docs: expand the session-modes RFC with the detailed design

Adds the Detailed design block: the mode/set vocabulary (no provenance
field — cause is log-adjacent; bare-string mode names), ModeConfig with an
explicit resolve step, the cursor-cached fold + ctx.modes service with
turn/start|step/end pending flush, the computed mode:policy section (order
50) + post-next() assembly filter (exit_plan_mode visible IFF plan mode —
what keeps default-mode assemblies byte-identical), the fold-only gate with
its ask on exit_plan_mode (no dsh-approval dependency — the registry
routes), the exit tool contract and render intent, dependency edges and the
stdio/ACP surfaces, the input.json setMode op + plan-mode/plan-mode-reject
scenarios (mode set before turn 1 → the initial header snapshot is already
in plan shape; the widening delta appears at exit), and the mechanical tail.

Consistency fixes: the plan allowlist names real tools (no grep tool
exists); the re-widen risk now states the post-next() mechanism instead of
a listener-order convention.
This commit is contained in:
kingwl
2026-07-07 13:49:25 +08:00
parent 2602270669
commit db9217a481

View File

@@ -38,12 +38,72 @@ The model-facing **`exit_plan_mode`** tool closes the loop, visible only in plan
`dsh-mode` is one product package, not a capability-seam trio — there is no swappable implementation; the variable parts are config values and the fixed listeners ([capability seams](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md): don't split preemptively; the approval seam made the same call). It is more than an [fs-policy-style](../../../../packages/fs/fs-policy/README.md) pure event-gate plugin only because UIs need a call surface: `ctx.modes` exposes `list()` (the configured definitions, for a mode picker), `get(agent)` (the fold plus any pending intent), and `set(agent, mode)` (validate against config, record intent, flush at the boundary). Everything else participates through listeners, so dropping the package gracefully removes modes rather than breaking a consumer. `dsh-mode` is one product package, not a capability-seam trio — there is no swappable implementation; the variable parts are config values and the fixed listeners ([capability seams](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md): don't split preemptively; the approval seam made the same call). It is more than an [fs-policy-style](../../../../packages/fs/fs-policy/README.md) pure event-gate plugin only because UIs need a call surface: `ctx.modes` exposes `list()` (the configured definitions, for a mode picker), `get(agent)` (the fold plus any pending intent), and `set(agent, mode)` (validate against config, record intent, flush at the boundary). Everything else participates through listeners, so dropping the package gracefully removes modes rather than breaking a consumer.
Mode definitions are validated plugin Config — per repo convention (changeable from `cordis.yml`, no code edit): each names its tool allowlist and its section text, and `plan`'s shipped default allowlist is the read-only surface (`read`, `grep`-family, `web_search`/`web_fetch`, `todo_write`, `exit_plan_mode`) with `bash` and `subagent` excluded until the sandbox family can actually confine them. `AgentOptions` is merge-extensible, so `dsh-mode` declares an optional `mode` field: a creator (or a subagent provider forwarding its parent's mode) seeds the child's initial mode, applied through the same pending-intent flush on the first turn. Mode definitions are validated plugin Config — per repo convention (changeable from `cordis.yml`, no code edit): each names its tool allowlist and its section text, and `plan`'s shipped default allowlist is the read-only surface (`read`, `todo_write`, `web_search`/`web_fetch`, `exit_plan_mode`) with `bash` and `subagent` excluded until the sandbox family can actually confine them. `AgentOptions` is merge-extensible, so `dsh-mode` declares an optional `mode` field: a creator (or a subagent provider forwarding its parent's mode) seeds the child's initial mode, applied through the same pending-intent flush on the first turn.
### Protocol and UI surfaces ### Protocol and UI surfaces
The stdio app gains a mode toggle command, a banner line, and a readline answerer on the approval waterfall, so the exit approval prompts right in the terminal (the approval seam's one-terminal-answerer-per-deployment convention). The ACP bridge maps the existing protocol surface: `available_modes`/`current_mode_id` from `ctx.modes.list()`/`get()`, `session/set_mode` → `ctx.modes.set()`, and a `current_mode_update` notification off each logged `mode/set`. The exit tool's approval needs no new ACP work at all — it rides the approval seam's answerer. The stdio app gains a mode toggle command, a banner line, and a readline answerer on the approval waterfall, so the exit approval prompts right in the terminal (the approval seam's one-terminal-answerer-per-deployment convention). The ACP bridge maps the existing protocol surface: `available_modes`/`current_mode_id` from `ctx.modes.list()`/`get()`, `session/set_mode` → `ctx.modes.set()`, and a `current_mode_update` notification off each logged `mode/set`. The exit tool's approval needs no new ACP work at all — it rides the approval seam's answerer.
## Detailed design
### Vocabulary
```text
'mode/set': { mode: string } // SessionEventMap merge in dsh-mode: log-only, non-surface,
// whole-value replace — the last one in the log wins
DEFAULT_MODE = 'default' // the fold of a log with no mode/set; reserved, not definable
```
The payload carries no reason/provenance field: a tool-driven flip sits next to its `tool/call` in the log and a user flip sits at its turn boundary, so the cause is log-adjacent — the same "narrative fields are derivable" call the [reconstructability RFC](../../implemented/architecture/2026-07-05-reconstructable-requests.md) made for header deltas. Mode names are config-declared vocabulary, not opaque cross-boundary ids, so they stay bare strings (no `Branded<B>`).
### Config and the resolve step
```text
interface ModeDefinition { section: string; tools: string[] } // prompt text; allowlist of tool NAMES
interface ModeConfig { modes?: Record<string, ModeDefinition> } // plan's built-in definition merged unless overridden
resolveConfig(config): ResolvedModes // explicit resolve (the dsh-bash template), fail-loud:
// 'default' as a key rejected; allowlists may name
// not-yet-registered tools (registration is dynamic)
```
### The fold, the service, and the flush
`foldMode(events)` is pure (exported for reconstructors and tests); the service tracks it per session with a lazy cursor in a `WeakMap<Session, { cursor, mode }>` — O(new events) per read, never invalidated, because the log is append-only and `mode/set` is not a surface node (compaction cannot rewrite it). `ctx.modes` (a cordis Service, key `modes`) exposes `list()` — the synthetic `default` entry plus the configured definitions, for pickers — `get(agent): { current, pending? }`, and `set(agent, mode)`, which validates the name against config, drops a no-op (target equals pending ?? current), and otherwise records the intent in a `WeakMap<Session, string>`. A contained `session/event` listener ([defensive patterns](../../../defensive-patterns.md): a policy plugin must not kill the feed) flushes the pending intent as a `mode/set` append on the next `turn/start` or `step/end` — both sit outside the step's tool-execution window, so the executions of a step always run under the mode its assembly folded. Seeding rides `agent/created`: a declaration-merged `AgentOptions.mode` becomes a pending intent, so explicit options beat the logged baseline on create AND resume — the same precedence the call-config seed follows — while a fork child needs no mechanism at all (the parent's `mode/set` is inside the seeded prefix).
### The soft layer: a computed section and a post-`next()` filter
The guidance section is an ordinary registered section, `{ name: 'mode:policy', order: 50, text: context => … }` — order 50 sits after the persona (0) and before tool guidance (100–199); it resolves to the folded mode's configured text and to `''` (dropped at render) for the default mode or an agent-less assembly. The tool filter is a `system-prompt/assemble` waterfall listener that wraps: it awaits `next()` and filters the RETURNED assembly's `tools`, so additions made anywhere inside its wrap are covered. The filter enforces one rule in every mode: `exit_plan_mode` is visible IFF the agent's folded mode is `plan` — which is also what keeps a default-mode assembly byte-identical to a no-`dsh-mode` deployment even though the tool is always registered. In a non-default mode it additionally intersects with the mode's allowlist.
### The hard layer: the gate
```text
tools/pre-execute: no exec.agent → next() // agent-less calls have no session to fold
folded mode = default → next()
exec.name = exit_plan_mode:
plan mode → { kind: 'ask' } // the approval moment; the registry routes it
otherwise → deny
allowlisted → next()
otherwise → deny // reason names the mode and points at exit_plan_mode
```
The gate folds the LOGGED mode only, never the pending intent — enforcement judges by the same state the request's header shipped under. Because the `ask` is produced here and resolved by `ToolRegistry.execute()` through `ctx.approval`, `dsh-mode` takes no dependency on the approval package; a deployment without the seam gets the registry's fail-closed degrade.
### `exit_plan_mode`
`defineTool` with one required `plan: string` argument. `execute` rejects an agent-less call (the [`todo_write` precedent](../../implemented/feature/2026-06-29-todo-write-tool.md)), re-checks the folded mode as defense in depth, appends `mode/set { mode: 'default' }` in-turn, and returns a short confirmation; the next step's assembly restores the full toolset and logs the widening `request/header-delta`. `presentCall` is a `generic` card carrying the plan markdown as content — the approval prompt attaches to this already-streamed call by `callId`, so what the human approves is exactly the logged artifact. A rejection reaches the model as the registry's "user rejected" `isError`, and it revises and re-presents.
### Dependencies and surfaces
`dsh-mode` peers on `cordis`, `dsh-session`, `dsh-agent`, `dsh-tools`, `dsh-system-prompt` (manifest shape mirrors `dsh-tool-todo`), injects `['tools', 'systemPrompt']`, and depends on neither the approval package nor any UI. The stdio app adds a `/mode [name]` line-handler branch (print or switch + banner, never sent to the model) and the readline answerer for its own agent. The ACP bridge consumes `ctx.modes` opportunistically (`ctx.get`, the `tool-bash` pattern): `session/new`/`session/load` responses include `{ currentModeId: pending ?? current, availableModes: list() }` when the service is mounted, `session/set_mode` calls `set()` and notifies `current_mode_update` optimistically (the pending mode IS the user's selection; the logged `mode/set` follows at the boundary), and a `session/event` listener re-notifies on each logged flip that differs from the last sent.
### The recorded scenario and the harness op
`input.json` gains one step op, `{ "op": "setMode", "mode": "plan" }`, driven through the real `session/set_mode` RPC. The `plan-mode` scenario: initialize → newSession → setMode(plan) → a prompt that explores and attempts a `write` (denied by the gate, pinned verbatim) → the model presents the plan via `exit_plan_mode` → a scripted `permissionAnswers` approve → a follow-up prompt that writes for real. Because the mode is set before turn 1, the FIRST `request/header` snapshot is already in plan shape (filtered tools + section, reason `initial`) — the widening delta appears at the exit; the scenario pins both, plus the `mode/set` pair. A sibling `plan-mode-reject` scenario scripts the reject and pins the corrective result. Both need a with-key recording session; the deny/reject texts are meanwhile pinned at the unit tier (the approval RFC's same stance).
### The mechanical tail
No new cordis event is declared (`mode/set` rides `session/event`; the listeners attach to existing waterfalls), so the events catalog is untouched; regenerated in the same change: the persistence log catalog (`mode/set`), the services catalog (`ctx.modes`, JSDoc-complete), the config catalog (`ModeConfig`), the tool catalog (`exit_plan_mode`), the producer/consumer map and doc graphs, and the module graph. Repo plumbing: a root tsconfig `paths` entry, the new group's README plus a [packages map](../../../../packages/README.md) row (a new top-level group is the deliberate act that table names), an `architecture.md` capability-services row for `ctx.modes` (budget-checked), and the cookbook row upgrade.
## Roadmap ## Roadmap
Plan mode is one feature and lands as one. An agent that can be locked into planning but has no sanctioned way to propose leaving it is not a smaller version of the feature — it is a different and worse one, where every plan ends with the model asking the user to flip a switch it cannot see. The two stages below are therefore build-and-review order for one stacked landing ([stacked-review guide](../../../cookbook/responding-to-pr-review-on-a-stack.md)): stage 2 stacks on stage 1 and the stack merges together; neither stage is a shippable milestone on its own. Plan mode is one feature and lands as one. An agent that can be locked into planning but has no sanctioned way to propose leaving it is not a smaller version of the feature — it is a different and worse one, where every plan ends with the model asking the user to flip a switch it cannot see. The two stages below are therefore build-and-review order for one stacked landing ([stacked-review guide](../../../cookbook/responding-to-pr-review-on-a-stack.md)): stage 2 stacks on stage 1 and the stack merges together; neither stage is a shippable milestone on its own.
@@ -93,4 +153,4 @@ Deferred beyond this landing, each behind its own decision: subagent mode inheri
## Risks ## Risks
A pending user flip set while idle is lost if the process dies before the next turn — accepted (the UI re-applies; the idle-record primitive is the escape hatch if this bites in practice). Every mode transition is a logged header change and therefore a prefix-cache reset at the provider — inherent, visible in per-step usage, and an argument against mode-flapping UIs, not against the design. Sibling-listener order is not deterministic, so a foreign assemble listener could re-widen filtered schemas — the hard gate keeps that non-executable, but the model would see tools it cannot use; the convention (mode filter last, or accept the gate's deny text as the corrective) is documented rather than mechanized. Plan mode's shipped allowlist excludes `bash` and `subagent`, which costs real exploration power (no `git log`, no read-only delegate) until the sandbox family and mode inheritance land — a deployment that accepts the risk can widen its own config today. The whole landing gates on the approval seam merging first — a deliberate schedule coupling accepted in place of shipping the mode core alone (an incomplete feature, per the roadmap); the seam is implemented on its branch, and this stack bases on it meanwhile. A deployment that composes no answerer keeps a safe but manual plan mode (`ask` → `unavailable` → deny), and the mode section tells the model to present its plan through `exit_plan_mode` — and to ask the user if that is denied — so it never thrashes against the gate. Branch-heavy policy code under the per-file 100% coverage gate is real work, accepted as the ACP bridge did. A pending user flip set while idle is lost if the process dies before the next turn — accepted (the UI re-applies; the idle-record primitive is the escape hatch if this bites in practice). Every mode transition is a logged header change and therefore a prefix-cache reset at the provider — inherent, visible in per-step usage, and an argument against mode-flapping UIs, not against the design. Sibling-listener order is not deterministic, so a foreign assemble listener wrapping OUTSIDE the mode listener could re-widen filtered schemas — the filter runs on the assembly `next()` returns (so everything inside its wrap is covered), and the hard gate keeps anything re-widened non-executable; the residual cost is cosmetic (the model sees a tool it cannot use), accepted rather than mechanized. Plan mode's shipped allowlist excludes `bash` and `subagent`, which costs real exploration power (no `git log`, no read-only delegate) until the sandbox family and mode inheritance land — a deployment that accepts the risk can widen its own config today. The whole landing gates on the approval seam merging first — a deliberate schedule coupling accepted in place of shipping the mode core alone (an incomplete feature, per the roadmap); the seam is implemented on its branch, and this stack bases on it meanwhile. A deployment that composes no answerer keeps a safe but manual plan mode (`ask` → `unavailable` → deny), and the mode section tells the model to present its plan through `exit_plan_mode` — and to ask the user if that is denied — so it never thrashes against the gate. Branch-heavy policy code under the per-file 100% coverage gate is real work, accepted as the ACP bridge did.