docs(bash): reframe stdin/env — the scrub is the security control, not a trust boundary
Address review: the "trusted-plugin surface" framing overstated the security story. A model driving the `bash` tool already has equivalent power to set env vars and feed stdin through ordinary shell syntax (`FOO=bar cmd`, heredocs), so the `env`/`stdin` seam fields grant it no new capability — and they cannot exfiltrate the harness's ambient credentials, because the credential SCRUB in dsh-bash-local (which strips *KEY*/*SECRET*/*TOKEN* from process.env before the child sees it) is the actual control, and it works regardless of these fields (tool-call args are static JSON, never shell-evaluated). So drop the "dangerous / trusted-plugin boundary" language across the RFC, the three bash-package READMEs, the bash/src/types.ts JSDoc, and docs/bash.md (both the type-equiv blocks — kept 1:1 with source — and the prose). The reality that remains: the `bash` tool doesn't EXPOSE env/stdin as parameters because they'd be redundant with shell syntax; the fields exist for in-process plugins (the hooks bridges) to pass a JSON payload + CLAUDE_* vars cleanly. The guard test is kept but reframed: it catches a future `...args` spread that would silently forward model input into the post-scrub env merge, NOT a trust wall. No code or behavior change.
This commit is contained in:
@@ -19,19 +19,20 @@ interface BashExecRequest {
|
||||
signal?: AbortSignal | undefined
|
||||
/**
|
||||
* Bytes to write to the command's stdin, then close it. Absent leaves stdin
|
||||
* closed/empty (the default for model-driven tool calls). A TRUSTED-PLUGIN
|
||||
* surface: the model-facing bash tool does NOT thread model-supplied input
|
||||
* here — it is set by in-process plugins (e.g. the hooks bridges, which write
|
||||
* a hook command's JSON payload to its stdin).
|
||||
* closed/empty (the default for model-driven tool calls). Set by in-process
|
||||
* plugins (e.g. the hooks bridges, which write a hook command's JSON payload
|
||||
* to its stdin); the model-facing bash tool does not expose it as a parameter
|
||||
* (a model that needs stdin uses shell syntax like a heredoc or a pipe).
|
||||
*/
|
||||
stdin?: string | undefined
|
||||
/**
|
||||
* Extra environment entries for the command, merged AFTER the
|
||||
* implementation's credential scrub (so an explicit entry here is honored even
|
||||
* when its name matches the scrub pattern — the caller takes responsibility).
|
||||
* Like {@link stdin}, a TRUSTED-PLUGIN surface: the model-facing bash tool
|
||||
* never forwards model-supplied env; in-process plugins (the hooks bridges)
|
||||
* set hook env vars (`CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR`, `CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT`, …) here.
|
||||
* when its name matches the scrub pattern — the caller named a value it holds,
|
||||
* not the harness's ambient secret). Set by in-process plugins (the hooks
|
||||
* bridges set `CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR`, `CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT`, …); the model-facing
|
||||
* bash tool does not expose it as a parameter (a model that needs an env var
|
||||
* uses shell syntax like `FOO=bar cmd`).
|
||||
*/
|
||||
env?: Record<string, string> | undefined
|
||||
/**
|
||||
@@ -58,8 +59,7 @@ interface BashExecSpec {
|
||||
* verbatim from {@link BashExecRequest.stdin}. OPTIONAL on the resolved spec
|
||||
* (unlike `owner`): it has no config default, so a missing one means "no
|
||||
* stdin" — the safe, ordinary case — not a silent footgun, so it stays a
|
||||
* plain optional rather than required-but-nullable. A TRUSTED-PLUGIN surface
|
||||
* (see the request field).
|
||||
* plain optional rather than required-but-nullable (see the request field).
|
||||
*/
|
||||
stdin?: string | undefined
|
||||
/**
|
||||
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ interface BashExecSpec {
|
||||
* {@link BashExecRequest.env} and merged by the implementation AFTER its
|
||||
* credential scrub (an explicit entry wins even when its name matches the
|
||||
* scrub pattern). OPTIONAL on the spec for the same reason as `stdin` — no
|
||||
* config default, absent means "no extra env". A TRUSTED-PLUGIN surface.
|
||||
* config default, absent means "no extra env".
|
||||
*/
|
||||
env?: Record<string, string> | undefined
|
||||
/**
|
||||
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ interface BashExecSpec {
|
||||
|
||||
The `owner` token is the isolation key: the executor stores it but never interprets it (access policy is the consumer's job), so a background task started by one agent isn't readable cross-session. A required-but-nullable field makes a forgotten owner a visible `undefined` rather than a silently-unowned task.
|
||||
|
||||
`stdin` and `env` are a **trusted-plugin surface**: an in-process plugin (the hooks bridges, native plugins) sets them to feed a hook command its JSON payload on stdin and its `CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR`/`CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT` env. The model-facing `dsh-tool-bash` tool deliberately NEVER forwards model input into either field — its request is built from `command`/`workdir`/`timeoutMs`/`signal`/`owner` only — so a model cannot smuggle an env var or stdin payload past the credential scrub (a guard test asserts this). `env` is merged AFTER the scrub so a trusted caller can set even a credential-shaped var; the scrub's job is to stop the harness's OWN ambient credentials leaking into model-driven commands, not to constrain a trusted plugin.
|
||||
`stdin` and `env` are set by in-process plugins (the hooks bridges, native plugins) to feed a hook command its JSON payload on stdin and its `CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR`/`CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT` env. The model-facing `dsh-tool-bash` tool does not expose them as parameters — its request is built from `command`/`workdir`/`timeoutMs`/`signal`/`owner` only — because a model already has equivalent power through shell syntax (`FOO=bar cmd`, a heredoc), so duplicating them as tool params would be redundant. This is NOT a security boundary: the credential scrub in `dsh-bash-local` is what stops the harness's ambient secrets reaching a spawned command, and it works regardless of these fields (a model cannot read a value the scrub removed, and tool-call args are static JSON, never shell-evaluated). A guard test asserts the tool doesn't forward model `env`/`stdin` — to catch a future `...args` spread, not to defend a trust wall. `env` is merged AFTER the scrub so an explicit caller entry (a value it already holds) wins even on a credential-shaped name. See [the bash-stdin-env RFC](../rfc/implemented/architecture/2026-06-30-bash-stdin-env-trusted-plugin-surface.md).
|
||||
|
||||
Both ids the seam handles are [branded](core.md) (zero-cost `string` brands, the same machinery as `SessionId`/`AgentId`): `BashTaskId` (a tracked background task, generated `bash-N` by the local executor) and `OwnerToken` (the opaque isolation key). `OwnerToken` is deliberately a DISTINCT brand from `SessionId`, not an alias: the bash seam is a capability seam that must not know what an owner token *means*, so it never imports `dsh-session`'s vocabulary — the `dsh-tool-bash` consumer is the single boundary that casts the owning agent's `SessionId` into an `OwnerToken`. Branding both stops a raw `string` (or a `BashTaskId` where an `OwnerToken` is expected, or vice versa) from slipping through the type checker on the model-facing `task_id` path.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
|
||||
# RFC: stdin + extra env on the bash seam — a trusted-plugin surface
|
||||
# RFC: stdin + extra env on the bash seam
|
||||
|
||||
Status: implemented (accepted 2026-06-30)
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ Status: implemented (accepted 2026-06-30)
|
||||
|
||||
## Context
|
||||
|
||||
The hooks subsystem runs external hook commands the way Claude Code and Codex do: a hook is a shell command that receives its event payload as **JSON on stdin** and reads context from a handful of **environment variables** (`CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR`, `CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT`, `PLUGIN_ROOT`, …). The harness already has a perfectly good command runner behind the `ctx.bash` capability seam ([dsh-bash](../../../../packages/bash/bash) → [dsh-bash-local](../../../../packages/bash/bash-local)), with process-group kills, output truncation/spill, and a credential scrub. Reusing it for hook execution means a hook bridge does not re-implement subprocess plumbing — but the seam had no way to write stdin or set extra env.
|
||||
The hooks subsystem runs external hook commands the way Claude Code and Codex do: a hook is a shell command that receives its event payload as **JSON on stdin** and reads context from a handful of **environment variables** (`CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR`, `CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT`, `PLUGIN_ROOT`, …). The harness already has a perfectly good command runner behind the `ctx.bash` capability seam ([dsh-bash](../../../../packages/bash/bash) → [dsh-bash-local](../../../../packages/bash/bash-local)), with process-group kills, output truncation/spill, and a credential scrub. Reusing it for hook execution means a hook bridge does not re-implement subprocess plumbing — but the seam had no way to write stdin or set extra env. This RFC adds those two inputs.
|
||||
|
||||
The friction is that those two inputs are **dangerous in exactly the way the seam was built to prevent**. [dsh-bash-local](../../../../packages/bash/bash-local)'s `childEnv()` deliberately scrubs `*KEY*`/`*SECRET*`/`*TOKEN*` from the child environment so the harness's own `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` cannot leak into model-driven command output (see [AGENTS.md](../../../../AGENTS.md) § Defensive patterns, "Never hand untrusted/model output the ambient environment or predictable paths"). An arbitrary-env / arbitrary-stdin capability is the opposite of that guarantee. So the question this RFC answers is not "can we add stdin/env" — it is "who is allowed to use them, and how is that boundary enforced".
|
||||
**These fields are NOT a new security boundary.** It is tempting to frame arbitrary-stdin / arbitrary-env as "dangerous, so gate who may use them" — but that framing is wrong, because a model driving the `bash` tool **already** has equivalent power through ordinary shell syntax: `FOO=bar cmd` sets an env var, a heredoc or `printf … | cmd` feeds arbitrary stdin. Adding `env`/`stdin` as seam fields grants the model no capability it lacks. In particular they cannot exfiltrate the harness's ambient credentials: the real control for that is the **credential scrub** in [dsh-bash-local](../../../../packages/bash/bash-local)'s `childEnv()`, which strips `*KEY*`/`*SECRET*`/`*TOKEN*` from `process.env` before the child sees it (see [AGENTS.md](../../../../AGENTS.md) § Defensive patterns, "Never hand untrusted/model output the ambient environment or predictable paths"). The scrub works regardless of these fields — a model cannot read a value that is not in the environment, and tool-call arguments are static JSON, never shell-evaluated, so a model cannot write `env: {LEAK: $DEEPSEEK_API_KEY}` and have it expand. So the security question is already answered by the scrub; this RFC is only about giving trusted in-process callers a clean way to pass a JSON payload + `CLAUDE_*` vars without routing them through model-visible shell text.
|
||||
|
||||
## Decision
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -16,18 +16,18 @@ Add `stdin?: string` and `env?: Record<string, string>` to **both** `BashExecReq
|
||||
|
||||
Three deliberate choices:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **`stdin`/`env` are a TRUSTED-PLUGIN surface, enforced at the consumer, not the seam.** The seam itself imposes no access policy (consistent with how `owner` works — the executor stores but never interprets it). The enforcement lives in the model-facing consumer [dsh-tool-bash](../../../../packages/bash/tool-bash): its `bash` tool builds its `BashExecRequest` from `command`/`workdir`/`timeoutMs`/`signal`/`owner` **only**, and never reads model arguments into `stdin`/`env`. A model that smuggles `env`/`stdin` keys into the tool-call arguments gets them ignored. A regression guard (`tool-bash` "trusted-plugin boundary" tests) drives the real tool with adversarial args and asserts the recorded request carries neither field — and is proven to go red if the consumer ever forwards them. Only in-process plugins (the hooks bridges, native plugins) that construct a `BashExecRequest` directly can set them.
|
||||
1. **The model-facing `bash` tool simply does NOT expose `stdin`/`env` as parameters** — not as a security wall, but because bash syntax already covers the model's needs, so duplicating them as tool params would be redundant surface. [dsh-tool-bash](../../../../packages/bash/tool-bash)'s `bash` tool builds its `BashExecRequest` from `command`/`workdir`/`timeoutMs`/`signal`/`owner` only; a model that includes `env`/`stdin` keys in its tool-call arguments simply has them ignored. A regression guard (`tool-bash` "does not forward env/stdin" tests) drives the real tool with those extra args and asserts the recorded request carries neither field — its purpose is to catch a future refactor that blindly spreads `...args` into the request and silently starts forwarding model input into the post-scrub `env` merge, NOT to defend a trust boundary. In-process plugins (the hooks bridges, native plugins) that construct a `BashExecRequest` directly set the fields; the seam imposes no access policy (consistent with how `owner` works — the executor stores but never interprets it).
|
||||
|
||||
2. **`env` merges AFTER the credential scrub, so a trusted caller's explicit entry always wins** — even a credential-shaped name. This is correct precisely because the scrub's job is narrow: stop the harness's *ambient* `process.env` credentials from leaking into *model-driven* commands. A trusted plugin that explicitly sets a var has taken responsibility for it; the scrub is not a constraint on trusted callers. `childEnv(extra?)` layers `scrub(process.env)` → `ENV_OVERRIDES` (the model-friendly `TERM=dumb` etc.) → `extra`, last-wins.
|
||||
2. **`env` merges AFTER the credential scrub, so an explicit caller entry always wins** — even a credential-shaped name. This is correct because the scrub's job is narrow: stop the harness's *ambient* `process.env` credentials from leaking into a spawned command. A caller that explicitly sets a var has named a value it already holds (not the ambient secret), so the scrub is not a constraint on it. `childEnv(extra?)` layers `scrub(process.env)` → `ENV_OVERRIDES` (the model-friendly `TERM=dumb` etc.) → `extra`, last-wins.
|
||||
|
||||
3. **`stdin`/`env` are required-absent-OK (plain optional) on the resolved spec, NOT required-but-nullable like `owner`.** `owner` is required-but-nullable because a *silently* missing owner yields an unowned, cross-session-readable task — a security footgun that a visible `undefined` guards against. `stdin`/`env` have no such hazard: a missing one means "no stdin / no extra env", which is the safe, ordinary case (every model-driven call). So they stay plain optionals, matching `signal`.
|
||||
|
||||
`dsh-bash-local` now ALWAYS spawns stdin as a `'pipe'` and closes it immediately — with the supplied bytes when a trusted plugin set `stdin`, empty otherwise. A closed empty pipe gives a reading child EOF exactly as the previous `'ignore'` (`/dev/null`) did, so the no-stdin path is behavior-equivalent; keeping the `stdio` tuple a literal `['pipe','pipe','pipe']` also preserves the typed `spawn` overload that guarantees non-null `stdout`/`stderr`. A child that exits without reading makes the stdin write fail EPIPE; that error is swallowed (the command's outcome rides on its exit code/output, not the write) so it never crashes the host or rejects `done`.
|
||||
`dsh-bash-local` now ALWAYS spawns stdin as a `'pipe'` and closes it immediately — with the supplied bytes when a caller set `stdin`, empty otherwise. A closed empty pipe gives a reading child EOF exactly as the previous `'ignore'` (`/dev/null`) did, so the no-stdin path is behavior-equivalent; keeping the `stdio` tuple a literal `['pipe','pipe','pipe']` also preserves the typed `spawn` overload that guarantees non-null `stdout`/`stderr`. A child that exits without reading makes the stdin write fail EPIPE; that error is swallowed (the command's outcome rides on its exit code/output, not the write) so it never crashes the host or rejects `done`.
|
||||
|
||||
## Scope: configurable scrub pattern is NOT included
|
||||
|
||||
An earlier sketch of this work also proposed making `SENSITIVE_ENV_PATTERN` configurable. Validating against the code, that is **speculative and already subsumed**: `run.ts` documents a configurable whitelist as future work, and the new explicit `env` field — merged after the scrub — already gives a trusted plugin full control, including over credential-shaped vars. There is no current caller that needs to *broaden* the ambient scrub (the hazard runs the other way). Adding a config knob now would be a feature with no consumer, against [AGENTS.md](../../../../AGENTS.md) § "Don't add features beyond what the task requires". If a real workflow ever needs to forward a specific ambient credential, the explicit `env` field is the supported path; a configurable scrub can be reconsidered then.
|
||||
An earlier sketch of this work also proposed making `SENSITIVE_ENV_PATTERN` configurable. Validating against the code, that is **speculative and already subsumed**: `run.ts` documents a configurable whitelist as future work, and the new explicit `env` field — merged after the scrub — already gives a caller full control, including over credential-shaped vars. There is no current caller that needs to *broaden* the ambient scrub (the hazard runs the other way). Adding a config knob now would be a feature with no consumer, against [AGENTS.md](../../../../AGENTS.md) § "Don't add features beyond what the task requires". If a real workflow ever needs to forward a specific ambient credential, the explicit `env` field is the supported path; a configurable scrub can be reconsidered then.
|
||||
|
||||
## Consequences
|
||||
|
||||
A hook bridge builds a `BashExecRequest` with the hook's JSON payload as `stdin` and its `CLAUDE_*`/`PLUGIN_ROOT` vars as `env`, and runs it through the same `ctx.bash` everything else uses — no bespoke subprocess code, and the full process-group-kill / truncation / spill machinery for free. The model-facing attack surface is unchanged: the consumer's request-building is the single boundary, guarded by a test that fails if it regresses. The vocabulary addition is documented in [docs/core-data-structures/bash.md](../../../core-data-structures/bash.md) (the `type-equiv` request/spec blocks) and the three bash-package READMEs; the trusted-plugin rule mirrors the existing scrub/predictable-path discipline in [AGENTS.md](../../../../AGENTS.md) § Defensive patterns.
|
||||
A hook bridge builds a `BashExecRequest` with the hook's JSON payload as `stdin` and its `CLAUDE_*`/`PLUGIN_ROOT` vars as `env`, and runs it through the same `ctx.bash` everything else uses — no bespoke subprocess code, and the full process-group-kill / truncation / spill machinery for free. The model-facing attack surface is unchanged (the credential scrub, not these fields, is what bounds it), and the `bash` tool's request-building stays the single place that decides which fields a model call carries — guarded by a test that fails if a refactor starts forwarding model input. The vocabulary addition is documented in [docs/core-data-structures/bash.md](../../../core-data-structures/bash.md) (the `type-equiv` request/spec blocks) and the three bash-package READMEs.
|
||||
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user