Every packages/*/* README now carries a canonical '## Known Limitations and
Deferred Work' section: condensed, evidence-backed bullets for consumer-visible
gaps (unimplemented features, platform caveats, MVP cuts) and consciously
postponed work (TODO/FIXME/XXX markers, RFC deferrals still open). The ten
pre-existing ad-hoc variants ('What is NOT here (TODO)', 'Deferred',
'Limitations (MVP)', 'Known limitations (tracked TODOs)', ...) are normalized
into the canonical heading.
A new doc-sync gate, scripts/verify-readme-limitations.ts, enforces the shape:
exactly one limitations-like heading per package README, byte-equal to the
canonical h2, with at least one bullet; near-miss headings fail so variants
cannot creep back. Packages with genuinely nothing to declare (dsh-brand,
dsh-timeout, dsh-subagent-mock, dsh-app-boot) are whitelisted in the script and
must NOT carry the section; whitelist entries are validated against the scanned
package set so a rename fails loud.
Wired into the doc-sync chain (package.json) and the run-gates doc-sync leaf
set; the standing rule lands in packages/AGENTS.md and the adding-a-package
cookbook; decision record in
docs/rfc/implemented/process/2026-07-10-readme-known-limitations-gate.md
(RFC index regenerated).
Also fixes two stale '(deferred)' markers claiming dsh-compact-basic is
unimplemented (the dsh-compact seam README's package table and the seam's
module doc comment).
Review follow-up (#196): a listed name with no registered tool was silently
ignored; misconfiguration must block work instead. The check lives in the
assembly — the earliest moment the registered tool set exists (tool plugins
register after the service constructs) and the only universal one (cordis has
no "all plugins loaded" event; registrations change at any time). assemble()
is now async so the throw surfaces as a rejection rather than a synchronous
escape from a Promise-returning method.
Blast radius, pinned by a loop-level test: the rejection reaches the turn's
outer catch — the turn closes balanced with an `error` reason, agent/error
mirrors it, no step opens, no request/header is logged, no request reaches
the adapter, and the agent returns to idle; every turn fails identically
until the config is fixed. A boot-time validation pass was considered and
rejected (recorded in the RFC). The general principle — misconfiguration
fails loud, never a silent skip — is added to AGENTS.md.
A three-dot rest entry reads as elision in a cordis.yml; the spelled-out
sentinel says what lands there. The literal now appears once in code (the
constant) and once in the value-pinning test; every other reference — the
forwarding tests included — imports TOOL_ORDER_REST, which adds the
dsh-system-prompt devDependency to the two app packages.
Review follow-up on #196.
Review round 2 (tianyicui inline comments):
- dsh-system-prompt itself registers the harness:identity (-100) and
deployment:persona (0) sections — they must survive a swapped loop
plugin, so they leave dsh-agent-loop; the persona text is the plugin's
own validated 'persona' config. The model/cwd variables STAY on the
loop: runtime facts of the agents it drives.
- AgentOptions.systemPrompt is deleted with all its forwarding plumbing:
the app configs' systemPrompt keys become 'persona' routed through
dsh-agent-core (schema = z.intersect of the owners'), the ACP bridge
and tool-subagent stop carrying persona configuration, and subagent
children now render the deployment persona like every other agent.
- Example personas drop transport/interface trivia (ACP, CLI) — facts
irrelevant to the model.
- Root CONTEXT.md removed (not idiomatic); its persona definition was
wrong under the new ownership anyway.
- Docs, READMEs, the prompt-variables RFC, and generated catalogs
updated; new loop test pins the assemble-waterfall escape valve
(an emptied assembly sends NO system field).
One principle: every fact in the assembled prompt has exactly one owner.
- dsh-system-prompt: merge-extensible AssembleContext on assemble();
a variable(name, provider) registry; {{name}} interpolation in
renderPrompt, strict (unknown/valueless/malformed references throw);
duplicate section and variable names rejected; assembly carries
resolved section text + variables through the assemble waterfall.
- dsh-agent declares AssembleContext.agent; dsh-agent-loop registers
the agent:persona section (order 0 - identity renders before tool
guidance) and the model/cwd variables, and drops its string join:
renderPrompt(assembly) IS the full prompt.
- Tool guidance moves to its owners: descriptions carry per-tool
semantics; sections only cross-call habits (tool:bash exit-code
habit at order 105; read's not-shell nudge). todo/subagent need no
section - their descriptions already carry the contract.
- SubagentProvider.inheritsParentContext (spawn/acp false, fork true);
dsh-tool-subagent derives truthful per-provider wording and resolves
the provider at load (backend must be listed first).
- Example personas shrink to identity + behavior with {{model}} (and
{{cwd}} in the ACP tree); the welcome banner stops enumerating tools.
RFC: docs/rfc/implemented/architecture/2026-07-05-prompt-variables-and-tool-guidance-ownership.md
The readline UI lives inside @deepseek-ai/dsh-stdio-agent as the
in-package stdio-chat module; the packages/support/ui-stdio package is
gone. The app's front-door cluster always includes this UI and nothing
else composes it, so the boundary bought manifest/tsconfig/module-graph/
README/publint surface for a helper that is not independently
swappable — and a product app no longer depends on a support package
documented as not-product-surface.
createStdioChat, the StdioRuntime test seam, and both unit suites moved
verbatim (imports rewired to the module path); the named
name/inject/Config/apply export shape stays, being the contract the
app's ctx.plugin mount consumes. Coverage stays per-file 100%; the
built-bin smoke under plain node and both keyless Loader-path smokes
prove the published artifact and the demos end-to-end.
Implements docs/rfc/implemented/simplification/2026-07-04-fold-stdio-ui-helper.md
(moved from proposed/ and amended to the shipped shape).
BLOCKER — the published lib/bin.js (stdio + acp) was exercised only via tsx
(demo:* / the src/bin.ts smokes); the built artifact under plain `node` was
unguarded. Root-cause on the BUILT bin:
1. Settle race: boot() returned once loader.create() registered the include
ENTRY, but the include loads its child plugins asynchronously — so boot()
(and main()) resolved while the app plugins (stdin reader, agent loop, ACP
bridge) were still mounting. A CLI with no attached handles yet exits 0
silently, and a load error surfaces as an unhandled rejection AFTER boot.
Fix: `await ctx.loader.await()` after create() — settle the whole tree.
2. Config-path robustness: hand the include the config's ABSOLUTE file:// URL
so resolution never depends on ctx.baseUrl / can never fall back to cwd.
Both bins fixed identically. NOTE: the cordis Loader resolves a config's bare
plugin specifiers via its internal module loader, active only under
`node --expose-internals`; the bin cannot add a node flag itself, so this is
documented in the bin JSDoc + both package READMEs (the demos already comply).
The repo `examples/*/cordis.yml` are tsx-only artifacts (workspace plugins
resolve through the tsconfig paths map, not node_modules), so they are not a
valid plain-node bin target — the smokes use a real-install-shaped temp dir.
Fail loud on a load failure: boot() previously exited 0 SILENTLY when a config
path's directory does not exist — the include plugin fails to IMPORT, the cordis
Loader catches+LOGS it and leaves the entry with no fiber (no rejection), and
`loader.await()` does not rethrow (EntryTree.await uses Promise.allSettled). Fix:
boot() now calls assertEntriesLoaded(ctx) after the tree settles and throws on
any entry with no fiber, so a typo'd config dir exits non-zero with a clear
message. main() also installs an unhandledRejection guard (installFailLoud) that
replaces Node's stack dump with a single labelled stderr line for the
companion case (a missing config FILE in a real dir, whose include-init throw
surfaces as a rejection Node already exits non-zero on). Regression tests added
to both built-bin smokes (missing dir + missing file → non-zero exit + stderr);
verified the missing-dir test fails on the pre-fix bin.
Built-bin smokes (the reviewer's ask): packages/ui/{stdio,acp}-agent/tests/
built-bin.e2e.ts run the REAL lib/bin.js under `node` (NOT tsx) in a temp
consumer dir, asserting the stdio echo round-trip / the acp initialize response
+ stdout purity, plus the fail-loud cases above. They build-gate (skip if lib/
absent) and run in a new ci.yml step after the build.
Issue 2 — packages/README.md + docs/architecture.md said "plugins depend on
interfaces, never on the concrete loop", but dsh-agent-core imports the concrete
dsh-agent-loop. Scope the rule to EXTENSION plugins and carve out the sanctioned
COMPOSITION/bundle exception (dsh-agent-core composes the concrete spine); note
it in the implemented RFC too.
Issue 3 — examples/acp-agent/tests/acp.snapshot.ts fixture-guard claimed
no-model scenarios need no session.jsonl, but runScenario() always boots
llm-replay with the session.jsonl path and loadReplayScript() throws when it is
absent. Require session.jsonl for ALL scenarios (no-model ones ship a
header-only fixture) and rewrite the comment to match reality.
Implements docs/rfc/.../2026-06-20-extract-example-app-packages.md. Each
example was thick — a hand-rolled start.ts, an infra preamble, nested
base.yml/base-core.yml/acp-tail.yml includes, and a coupled front-door
cluster enforced only by prose. This moves the composition into packages so
each example is a thin leaf cordis.yml: pick the swappable backends, load one
app package.
New packages:
- @deepseek-ai/dsh-agent-core (packages/core/agent-core): one bundle plugin
that loads the providerless/executor-less/UI-less spine (timer + llm +
sessions + system-prompt + tools + agents + invariants + tool-bash +
agent-loop) via ctx.plugin(...) inside apply(), and forwards agent-loop's
`agents` list as its own Config (export const Config = AgentLoop.Config,
default []).
- @deepseek-ai/dsh-stdio-agent (packages/ui/stdio-agent): terminal chat APP —
agent-core + console logger + readline UI + a pre-created `main` agent, with
a bin. The demo:echo/coding front door.
- @deepseek-ai/dsh-acp-agent (packages/ui/acp-agent): ACP server APP —
agent-core + JSONL persistence + the acp bridge, NO stdout logger, with a
bin. The stdout-purity footgun is structurally unreachable from the leaf.
Amendment to the RFC: hmr stays a LEAF cordis.yml entry, not baked into
dsh-stdio-agent. hmr is a Loader-only dev plugin (throws without
--expose-internals; the in-process test tier can't even import its decorator
form), so a package statically importing it could never carry the per-file
coverage gate. Unlike the console logger, a stray hmr is not a stdout-purity
footgun, so leaving it at the leaf costs no safety. With hmr out, all three new
packages carry in-process unit specs at 100%.
Boot glue (Loader tail, .env load, snapshot-mode selection, stdin-dispose
lifecycle) moves into each app's bin; start.ts and base.yml/base-core.yml/
acp-tail.yml are deleted. Each app package gets a keyless real-load-path test
that boots through its bin + the cordis Loader (guarding the unwrapExports
export-shape bug class, postmortem 0001). ACP snapshot replay stays green
against the existing committed goldens (pure boot restructuring). RFC moved
proposed->implemented with the amendment recorded; package/example/architecture
docs and the module graph updated.
Tianyi Cui
Yichen Jiang
imccyu