fix: only write RAW_NARRATIVE.md when user explicitly provides project_dir

Previously appendRawNarrative was called with the server's default workDir
(os.Getwd()) when no project_dir was in the request, causing test runs and
any elaboration without a project to pollute the repo's own RAW_NARRATIVE.md.

The narrative is per-project human input — only write it when the caller
explicitly specifies which project they're working in.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2 files changed, 38 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/internal/api/elaborate.go b/internal/api/elaborate.go
index c6d08f4..5df772e 100644
--- a/internal/api/elaborate.go
+++ b/internal/api/elaborate.go
@@ -216,8 +216,12 @@ func (s *Server) handleElaborateTask(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		workDir = input.ProjectDir
 	}
 
-	// Append verbatim user input to RAW_NARRATIVE.md in the background (best effort).
-	go s.appendRawNarrative(workDir, input.Prompt)
+	// Append verbatim user input to RAW_NARRATIVE.md only when the user explicitly
+	// provided a project_dir — the narrative is per-project human input, not a
+	// server-level log.
+	if input.ProjectDir != "" {
+		go s.appendRawNarrative(workDir, input.Prompt)
+	}
 
 	projectContext := readProjectContext(workDir)
 	fullPrompt := input.Prompt
diff --git a/internal/api/elaborate_test.go b/internal/api/elaborate_test.go
index 9ae2e98..0b5c706 100644
--- a/internal/api/elaborate_test.go
+++ b/internal/api/elaborate_test.go
@@ -440,6 +440,38 @@ func TestElaborateTask_WithProjectContext(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestElaborateTask_NoRawNarrativeWithoutExplicitProjectDir(t *testing.T) {
+	srv, _ := testServer(t)
+	// Point workDir at a temp dir so any accidental write is detectable.
+	srv.workDir = t.TempDir()
+
+	task := elaboratedTask{
+		Name:  "Task",
+		Agent: elaboratedAgent{Instructions: "Instructions"},
+	}
+	taskJSON, _ := json.Marshal(task)
+	wrapper := map[string]string{"result": string(taskJSON)}
+	wrapperJSON, _ := json.Marshal(wrapper)
+	srv.elaborateCmdPath = createFakeClaude(t, string(wrapperJSON), 0)
+
+	// No project_dir in request body.
+	body := `{"prompt":"do something"}`
+	req := httptest.NewRequest("POST", "/api/tasks/elaborate", bytes.NewBufferString(body))
+	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+	w := httptest.NewRecorder()
+	srv.Handler().ServeHTTP(w, req)
+
+	if w.Code != http.StatusOK {
+		t.Fatalf("status: want 200, got %d", w.Code)
+	}
+
+	time.Sleep(30 * time.Millisecond) // let goroutine run if it was incorrectly triggered
+	narrativePath := filepath.Join(srv.workDir, "docs", "RAW_NARRATIVE.md")
+	if _, err := os.Stat(narrativePath); err == nil {
+		t.Errorf("RAW_NARRATIVE.md should NOT be written when project_dir is not provided by the user")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestElaborateTask_AppendsRawNarrative(t *testing.T) {
 	srv, _ := testServer(t)