Delivered means answered, not started

context-bridge used to record a handoff as delivered the moment the target agent's process started. That is the obvious place to put it: the spawn either works or it throws, and if it worked the agent is running.

But a CLI that ignores its prompt spawns exactly like a CLI that reads it. Same exit code, same timing, same everything. I lost a real Claude to Codex handoff that way. The bridge had marked the delta consumed, the watermark moved, and Codex opened knowing nothing. Nothing failed loudly enough to notice.

Delivery now commits on the target's first activity, not its first breath. An agent that starts and says nothing leaves the delta pending and retryable. The general shape: if the receipt you record is the one you can observe rather than the one that matters, you will eventually record a lie.