"Who may write this input field, on which surface" was expressed three times,
each a separate name-keyed mechanism: `retiredField()` in the command field
maps, `ALWAYS_HIDDEN_FIELDS` in the AI SDK adapter, and
`OPERATOR_INPUT_GUIDANCE` / `CONFIG_LOADER_GUIDANCE` at the MCP admission
boundary -- twelve hand-written refusal sentences keyed by name, far from the
fields they govern.
The root cause was that the ~19 shared common fields existed only as parallel
enumerations by name -- `commonProperties()`, `readCommonInput()`,
`commonToClientOptions()`, and the `CommonCommandInput` type -- carrying no
metadata, so any policy about a field forced a new name-keyed map elsewhere.
Declare each common field once, in `commands/common-input-fields.ts`, keyed by
its input key and carrying `{ schema?, read?, clientKey?, audience? }`. The JSON
schema, the readers, the client-options projection, and the model-facing
audience boundary all derive from that one table, and `satisfies Record<keyof
CommonCommandInput | 'target', ...>` makes a row without a field, or a field
without a row, a type error in both directions.
`audience` is the unified vocabulary (`commands/input-audience.ts`): `operator`
keys stay in the CLI and Node schemas but are hidden from and refused by every
model-facing tool schema; `retired` keys are absent from every schema yet still
recognized, so they answer with migration guidance. `retiredField()` now sets
`audience: 'retired'`, metro's `bearerToken`/`proxyBaseUrl` declare
`audience: 'operator'` at the field, and `stateDir` declares it in the new
`mcp/tool-control-fields.ts` beside the other MCP-only tool arguments. Refusal
guidance is rendered from each declaration's operator path -- env var names via
`buildPrimaryEnvVarName`, the operator config file, or an explicit sentence --
rather than hand-written per key, and `OperatorInputSource` is shaped so a
declaration naming no path at all does not typecheck.
`#2076`'s nested-step admission recurses through the same derived
`findInadmissibleInput`, so a batch step's refusals come from this audience map
rather than a second filter; its suite passes against this unchanged.
A field-level audience only reaches the boundaries through its command's
metadata, so that wiring is closed structurally rather than by convention:
`inputAudience` is required on `CommandMetadata`, and
`defineFieldCommandMetadata` -- which now takes an optional custom reader, so
`batch` and `gesture` go through it too -- is the only construction path for a
field-map command. At the boundary, a command's own audiences merge before the
global operator classifications, so an `operator` key outranks a colliding
per-command `retired` one and a name collision fails closed.
`command-input.ts` was 705 lines and over the 300-line target; the record
readers move to `commands/input-readers.ts` so the table can use them without an
import cycle. `click`/`press`/`fill` move onto `defineFieldCommandMetadata` --
they were that helper inlined.
`COMMON_COMMAND_SUPPORTED_FLAG_KEYS` stays hand-maintained: it is the CLI
parser's axis, and 25 of its 42 keys never become structured command input while
the table's `cwd` and `debug` are not flags. The reasoning is recorded above the
constant.
Purely internal: `listCommandTools()`, the CLI command schemas, and every
command `inputSchema` are byte-identical, verified by diffing the serialized
surfaces before and after.
Refs #2027
* feat(mcp): compact server instructions in both eras + MCP-only help tool (#1833)
MCP-only clients got no workflow guidance: server/discover carried two
sentences, legacy initialize carried nothing, and the CLI guides
(agent-device --help, help <topic>) were unreachable over MCP.
- MCP_SERVER_INSTRUCTIONS: one MCP-phrased workflow card (<2 KB, the
Claude Code truncation limit) returned by server/discover and legacy
initialize alike.
- help tool, router-owned (not a command descriptor): no topic -> the CLI
decision card; topic -> agent-device help <topic|command> text, prefixed
with the one-line CLI->tool-property mapping; unknown topic -> isError
listing the topics. listCommandTools() stays descriptor-only for the AI
SDK; the router composes descriptors + help.
- Move src/cli/parser/cli-help{,-overview}.ts to src/cli-schema/ so
src/mcp (rank 3) can import the renderers without a layering back-edge
into src/cli (rank 6).
* fix(mcp): name terminal-only commands in help guides; colocate cli-help tests with their sources
- The MCP guide preamble claimed every `agent-device <command>` line is a
tool of that name; `help web` tells the reader to run `web setup` /
`web doctor` and no `web` tool exists. The preamble now lists the exact
CLI-only set (listCliCommandNames minus listMcpExposedCommandNames) —
derived, not scanned out of prose where `device`/`web` are ordinary
words. Regression: help web names `web` as terminal-only, and the listed
set equals the registry difference.
- cli-help-*.test.ts move from src/cli/parser/__tests__ to src/cli-schema/
to mirror the moved sources.
* perf(mcp): tighten the guide card, tool description, and preamble
Instructions card 1572 -> 1378 bytes (paid every session), tool
description and preamble trimmed, HELP_TOOL built once as a const.
Bundle delta vs main 3189 -> 2715 bytes; the remainder is the guide text
itself, which the bundle carried in no MCP-phrased form before.
* docs: restructure AGENTS.md and CONTEXT.md for progressive disclosure
Apply the Claude 5 context-engineering guidance to the repo's agent docs:
keep the always-loaded file to gotchas and invariants, and move situational
guidance one hop away behind a routing table.
AGENTS.md 315 -> 229 lines. Cut generic agent-behavior boilerplate, three-way
duplication (Common Mistakes restated Hard Rules; Finding Source Owners
restated the registry section), and facts visible from the repo itself.
Kept verbatim: the expensive-lessons principles, enforcement gates, Hard
Rules, and environment traps.
Split out docs/agents/{cli-flags,pull-requests,device-verification}.md and
folded the Testing Matrix into docs/agents/testing.md, reframed around
pnpm check:affected so the prose stops duplicating the selector.
CONTEXT.md keeps all 50 terms, now grouped under a section index so a task
loads one section instead of the whole glossary.
* fix(check-affected): move the selector-owning sentinel to the Testing Matrix
The Testing Matrix moved from AGENTS.md to docs/agents/testing.md, but the
affected-check selector still treated only AGENTS.md as selector-owning. A
later matrix edit would have been classified as inert docs and skipped the
fail-open, so the selector could keep deriving gates from a spec that had
changed underneath it.
Move the sentinel with the prose, as a named SELECTOR_OWNING_DOCS set so the
next move is one line, and fix the two in-code comments plus the testing.md
paragraph that still pointed at the AGENTS.md matrix.
* docs: restore two rules dropped by the AGENTS.md split
Review caught two repo-specific rules that did not survive the move. Both are
prose without any backticked identifier, so the identifier-diff used to verify
the split could not see them.
- "Test through public interfaces; do not add unrelated production exports
solely to enable tests" returns next to the behavioral-tests rule in
docs/agents/testing.md, with the reason it exists.
- The guidance-ownership rule (decide whether new guidance/schema/metadata
belongs to the command surface, CLI grammar, CLI help, MCP projection, or
daemon runtime) returns to the always-loaded Docs & skills section, since it
governs all command-surface work and not just the flag case.
Also point the ADR routing row at docs/adr/README.md, which is already the
"read when you touch…" index, rather than at the bare directory.
Michał Pierzchała