Files
deepseek-harness/docs/rfc/proposed/simplification/2026-07-04-drop-image-content-block.md
Tianyi Cui 9ebc38badf docs(rfc): revise the batch for the hooks-stack base; add three post-stack RFCs
The branch now bases on the hooks stack (PR #138's head), so every
'in-flight' reference to stack content became a current-state fact.
Audited all nine RFCs + three supplements claim-by-claim against the
merged tree (none invalidated; several strengthened):

- prune-dead-core-spine-surface: describe the landed tools/pre-execute →
  dispatch → tools/post-execute pipeline — listeners return Decisions,
  the registry builds every result and snapshots it to protect callId,
  and a second (mutation-guard) test pins the field; drop the resolved
  wait-for-interception hedge; scope the additionalContext ferry out.
- prune-producerless-vocabulary-variants: the ui-stdio fixture migrated
  off the continuation trigger (llm-replay is the sole writer now); the
  stack's own additions (rejected, prompt/blocked, hook/invoked+result)
  all arrived with producers — the admission policy demonstrated live.
- prune-unimplemented-subagent-vocabulary: enrichment landed as
  lastAssistantMessage only (agentType was dropped in the stack's own
  review — the same judgment this RFC extends); the seam RFC now names
  tools/pre-execute deny, which exists, sharpening the re-add path.
- drop-inert-request-knobs / drop-image-content-block /
  trim-acp-bridge-unreachable-surface: current-state rewordings (shipped
  bridges set no request fields; only compact-basic has explicit image
  arms; 13 hook goldens also pin agentInfo).
- generic-long-running-tool-runtime census: second production seam
  consumer (hook-protocol runHook: resolve+run, stdin/env, foreground
  only — background machinery stays single-consumer); scrub-duplication
  blast radius.
- discover-package-inventory: identical 54-entry tsconfig reference
  sets; the comparesLog scenario knob (fixture-derivable, like recorded).
- unify-agent-and-session-id: third divergence site (in-process subagent
  children mint two UUIDs), the hooks bridge id-lookups, and ui-stdio's
  labelBySession map as a consumer that deletes under unification.

New RFCs from the post-stack survey:
- remove-agent-steering-mirror: the last mirror-of-durable event; zero
  production listeners; both retention RFCs deferred its fate, and the
  'no durable twin' rationale is contradicted by the adjacent append.
- tighten-hook-protocol-contract: producer-less 'native' dialect,
  parsed-and-discarded suppressOutput, and hook/result semantics
  (truncation + decision-string) defined twice in the bridges instead
  of the lib that owns the event.
- single-source-acp-replay-config: cordis.yml/cordis.snapshot.yml differ
  by exactly one plugin entry, with no gate on the forced symmetry.
2026-07-04 11:24:44 +08:00

4.0 KiB

RFC: Drop the image content block until a path can honor it

Status: proposed

Problem

ImageBlock (packages/llm/llm/src/types.ts) has no production producer, and every consumer on every path DROPS it: the deepseek adapter's serializer skips image blocks (a documented MVP limitation), the pi-ai converter skips them as unrepresentable, the ACP codec neither advertises image prompt capability nor forwards image blocks outbound and REJECTS image prompt content inbound, and the compaction estimator charges a flat token constant and renders [image]. An ImageBlock constructed today would silently vanish from the wire — the vocabulary advertises a capability no path honors, which is the silent-data-loss shape AGENTS.md's defensive patterns warn against. The only constructors anywhere are tests pinning the skip/drop/estimate branches.

Proposal

Remove ImageBlock, its ContentBlockMap entry, the explicit image estimate/placeholder arms in compact-basic, and the image-naming comments in the deepseek serializer's, pi-ai converter's, and ACP codec's default arms — those default arms already absorb the case the way they absorb any unknown block type. Update the vocabulary line in architecture.md, the block list in packages/llm/llm/README.md, the deepseek README's image-skip row, the pi-ai README's images-not-representable row, the compact-basic README's image-estimation and [image]-placeholder rows, the pastes in core.md and llm-streaming.md, and the type-equiv manifest; amend the content-block vocabulary RFC's block list and multimodal-home consequence per implemented/AGENTS.md; drop or retarget the tests that construct image blocks to exercise the removed branches. The ACP codec's inbound rejection of image PROMPT content is unaffected — that guard is about protocol content a client can send regardless of our vocabulary, and it stays.

Why not keep it?

This is the most contested cut in the batch. Multimodal input (screenshots) is a plausible near-term coding-agent feature, and the content-block vocabulary RFC reserved the slot deliberately. Two responses. First, ContentBlockMap is merge-extensible by design: a real multimodal feature reintroduces image in core in the same coordinated change that maps it in the adapters, advertises and renders it in ACP, and prices it in compaction — the producer and its consumers arrive together, which is how the map is meant to grow. Second, the middle option — keep the type but make adapters throw UNSUPPORTED instead of silently dropping — converts this into exactly the shape the request-knobs RFC argues against: surface whose only implementation is rejection. Absence (a compile error at the would-be producer) is strictly clearer than either silent loss or universal throw.

If review lands on keeping the slot, the fallback this RFC records is: keep ImageBlock but replace every silent skip with a loud rejection, and document that policy in the vocabulary — the current silent drop is the one state with no defender.

Acceptance criteria

  • No ImageBlock / harness type: 'image' block construction outside this RFC; the codec's inbound ACP-image rejection still passes its tests.
  • Adapter/codec/compaction switches handle the case through their unknown-block default arms (pinned by the existing plugin-added-block tests where present).
  • Doc pastes, the manifest, and the architecture vocabulary list updated; pnpm run doc-sync green.

Risks

Re-adding a core vocabulary type later touches several packages at once — but that coordinated change is the shape a real multimodal feature needs anyway (adapter mapping, ACP advertisement, compaction pricing), and none of it exists today to preserve.