Files
Kyle Carberry 919dc299fc feat: agent reads context files and discovers skills locally (#23935)
Piggybacks on #23878. Moves instruction file reading and skill discovery
from `chatd` (server-side, via multiple `LS`/`ReadFile` round-trips
through the agent connection) to the agent itself (local filesystem
access).

This intentionally drops backward compatibility with older agents that
don't support the context-config endpoint. Agents and server are
deployed together; there is no rolling-update contract to maintain here.

## What changed

The agent's `GET /api/v0/context-config` response now returns
`[]ChatMessagePart` directly — the same types chatd persists. This
eliminates intermediate type conversions and makes the protocol
extensible.

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `parts` | `[]ChatMessagePart` | Context-file and skill parts, ready to
persist |
| `working_dir` | `string` | Agent's resolved working directory |

Removed from the response: `instructions_dirs`, `instructions_file`,
`skills_dirs`, `skill_meta_file`, `mcp_config_files` — the agent reads
files locally and returns their content as parts.

Removed from chatd: all legacy `LS`/`ReadFile` fallback code
(`readHomeInstructionFile`, `readInstructionDirFile`, `DiscoverSkills`
via LS, etc).

## Why

The previous architecture had the agent resolve paths, serve them over
HTTP, then `chatd` make N+1 round-trips back through the agent
connection to read files. The agent has direct filesystem access and
should just read the files.

## Key design decisions

- **Agent returns `ChatMessagePart` directly** — same types chatd
persists. No intermediate `InstructionFileEntry`/`SkillEntry` types
needed.
- **`SkillMeta.MetaFile`** — persisted via `ContextFileSkillMetaFile` on
the skill part, so custom meta file names
(`CODER_AGENT_EXP_SKILL_META_FILE`) survive across chat turns.
- **No pre-read body** — `read_skill` always dials the workspace to
fetch the skill body on demand. Simpler than caching the body in the
response.
- **MCP config paths kept agent-internal** — `MCPConfigFiles()` getter,
not sent over the wire.
- **No backward compat fallback** — old agents that don't support
context-config get no instruction files. This is acceptable since agent
and server deploy together.
2026-04-04 12:45:46 -04:00

314 lines
9.4 KiB
Go

package agentcontextconfig
import (
"cmp"
"io"
"net/http"
"os"
"path/filepath"
"regexp"
"strings"
"github.com/go-chi/chi/v5"
"github.com/coder/coder/v2/coderd/httpapi"
"github.com/coder/coder/v2/codersdk"
"github.com/coder/coder/v2/codersdk/workspacesdk"
)
// Env var names for context configuration. Prefixed with EXP_
// to indicate these are experimental and may change.
const (
EnvInstructionsDirs = "CODER_AGENT_EXP_INSTRUCTIONS_DIRS"
EnvInstructionsFile = "CODER_AGENT_EXP_INSTRUCTIONS_FILE"
EnvSkillsDirs = "CODER_AGENT_EXP_SKILLS_DIRS"
EnvSkillMetaFile = "CODER_AGENT_EXP_SKILL_META_FILE"
EnvMCPConfigFiles = "CODER_AGENT_EXP_MCP_CONFIG_FILES"
)
const (
maxInstructionFileBytes = 64 * 1024
maxSkillMetaBytes = 64 * 1024
)
// markdownCommentPattern strips HTML comments from instruction
// file content for security (prevents hidden prompt injection).
var markdownCommentPattern = regexp.MustCompile(`<!--[\s\S]*?-->`)
// invisibleRunePattern strips invisible Unicode characters that
// could be used for prompt injection.
//
//nolint:gocritic // Non-ASCII char ranges are intentional for invisible Unicode stripping.
var invisibleRunePattern = regexp.MustCompile(
"[\u00ad\u034f\u061c\u070f" +
"\u115f\u1160\u17b4\u17b5" +
"\u180b-\u180f" +
"\u200b\u200d\u200e\u200f" +
"\u202a-\u202e" +
"\u2060-\u206f" +
"\u3164" +
"\ufe00-\ufe0f" +
"\ufeff" +
"\uffa0" +
"\ufff0-\ufff8]",
)
// skillNamePattern validates kebab-case skill names.
var skillNamePattern = regexp.MustCompile(
`^[a-z0-9]+(-[a-z0-9]+)*$`,
)
// Default values for agent-internal configuration. These are
// used when the corresponding env vars are unset.
const (
DefaultInstructionsDir = "~/.coder"
DefaultInstructionsFile = "AGENTS.md"
DefaultSkillsDir = ".agents/skills"
DefaultSkillMetaFile = "SKILL.md"
DefaultMCPConfigFile = ".mcp.json"
)
// API exposes the resolved context configuration through the
// agent's HTTP API.
type API struct {
workingDir func() string
}
// NewAPI accepts a closure that returns the working directory.
// The directory is evaluated lazily on each call to Config(),
// so the caller can update it after construction.
func NewAPI(workingDir func() string) *API {
if workingDir == nil {
workingDir = func() string { return "" }
}
return &API{workingDir: workingDir}
}
// Config reads env vars, resolves paths, reads instruction files,
// and discovers skills. Returns the HTTP response and the resolved
// MCP config file paths (used only agent-internally). Exported
// for use by tests.
func Config(workingDir string) (workspacesdk.ContextConfigResponse, []string) {
// TrimSpace all env vars before cmp.Or so that a
// whitespace-only value falls through to the default
// consistently. ResolvePaths also trims each comma-
// separated entry, but without pre-trimming here a
// bare " " would bypass cmp.Or and produce nil.
instructionsDir := cmp.Or(strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv(EnvInstructionsDirs)), DefaultInstructionsDir)
instructionsFile := cmp.Or(strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv(EnvInstructionsFile)), DefaultInstructionsFile)
skillsDir := cmp.Or(strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv(EnvSkillsDirs)), DefaultSkillsDir)
skillMetaFile := cmp.Or(strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv(EnvSkillMetaFile)), DefaultSkillMetaFile)
mcpConfigFile := cmp.Or(strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv(EnvMCPConfigFiles)), DefaultMCPConfigFile)
resolvedInstructionsDirs := ResolvePaths(instructionsDir, workingDir)
resolvedSkillsDirs := ResolvePaths(skillsDir, workingDir)
// Read instruction files from each configured directory.
parts := readInstructionFiles(resolvedInstructionsDirs, instructionsFile)
// Also check the working directory for the instruction file,
// unless it was already covered by InstructionsDirs.
if workingDir != "" {
seenDirs := make(map[string]struct{}, len(resolvedInstructionsDirs))
for _, d := range resolvedInstructionsDirs {
seenDirs[d] = struct{}{}
}
if _, ok := seenDirs[workingDir]; !ok {
if entry, found := readInstructionFileFromDir(workingDir, instructionsFile); found {
parts = append(parts, entry)
}
}
}
// Discover skills from each configured skills directory.
skillParts := discoverSkills(resolvedSkillsDirs, skillMetaFile)
parts = append(parts, skillParts...)
// Guarantee non-nil slice to signal agent support.
if parts == nil {
parts = []codersdk.ChatMessagePart{}
}
return workspacesdk.ContextConfigResponse{
Parts: parts,
}, ResolvePaths(mcpConfigFile, workingDir)
}
// MCPConfigFiles returns the resolved MCP configuration file
// paths for the agent's MCP manager.
func (api *API) MCPConfigFiles() []string {
_, mcpFiles := Config(api.workingDir())
return mcpFiles
}
// Routes returns the HTTP handler for the context config
// endpoint.
func (api *API) Routes() http.Handler {
r := chi.NewRouter()
r.Get("/", api.handleGet)
return r
}
func (api *API) handleGet(rw http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
response, _ := Config(api.workingDir())
httpapi.Write(r.Context(), rw, http.StatusOK, response)
}
// readInstructionFiles reads instruction files from each given
// directory. Missing directories are silently skipped. Duplicate
// directories are deduplicated.
func readInstructionFiles(dirs []string, fileName string) []codersdk.ChatMessagePart {
var parts []codersdk.ChatMessagePart
seen := make(map[string]struct{}, len(dirs))
for _, dir := range dirs {
if _, ok := seen[dir]; ok {
continue
}
seen[dir] = struct{}{}
if part, found := readInstructionFileFromDir(dir, fileName); found {
parts = append(parts, part)
}
}
return parts
}
// readInstructionFileFromDir scans a directory for a file matching
// fileName (case-insensitive) and reads its contents.
func readInstructionFileFromDir(dir, fileName string) (codersdk.ChatMessagePart, bool) {
dirEntries, err := os.ReadDir(dir)
if err != nil {
return codersdk.ChatMessagePart{}, false
}
for _, e := range dirEntries {
if e.IsDir() {
continue
}
if strings.EqualFold(strings.TrimSpace(e.Name()), fileName) {
filePath := filepath.Join(dir, e.Name())
content, truncated, ok := readAndSanitizeFile(filePath, maxInstructionFileBytes)
if !ok {
return codersdk.ChatMessagePart{}, false
}
if content == "" {
return codersdk.ChatMessagePart{}, false
}
return codersdk.ChatMessagePart{
Type: codersdk.ChatMessagePartTypeContextFile,
ContextFilePath: filePath,
ContextFileContent: content,
ContextFileTruncated: truncated,
}, true
}
}
return codersdk.ChatMessagePart{}, false
}
// readAndSanitizeFile reads the file at path, capping the read
// at maxBytes to avoid unbounded memory allocation. It sanitizes
// the content (strips HTML comments and invisible Unicode) and
// returns the result. Returns false if the file cannot be read.
func readAndSanitizeFile(path string, maxBytes int64) (content string, truncated bool, ok bool) {
f, err := os.Open(path)
if err != nil {
return "", false, false
}
defer f.Close()
// Read at most maxBytes+1 to detect truncation without
// allocating the entire file into memory.
raw, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(f, maxBytes+1))
if err != nil {
return "", false, false
}
truncated = int64(len(raw)) > maxBytes
if truncated {
raw = raw[:maxBytes]
}
s := sanitizeInstructionMarkdown(string(raw))
if s == "" {
return "", truncated, true
}
return s, truncated, true
}
// sanitizeInstructionMarkdown strips HTML comments, invisible
// Unicode characters, and CRLF line endings from instruction
// file content.
func sanitizeInstructionMarkdown(content string) string {
content = strings.ReplaceAll(content, "\r\n", "\n")
content = strings.ReplaceAll(content, "\r", "\n")
content = markdownCommentPattern.ReplaceAllString(content, "")
content = invisibleRunePattern.ReplaceAllString(content, "")
return strings.TrimSpace(content)
}
// discoverSkills walks the given skills directories and returns
// metadata for every valid skill it finds. Body and supporting
// file lists are NOT included; chatd fetches those on demand
// via read_skill. Missing directories or individual errors are
// silently skipped.
func discoverSkills(skillsDirs []string, metaFile string) []codersdk.ChatMessagePart {
seen := make(map[string]struct{})
var parts []codersdk.ChatMessagePart
for _, skillsDir := range skillsDirs {
entries, err := os.ReadDir(skillsDir)
if err != nil {
continue
}
for _, entry := range entries {
if !entry.IsDir() {
continue
}
metaPath := filepath.Join(skillsDir, entry.Name(), metaFile)
f, err := os.Open(metaPath)
if err != nil {
continue
}
raw, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(f, maxSkillMetaBytes+1))
_ = f.Close()
if err != nil {
continue
}
if int64(len(raw)) > maxSkillMetaBytes {
raw = raw[:maxSkillMetaBytes]
}
name, description, _, err := workspacesdk.ParseSkillFrontmatter(string(raw))
if err != nil {
continue
}
// The directory name must match the declared name.
if name != entry.Name() {
continue
}
if !skillNamePattern.MatchString(name) {
continue
}
// First occurrence wins across directories.
if _, ok := seen[name]; ok {
continue
}
seen[name] = struct{}{}
skillDir := filepath.Join(skillsDir, entry.Name())
parts = append(parts, codersdk.ChatMessagePart{
Type: codersdk.ChatMessagePartTypeSkill,
SkillName: name,
SkillDescription: description,
SkillDir: skillDir,
ContextFileSkillMetaFile: metaFile,
})
}
}
return parts
}