Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into codex/rfc-subagent-background-tasks

Adopts #185 (dsh-timeout: clampTimeout/deadline/timeoutOf drive bash
run() timeout classification; runBash loses its own timer) and #108
(ask_user_question) across the task-runtime rework: bash-local keeps
the BashProcess handle shape with master's deadline mechanics, tool
catalogs/expectations carry both the task_* and ask-user tools, and
generated docs are regenerated on the union.
This commit is contained in:
Yichen Jiang
2026-07-09 21:32:07 +08:00
128 changed files with 6732 additions and 332 deletions
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# RFC: Ask-user question capability
Status: implemented
## Problem
The agent sometimes cannot proceed safely from model inference alone: it needs the human to choose a path, confirm a risky/default action, or provide missing information. Before this change, the only way to get that answer was for the model to ask in assistant text and then stop, which broke the normal tool-call loop: the agent had no structured way to pause, no option metadata for UIs, no abort/error taxonomy, and no way for non-stdio front doors to present the question consistently.
This is a user-facing capability, but it also crosses package boundaries. A model-facing tool needs a provider-neutral request vocabulary; each UI surface needs to decide how to show and collect the answer; the agent loop should remain unchanged because a tool call already has the right async shape.
## Decision
Introduce `dsh-user-interaction` as the provider-neutral interface package for `ctx.userInteraction`, colocated with the model-facing consumer `dsh-tool-ask-user` under `packages/ui`. The grouping is intentional: asking a human is a UI-backed product affordance, not part of the providerless core spine. The seam still owns the stable request/answer/error vocabulary, while UI product surfaces provide the concrete provider that collects the answer. The tool registers `ask_user_question`, forwards `{ questions, agent, signal }`, and returns the provider-computed structured answers as the tool result.
The model-facing request vocabulary is deliberately aligned with the product-research schema: `ask_user_question({ questions: [{ id, question, header?, options?: [{ label, description? }], multi_select? }] })`. `id` is supplied per question and echoed in the result so a batch can be routed without relying on question text. `label` is both user-facing display text and the selected value returned to the model; there is no separate `value`, no `recommended`, no `allow_custom`, and no `desc` alias.
Providers return `{ answers: [{ id, selected, custom? }] }`. `selected` is always an array of selected option labels, so single-select and `multi_select` answers share one result shape. `custom` carries a free-text "Other" answer; optionless questions collect `custom` directly. When `custom` is present, it overrides any selected choices and `selected` is empty.
`UserInteractionError` extends `HarnessError`, so failures such as `NO_PROVIDER`, `ASK_ABORTED`, ACP cancellation, or missing session routing survive `ctx.tools.execute()` as machine-routable `{ name, code }` tool errors. This matches the structured-error taxonomy and lets the model or a wrapping plugin distinguish "user cancelled" from a generic thrown exception.
## UI mappings
`dsh-stdio-agent`'s in-package readline module renders each question, shows each option's `description` on the next line, supports comma/space-separated numeric choices for `multi_select`, accepts free-form custom answers, and rejects pending questions on abort, provider disposal, or stdin EOF. A batched request is asked in order and resolved as one answer object. The stdio provider serializes simultaneous requests with an internal queue so only one prompt owns stdin at a time.
`dsh-acp` provides the same seam for ACP sessions. It routes an ask request from the calling `Agent` through the bridge's `agent→sessionId` reverse map and calls ACP `unstable_createElicitation` with a session-scoped form for each question. Single-select options become a `choice` string enum; `multi_select` options become a `choice` array enum; optionless questions use a required `custom` text field. If the client returns both `choice` and non-empty `custom`, the custom answer wins. ACP `decline`/`cancel`, a missing answer, a missing session, and a client without elicitation support all become structured `UserInteractionError`s.
The ACP mapping deliberately uses elicitation, not `session/request_permission`. `request_permission` is still reserved for the separate permission gate: it is a yes/no-or-policy authorization protocol around tool execution. `ask_user_question` is a general information-gathering tool with optional free-form answers, so ACP form elicitation is the closer protocol fit. The bridge's session routing is shared with the future permission gate, but the user intent is different.
## Alternatives considered
**Assistant text followed by a stopped turn.** The model could ask the user in plain assistant text and then stop. That loses the structured option metadata, gives UIs no provider-neutral way to render a choice, and forces the next human answer to arrive as a new user prompt rather than as the result of the operation that needed the answer.
**Core-owned ask-user packages.** The first implementation split the seam and the model-facing tool across `packages/core` and `packages/ui`, but both names describe one UI-backed human-interaction affordance. The seam remains provider-neutral, but it is not providerless core infrastructure like sessions, tools, or the agent registry. Keeping `dsh-user-interaction` and `dsh-tool-ask-user` together under `packages/ui` makes the package map match the product boundary: apps and bridges provide the human-answer provider, and the stdio app opts into the model-facing tool.
**ACP `session/request_permission`.** Permission requests are authorization around tool execution; `ask_user_question` is information gathering with optional free-form answers. Using permission for general questions would collapse two different product concepts and make the future permission gate harder to reason about.
**A loop-level pause primitive.** The agent loop already knows how to await a tool call and resume from a tool result. Adding a new loop special case would duplicate that async shape and make every loop implementation learn about a UI concern.
## Consequences
ACP elicitation is currently marked unstable in the SDK. The fallback is still structured: if a client does not implement it, the tool returns `ASK_FAILED` rather than hanging. A later ACP stabilization may rename or reshape the method; that migration should stay inside `dsh-acp` because the core `ctx.userInteraction` vocabulary is provider-neutral.
The feature gives the model a powerful pause primitive, so prompt guidance matters. The tool description tells the model to ask concise questions and use options when possible. Product policy can later wrap `tools/execute` to restrict when the tool is allowed, but the loop should not special-case it.
`dsh-user-interaction` and `dsh-tool-ask-user` both live in `packages/ui` because they form one product-facing human-interaction capability. `agent-core` does not load either the tool or a provider. `stdio-agent` opts into the seam, its readline provider, and the model-facing tool. `acp-agent` keeps only the `userInteraction` seam/provider by default: ACP elicitation support is still client-dependent, so an ACP leaf must opt into the model-facing tool deliberately once its client can complete elicitation requests.
## Testing
Unit coverage pins provider registration/disposal, duplicate-provider rejection, abort-before-provider, empty-question rejection, structured tool errors through `ctx.tools.execute()`, batched answers, multi-select answers, custom answers, and the model schema including the removal of `value`, `recommended`, `allow_custom`, and `desc`. `dsh-stdio-agent` tests cover option descriptions, queued requests, EOF/abort cleanup, optionless free-form input, invalid option reprompts, duplicate multi-select numbers, and batched question flows. ACP bridge tests drive a real in-memory ACP connection with the real `ask_user_question` tool and verify selected-option, custom-overrides-choice, multi-select, and optionless free-form elicitation paths continue the agent loop.
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# RFC: Repeat-tool-call guard plugin
Status: implemented
## Problem
A model stuck in a loop re-issues the same tool call with byte-identical arguments — re-running a failing grep, re-reading an unchanged file, polling a command that already gave its answer — and each round trip burns tokens, wall-clock, and (for paid APIs) money without adding information. The harness has nothing that notices: the loop has no step budget, no plugin tracks call repetition, and the model only escapes when it happens to vary its own behavior. The failure mode is real and cheap to detect — [pi-repeat-tool-guard](https://github.com/Kingwl/pi-repeat-tool-guard) ships exactly this as a pi coding-agent extension: count consecutive identical calls and, past a threshold, append a `<system-reminder>` telling the model to stop repeating itself and change course.
The harness already has every seam the pi extension uses, and better ones: [the interception-seams RFC](2026-06-30-interception-seams.md) gives `tools/post-execute` a sanctioned way to attach model-facing context to a finished call, the loop buffers and injects that context with call/result adjacency preserved, and injected context is a logged `context/message` — so a native guard satisfies the model-visible ⟺ logged rule with no new session event. What was missing was only the plugin itself.
## Decision
The guard is a loop-hygiene plugin, not a model-facing tool: it never appears in the tool list, never vetoes or rewrites a call, and adds exactly one behavior — it watches each agent's stream of tool calls, counts runs of consecutive calls to the same tool with identical canonicalized arguments, and at configured run lengths injects an escalating advisory reminder telling the model to stop repeating itself, re-read the last result, and either change approach or conclude. The purpose is to break unproductive loops within a few wasted steps instead of letting them run to the turn's natural end — while leaving the decision (retry differently, gather more evidence, or finish) entirely with the model, so a legitimately repeated call is delayed by nothing and blocked by nothing.
The plugin is `@deepseek-ai/dsh-repeat-tool-guard` at `packages/guard/repeat-tool-guard/`, opening the `guard/` group for loop-hygiene plugins (single-package groups have precedent: [the todo-write RFC](2026-06-29-todo-write-tool.md) shipped `todo/tool-todo`). It registers three listeners and holds all state in plugin-local maps keyed by `AgentId` — the tool registry is a context-level singleton whose waterfalls interleave every agent's calls (subagents run on the same context), so per-agent keying is correctness, not polish.
- **`tools/post-execute` (waterfall)** — the one detection point. The listener receives `(exec, result)` together, so counting and reminder delivery need no cross-event pending map (the pi extension needs one only because its `tool_call`/`tool_result` hooks are separate events). It always delegates via `next()` and, when a threshold is hit, folds a reminder onto the downstream decision's `additionalContext` — the observe-and-enrich posture [the hooks bridges](2026-06-30-hook-bridges.md) already use, honoring the waterfall contract. Counting happens here rather than in `tools/pre-execute` because post-execute also runs for denied calls (`ToolRegistry.execute` routes a deny through the same pipeline), and a model hammering a denied call is exactly the loop worth breaking.
- **`agent/prompt-submit` (waterfall)** — pure reset hook: delegate via `next()`, clear the submitting agent's chain. A user interjection changes the context; repetition across it is not a loop.
- **`agent/status` (emit)** — on `disposed`, drop the agent's state, bounding the maps over harness lifetime.
### Detection semantics
The chain key is `(tool name, canonical arguments)`; a call identical to the previous tracked call increments the agent's consecutive counter, a different tracked call resets it to 1. Canonicalization is a deep key-sort plus `JSON.stringify`: `ToolExecution.arguments` is by construction the loop's `JSON.parse` output (or the raw string fallback for malformed argument JSON, which is itself a comparable value), so the pi original's bigint/circular/`undefined` handling has no inputs here and is deliberately dropped.
Two deliberate rules, both documented in [the package README](../../../../packages/guard/repeat-tool-guard/README.md) because they are behavior a reader would otherwise guess at:
- **Untracked calls are transparent to the chain.** A call excluded by `include`/`exclude` neither increments nor resets the counter, so `grep X → todo_write → grep X` still counts as two consecutive `grep X` when `todo_write` is excluded. This is what makes exclusion useful — bookkeeping tools interleaved into a loop must not launder it — and it is the pi extension's (undocumented) semantics, kept on purpose and written down.
- **Calls without an agent are ignored.** A direct `ctx.tools.execute()` caller (tests, non-loop consumers) has no model to remind and no `AgentId` to key on.
### Reminder delivery
Reminders ride `additionalContext` (source `{kind: 'plugin', plugin: 'repeat-tool-guard'}` — the label is load-bearing per `HookContext`), never a `content` replacement: the `tool/result` event stays the tool's own output for audit, and the loop appends buffered context as `context/message`(s) after the step's results, which the session renders as the tagged synthetic-user envelope and derived history replays. Thresholds escalate: the first configured threshold gets a short "you are repeating yourself, analyze the previous result" nudge; each later threshold gets the detailed form naming the tool, the repeat count, and the canonical arguments (head-truncated at `argumentsPreviewChars`, default 500 — a looping `write`-sized payload must not ride into the next request unbounded; the chain key always compares the full canonical string), and stating that the calls made no progress. The pi original hardcodes the gentle text to the literal count 3; the guard keys it to `thresholds[0]`, fixing that bug in the port. When the downstream decision already carries `additionalContext` (a hook bridge on the same call), the guard concatenates content under its own `source` — a `HookContext` holds one `MessageSource`, and `source.kind` is what framing depends on.
### Config
```yaml
- id: repeat-tool-guard
name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-repeat-tool-guard'
config:
thresholds: [3, 5, 8] # default; consecutive counts that trigger a reminder
include: [] # tool-name patterns to track; empty ⇒ all tools
exclude: [todo_write] # tool-name patterns transparent to the chain
argumentsPreviewChars: 500 # default; cap on arguments quoted in the detailed reminder
```
`thresholds` is validated at load and throws on an empty list, a non-integer, a value below 2, or a duplicate — misconfiguration fails loud, replacing the pi original's silent fall-back to defaults. `include`/`exclude` entries support `*` wildcards. Patterns are predicates over whatever tools exist at call time, not references to a registry entry, so an entry matching no currently registered tool is NOT an error — unlike `toolOrder`'s referent check, `exclude: [mcp_*]` must stay valid in a deployment that loads no MCP tools.
## Testing
**Unit** — the suite drives a real agent loop against a scripted mock adapter (no network) and covers, at per-file 100%: counting/reset semantics (identical, different-tracked, untracked-transparent, prompt-submit reset, disposal cleanup, per-agent isolation), canonicalization (deep key-order insensitivity), threshold escalation including the `thresholds[0]` gentle-text rule, denied-call counting, no-agent transparency, wildcard escaping, config fail-loud cases, and both fold-onto-downstream paths (block and accept-with-replacement). **Snapshot** — the `repeat-tool-guard` scenario in the acp-agent example suite scripts five identical `todo_write` calls and pins both reminder tiers (gentle at the third, detailed at the fifth) as `context/message`s in the ACP transcript and the session log; the guard is loaded in the example's live tree (`cordis.yml`), inert for every other scenario (none repeats a call three times). The scenario is authored keyless (like `error-finish`/`cancel`): deterministically forcing a live model to repeat one call three times is not a stable recording. **e2e** — none: the plugin is provider-independent and deterministic, and the seam contracts it relies on are e2e-covered by their owners.
## Alternatives considered
- **Append the reminder into the tool result** (`accept` with replaced `content` — the pi extension's mechanism, which patches result content because that is the only channel its API offers) — rejected: it makes the logged `tool/result` lie about what the tool returned, and `additionalContext` exists precisely as the separate sanctioned channel for post-execute commentary, with loop-level buffering that preserves call/result adjacency.
- **Count in `tools/pre-execute` with a pending-reminder map** (the pi two-phase shape) — rejected: post-execute alone sees `(exec, result)` together and also fires for denied calls, so one listener with no cross-event state covers strictly more attempts with less machinery.
- **Escalate to `block` at the highest threshold** — rejected for the initial scope: a blocked call punishes legitimate identical repeats (polling a long-running terminal, re-checking a file the agent expects to change), and an advisory reminder keeps the model in control. Revisit with evidence; the decision shape (`PostToolDecision`) already supports it.
- **A per-deployment external hook via the CC/Codex bridges** (a `PostToolUse` script) — rejected as the answer: it works for one deployment, but a shipped, unit-tested, `cordis.yml`-configurable plugin is the harness-native form, without per-call subprocess cost.
- **A loop-level step or repetition budget in `agent-loop`** — rejected: "plugins, not loop changes"; a hard step budget is a blunter, orthogonal control that would need its own proposal.
- **Fuzzy/near-identical detection** (normalized paths, similar-but-not-equal arguments) — rejected: exact match after canonicalization is cheap, deterministic, and explainable to the model; similarity thresholds invite false positives and need evidence before they earn complexity.
- **Placing the package in `core/`** — rejected: core is the product spine; a behavioral guard is an optional leaf plugin, and the `todo/` precedent is a small dedicated group per plugin family.
## Consequences
- The reminder is advisory by design: idempotent polling patterns that repeat identical calls on purpose still receive nudges past the thresholds, and the pressure valves are config (`thresholds`, `exclude`) plus reminder text that explicitly allows finishing when enough evidence has been gathered. Each trigger costs reminder tokens on the next request; thresholds bound the frequency.
- Chain state is in-memory only: a session resumed from persistence starts with a fresh chain, so a loop spanning a resume draws its reminders later than a live one — accepted, the guard is a heuristic nudge, not a logged invariant, and persisting counter state would buy little for real complexity.
- When multiple post-execute producers attach context on one call, the fold concatenates under the guard's `source`; ordering between plugins follows listener registration order. The seam cannot represent mixed provenance — a limit inherited from `HookContext`, not owned by this plugin.
- Implementing the snapshot tier surfaced a hidden assumption in the suite kit: the fixture guard equated "authored model scenario" with "override-driven". The `Scenario` table now carries an explicit `overridden` flag, and the sidecar's presence is checked BOTH ways against it (an unregistered stray sidecar would silently replace the derived script) — the suite kit is stricter than it was before this plugin existed.
## Deferred
- Compaction does not reset chains: a compacted history changes what the model sees, but the repetition risk usually survives compaction.
- Escalating to `block` at a high threshold is not implemented; `PostToolDecision` already supports it if evidence arrives.
- Subagent chains stay isolated per agent; no sharing mechanism exists until a concrete case appears.