yoi/work-items/open/20260529-205540-spawnpod-profile-tool-description/thread.md

Created

Created by tickets.sh create.

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Decision

Clarified selector semantics:

• default / omitted means resolve the effective child default profile.
• <slug> / source-qualified selectors mean resolve a discovered role profile.
• inherit means derive reusable child config from the spawner's resolved Manifest.

inherit is explicitly not the same as reusing the Profile source that created the parent. It extracts reusable fields from the parent resolved Manifest and still replaces runtime-bound/authority fields such as pod.name and concrete scope.allow with the SpawnPod inputs. Reusing the parent's original Profile source can be considered later as a separate feature if needed.

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Plan

Preflight implementation plan

Classification: implementation-ready.

No product/API decision is needed before coding. The ticket already fixes the important semantics: omitted/default uses the effective child default profile, inherit derives reusable config from the spawner's resolved Manifest, named/source-qualified selectors resolve discovered profiles, path selectors are rejected, and SpawnPod.scope remains the only delegated capability.

Important implementation notes:

• Do not rely on process current_dir() for SpawnPod profile discovery. Use the Pod cwd (spawner_pwd) explicitly by adding/exposing a resolver helper that resolves from a registry discovered for that cwd.
• Resolve profiles and build child config before pod-registry reservation where possible, so invalid profile selectors do not mutate registry/scope.
• inherit means derive from the parent resolved Manifest, not from the parent's original Profile source.
• Path-like values, path:<...>, .lua/legacy suffix selectors, and absolute/relative paths must fail closed in SpawnPod.profile.
• Existing hidden --spawn-config-json remains the internal handoff; do not exec child with --profile.
• Existing prompt-loader source limitations are out of scope; preserve current behavior.

Current code map:

• crates/pod/src/spawn/tool.rs: SpawnPodInput, static description, spawn lifecycle, build_spawn_config_json.
• crates/pod/src/controller.rs: register_pod_tools, currently snapshots parent model/trace and registers spawn tools.
• crates/manifest/src/profile.rs: ProfileDiscovery, ProfileRegistry, ProfileSelector, ProfileResolver.
• crates/manifest/src/config.rs: PodManifestConfig, merge/resolve/defaults.
• crates/pod/src/main.rs: hidden --spawn-config-json loading takes precedence and uses builtins-only prompt loader.
• crates/pod/src/prompt/catalog.rs and resources/prompts/internal.toml: central prompt catalog for templated tool description.

Implementation phases:

1. Add manifest profile resolver helper for registry/cwd-explicit selection.
2. Add SpawnPodInput.profile and a SpawnPod-specific selector parser for default, inherit, and registry selectors only.
3. Add shared available-profile formatter for tool description and error diagnostics.
4. Move SpawnPod tool description into prompt catalog/minijinja and render it during tool registration; discovery failures should render diagnostics, not fail Pod startup.
5. Build child PodManifestConfig from selected profile Manifest or inherited parent Manifest, replacing pod.name, replacing scope.allow, clearing scope.deny, and optionally overriding only worker.instruction.
6. Preserve existing lifecycle: registry reservation/rollback, scope revocation, spawned registry write, callback wiring, child socket wait, initial Method::Run confirmation.
7. Update docs/workflows with project:coder, project:reviewer, optional project:orchestrator, and inherit examples.

Critical risks:

• Do not merge profile/inherited scope with explicit SpawnPod scope; explicit scope replaces capability.
• Do not call CLI-style profile parser in a way that allows path profiles through SpawnPod.
• Description and diagnostic profile lists should share formatting.
• Prompt catalog key coverage is build-time enforced.

Validation plan:

• Unit tests for selector parsing, formatter, config builder override/replacement behavior.
• Manifest tests for cwd/registry-explicit resolver helper.
• Prompt catalog rendering test.
• SpawnPod integration tests for omitted default, inherit, project profile, invalid selector pre-reservation failure, ambiguity suggestions, and scope replacement.
• Run cargo test -p manifest profile, cargo test -p pod spawn_pod, relevant prompt catalog tests, cargo fmt --check, and ./tickets.sh doctor.

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Review: request changes

Request changes.

The implementation direction appears sound, and the reviewer did not find a concrete authority-expansion or lifecycle regression. However, the work item acceptance criteria require focused tests for the new SpawnPod profile semantics, and the submitted tests mostly cover selector parsing plus existing lifecycle tests forced to profile = "inherit".

Required fixes:

• Add SpawnPod default-profile coverage proving omitted profile resolves the effective registry default.
• Add a source-qualified profile coverage case, e.g. project:reviewer, proving role config from the selected profile reaches the generated --spawn-config-json.
• Add inherit config coverage proving reusable parent fields are copied while pod.name, scope.allow, and scope.deny are replaced.
• Add explicit instruction override coverage proving only worker.instruction changes.
• Add invalid / ambiguous / no-default diagnostics coverage proving the available-selector block appears.
• Add profile scope replacement coverage proving profile/inherited scope cannot expand delegated scope.

Non-blocking follow-ups:

• Available profile list currently emits source-qualified selectors only; future refinement may mention unqualified names when unambiguous.
• Workflow examples can later be updated to use explicit project:coder / project:reviewer selectors.

Validation note:

• cargo test -p pod spawn_profile --no-default-features currently only proves parser behavior, not profile resolution or child config construction.

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