocating cell IDs, storing shared values, creating cells, and routing
requests to them.
Once a cell is created, its execution state belongs to its actor.
Callers interact with the actor through a handle. The actor receives two
kinds of input: runtime events and control requests.
A single event loop serializes these inputs and applies the lifecycle
rules. It tracks the current observer—the caller waiting for an
update—along with accumulated output, outstanding callbacks, runtime
state, yield deadlines, and termination progress. Observation,
termination, completion, and cleanup therefore have one consistent
owner.
When the runtime has no immediately runnable work and is waiting only on
timers or tool results, the actor can return accumulated output and
information about outstanding tool calls while keeping the cell
available to resume. On completion or termination, it performs the
appropriate callback cleanup before publishing the final result and
removing the cell from the session.
A small host interface connects the actor to session-owned facilities
such as tool dispatch, notifications, stored values, and final cell
removal, keeping those responsibilities outside the actor itself.
### Why
Previously, cell lifecycle state and coordination lived alongside
session management. The actor boundary makes each cell a self-contained
state machine with a single writer, while the service becomes a registry
and adapter around it.
This makes lifecycle behavior easier to reason about and test in
isolation. It also establishes a clean boundary for later changing where
cells run or how they communicate without recreating their lifecycle
rules.
Channing Conger