pi-devbox/AGENTS.md

# AGENTS.md — pi-devbox

Self-contained Docker image for the **pi coding-agent**. Decoupled from
opencode-devbox at v1.0.0 (2026-06-09); previously pi-devbox was a thin
re-brand of opencode-devbox's `pi-only` variant.

## Repository layout

- `Dockerfile.base` — multi-arch base layer with system packages,
  GitHub-binary tools (fzf, eza, zoxide, neovim, bat, gosu, gitleaks,
  git-lfs, uv, gitea-mcp, tealdeer), AWS CLI v2, mempalace + toolkit,
  Node.js, Python toolchain, locales, ssh ControlMaster defaults, and
  `/etc/tmux.conf` with 0-indexed sessions.
- `Dockerfile.variant` — `FROM base-<hash>`, adds pi + companions
  (`pi-toolkit`, `pi-extensions`, `pi-fork`, `pi-observational-memory`)
  and, when `INSTALL_STUDIO=true`, vendors `pi-studio` to `/opt/pi-studio`
  (`-studio` variant). Also appends the pi-devbox managed block from
  `pi-global-AGENTS.append.md` onto pi-toolkit's `pi-global-AGENTS.md` (the
  single global instruction slot pi loads) so containers proactively load the
  baked `pi-devbox-environment` skill. Idempotent via a marker grep. After the
  pinned clones it also refreshes the vendored `pi-extensions` fallback skill
  by copying `/opt/pi-extensions/skill/` over the committed `rootfs/` snapshot
  (Option 1 over Option 2 — see `skills/VENDORED.md`).
- `entrypoint.sh` — UID/GID alignment as root, then drops to `developer`.
- `entrypoint-user.sh` — per-container start: prints the `pi-devbox-version`
  banner first (which build/commit is running, from the manifest below),
  then SSH ControlMaster socket dir, LAN-access setup, MemPalace init,
  pi-toolkit + pi-extensions deploy, mempalace-bridge symlink, fork/recall +
  pi-studio pi-install, optional `studio-expose` bridge (when
  `STUDIO_EXPOSE=1`), image-baked skills symlink-in, skillset deploy.
- `rootfs/` — files baked into the image (bash aliases, inputrc,
  setup-lan-access.sh, `studio-expose` helper, `pi-devbox-version` — wraps
  `/etc/pi-devbox/build-manifest.json` into a human-readable summary + live
  drift check, see README “Build provenance”). Also
  `usr/local/share/pi-devbox/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` — image-baked agent
  skills (the repo-authored `pi-devbox-environment`, plus vendored fallback
  copies of `pi-extensions` and `mempalace` — see `skills/VENDORED.md`)
  symlinked into `~/.agents/skills/` by the entrypoint, available with or
  without a mounted skillset — plus
  `usr/local/share/pi-devbox/pi-global-AGENTS.append.md` (the global-AGENTS
  pointer concatenated in `Dockerfile.variant`).
- `scripts/smoke-test.sh` — sanity checks run by CI before pushing to Hub.
- `.gitea/workflows/docker-publish.yml` — two-phase CI (base-decide →
  build-base → smoke → build-variant → promote-base-latest →
  update-description). The `-studio` variant adds independent
  `smoke-studio` + `build-variant-studio` jobs that gate only the
  `-studio` tags (never the core `:latest` release).

## Versioning scheme

- Tags follow semver. **v1.0.0** is the first decoupled release; future
  minor bumps add variants (`-studio`, `-studio-tex`) or significant base
  additions (e.g. v1.2.0 image-baked agent skills); patch bumps follow
  pi npm version updates and small fixes.
- Docker Hub tags: `joakimp/pi-devbox:vX.Y.Z` + `joakimp/pi-devbox:latest`
  + (since v1.1.0) `joakimp/pi-devbox:vX.Y.Z-studio` +
  `joakimp/pi-devbox:latest-studio`.
  Internal tags: `joakimp/pi-devbox:base-<hash>` (content-addressed) +
  `joakimp/pi-devbox:base-latest` (alias of most recent base).

## Release-day checklist

1. Confirm `pi --version` resolves from npm to the expected version
   (`curl -sf 'https://registry.npmjs.org/@earendil-works%2Fpi-coding-agent/latest' | jq -r .version`).
   Check release notes at https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/releases for
   the upstream changelog to include in `CHANGELOG.md`.
2. **Refresh the vendored mempalace skill snapshot if the skillset moved:**
   `scripts/vendor-mempalace-skill.sh --check` (reads a real skillset clone,
   writes nothing). Three exit codes, not two — a stale-but-truthful record is
   **not** a release blocker, so don't treat any non-zero exit as "must
   refresh" without reading which one it was:
     - **0** — the record is truthful. This includes stale-but-truthful
       (upstream has moved past the recorded ref, or the local clone has
       uncommitted changes) — a `NOTICE` is printed, but nothing is lying.
       **Skipping the refresh in this case is the legitimate, sanctioned
       outcome** — every enrolled host reads its own live skillset clone, so
       the baked copy is only a no-mount fallback. What is not legitimate is
       skipping it *silently*: the drift is visible here, in
       `pi-devbox-version`, and in the manifest, so decide rather than forget.
     - **1** — a confirmed problem: the vendored bytes provably do NOT match
       the file at the recorded ref (a lying record), or the recorded ref
       doesn't even resolve to that path in this clone. Refresh.
     - **2** — cannot determine (the recorded ref itself isn't resolvable in
       this clone — commonly a shallow checkout missing history). Fetch full
       history and re-check before deciding; don't refresh blind.
   Refresh with `scripts/vendor-mempalace-skill.sh`, which rewrites the file
   **and** the ARG together so they cannot drift apart, and refuses (exit 1)
   rather than silently rewinding provenance if the skillset clone's HEAD is
   behind the already-recorded ref (detached HEAD, older checkout) — pass
   `--force` only if that rewind is genuinely intended.
   Two consequences to accept deliberately on an actual refresh: the snapshot
   is hashed into `base_tag`, so it costs a base rebuild (~67 min); and if the
   section the phrase canary names has changed, re-pin it in
   `scripts/smoke-test.sh`.
3. **Update the docs this release makes stale — BEFORE you tag.** Rename
   `CHANGELOG.md`'s `## Unreleased` to `## vX.Y.Z — YYYY-MM-DD` (em dash, as
   every prior release heading uses), then run the gate:

   ```bash
   bash scripts/check-doc-drift.sh      # 0 in sync / 1 drift / 2 cannot run
   ```

   It compares README.md's version-pin table against the ARGs it names, and
   DOCKER_HUB.md's Node claim against `ARG NODE_VERSION`, plus Hub's
   25 000-char limit, unsubstituted `{{PLACEHOLDERS}}`, and stale `Unreleased`
   pointers in user-facing docs.

   **Why before and not after:** `docker-publish.yml` runs `actions/checkout@v4`
   with no `ref:`, so every job reads `github.ref` — the **tag**. A doc fix
   pushed to `main` after tagging does not reach the release, and for
   `DOCKER_HUB.md` it does not reach the published Hub page either, because
   `update-description` POSTs that file as Docker Hub's `full_description` from
   the tag's tree. Getting it in afterwards means re-pointing the tag, which is
   its own hazard (v1.8.14 went `601fc98` → `361babd` and broke deploy
   verification until `git fetch --tags --force`).

   The gate is deliberately narrow — it only checks claims verifiable from files
   in this repo. Still eyeball, because these are NOT gated:
   - counts and sizes (`~1.1 GB`, "N `mempalace_*` tools", "7 extensions") —
     they need a running image; assert them in `scripts/smoke-test.sh` instead
   - feature prose that quietly became false, e.g. a "Planned for an upcoming
     release" section describing something that already shipped
   - `Dockerfile.base`'s `# BASE_REBUILD_DATE:` marker. Ungated on purpose:
     `base_tag` hashes Dockerfile.base's content, comments included, so
     demanding it be current would force a ~60 min base rebuild on a release
     that touched no base files. **Fix it when the base is already rebuilding —
     then it is free.**

   Measured cost of skipping this, 2026-09-10 (v1.9.0): five stale claims, one
   of them published. README's pin table was wrong on all three rows, and
   DOCKER_HUB.md — untouched for eight releases — still said Node v22 while the
   image shipped Node 24.
4. Verify `docker compose up` works locally with the current `latest` image
   if you're upgrading users from a previous version. Then run the
   **post-recreate sanity check** inside the running container to confirm
   persisted volumes survived and the pi runtime wiring re-deployed (not just
   that the container booted):
   `docker compose exec devbox bash scripts/recreate-sanity-check.sh --expected-image-version X.Y.Z`
   (or just `pi-devbox-sanity --expected-image-version X.Y.Z` if
   `cli_utils/bin` is on PATH). This is the runtime peer of the build-time
   `smoke-test.sh` gate.
   **`X.Y.Z` here is the pi-devbox release tag** you are shipping (e.g.
   `1.8.9`), which is what the rest of this checklist means by `vX.Y.Z`.
   `--expected-image-version` is the flag that asserts it. There is also an
   `--expected-version`, and it means something else — the **pi coding agent**
   version (e.g. `0.84.3`, the `ARG PI_VERSION` pin). Handing the release tag
   to that one used to report *"pi version mismatch: expected 1.8.8, got
   0.84.3"*, i.e. a red on the final gate of the release accusing the wrong
   component; it now tells you to use `--expected-image-version` instead, and
   the reverse mix-up is caught too. Both flags are optional — with neither,
   the live pi version is asserted against the version recorded in the image's
   own build manifest (which catches a stale `pi` in the `~/.pi/npm-global`
   volume shadowing the baked one) and the image tag is reported
   informationally.
5. Push tag: `git tag vX.Y.Z && git push origin vX.Y.Z`.
6. Watch CI: smoke job builds amd64 only and asserts size + extensions +
   pi version + new-base-tooling presence. Variant build is multi-arch
   (amd64 + arm64) only after smoke passes. A tag push fires **only**
   `docker-publish.yml` — `lint.yml` is scoped to `branches: ['**']`, which
   excludes tag refs on purpose (the tagged tree was already linted when the
   commit hit `main`, and a fast lint run sorting above the slow publish run
   made releases look finished before anything shipped). Verified on v1.8.4:
   `refs/tags/v1.8.4` produced run 571 (publish) and nothing else. Still filter
   discovery on `head_sha` **and** the workflow `path` — see *Gitea API access*
   below — because that guard costs nothing and a future workflow added on `v*`
   would silently reintroduce the ambiguity.
7. Verify the Hub tags appear (latest + vX.Y.Z, the `-studio` pair, plus
   base-latest if the base was rebuilt this run).
8. **Revoke any short-lived Gitea PAT** used during the release at
   `gitea.jordbo.se/user/settings/applications`. N/A if you used the
   `GITEA_ACCESS_TOKEN` env var instead (see *Gitea API access* below) —
   its lifecycle is managed host-side, nothing to revoke.

## Verifying this repo's reality from inside a container

Most work on this repo happens **inside** a pi-devbox container, inspecting a
host or a peer over SSH. That setup manufactures convincing false negatives, so
when you are about to report that something is **absent, unreachable, or not
running**, suspect your own command first. Recurring instances:

- **`docker` is not on the host's non-interactive SSH `PATH`.** `ssh mac 'docker
  ps'` says *command not found* on a host that plainly runs Docker; use
  `/usr/local/bin/docker` (or `command -v docker` first). Every step in the
  *Release-day checklist* that inspects a running container hits this.
- **Don't `| head -N` a search whose answer you don't already know.** The host's
  `~/.ssh/config` is ~500 lines; a `head -20` "proved" a peer absent that was
  defined at line 454.
- **The deployment compose file is not this repo's.** `docker-compose.yml` here
  is a template pinning `:latest`; a real host runs its own per-machine file
  (find it with `docker inspect <container> --format '{{ index .Config.Labels
  "com.docker.compose.project.config_files" }}'`). Recreating from the repo copy
  can silently move a host off `:latest-studio` onto `:latest`.
- **A live SSH ControlMaster hides remote auth changes** — after editing a
  peer's `authorized_keys`, prove access with `-o ControlPath=none -o
  ControlMaster=no`, or the breakage surfaces in a later session instead.

Depth and further mechanisms: the repo-authored `pi-devbox-environment` skill
(`rootfs/usr/local/share/pi-devbox/skills/pi-devbox-environment/SKILL.md`) §2
and §3 — that file is the one an agent actually loads mid-session, whereas this
`AGENTS.md` is only auto-read when the cwd *is* this repo.

## Gitea API access (env token)

`GITEA_ACCESS_TOKEN` + `GITEA_HOST` are passed into the container from the
host `.env` via `docker-compose.yml` (`${GITEA_ACCESS_TOKEN:-}` /
`${GITEA_HOST:-}`), primarily to enable the `gitea-mcp` server. They are
**not** baked into the image. When configured, they are also available for
**any** direct Gitea API interaction from inside the container — inspecting
CI runs, checking published tags, listing commits — e.g.
`curl -H "Authorization: token $GITEA_ACCESS_TOKEN" "$GITEA_HOST/api/v1/repos/joakimp/pi-devbox/actions/runs?limit=20"`.
Prefer this over a short-lived PAT file when the env token is present (the
`ci-release-watcher` skill auto-detects it). Public-repo GET listings work
unauthenticated too, so the token matters mainly for private repos or
rate-limit headroom; its lifecycle is host-managed, so there is nothing to
revoke after use. Never echo the token value (including into logs).

**Gotcha — a tag push fires EVERY workflow whose triggers match the tag ref.**
`lint.yml` uses a bare `push:` trigger, so a release tag yields *both* a lint run
and the publish run. The listing is newest-first and lint sorts **above** the
publish run, so "take the first run whose `path` contains `refs/tags/<tag>`"
picks the wrong one **reliably, not occasionally**. Real listing for v1.6.4:

```
id=531  #104  lint.yml@refs/tags/v1.6.4          <- wrong; sorts first
id=530  #103  docker-publish.yml@refs/tags/v1.6.4 <- the release build
id=529  #102  lint.yml@refs/heads/main            <- same commit, linted on push
```

Lint goes green in minutes while the image is still building, so watching it
makes a release look finished when nothing has been published yet.

**Gotcha — the jobs endpoint takes the internal `id`, NOT the `run_number` the
UI shows as `#104`.** The two diverge widely, and `GET
.../actions/runs/<run_number>/jobs` does **not** error — it silently returns a
*different* run's jobs. Always read `id` from the run listing:

```bash
# Which runs did this tag/commit trigger? Filter on head_sha; never trust
# ordering or run numbering. limit=20, not 5 — with two runs per push the
# publish run falls off a 5-item window fast.
curl -sS -H "Authorization: token $GITEA_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  "$GITEA_HOST/api/v1/repos/joakimp/pi-devbox/actions/runs?limit=20" \
  | jq --arg sha "$(git rev-list -n1 vX.Y.Z)" \
      '.workflow_runs[] | select(.head_sha==$sha) | {id, run_number, path, status, conclusion}'
# pick the id whose .path starts with docker-publish.yml, then:
curl -sS -H "Authorization: token $GITEA_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  "$GITEA_HOST/api/v1/repos/joakimp/pi-devbox/actions/runs/<id>/jobs" \
  | jq '.jobs[] | {name, status, conclusion}'
```

**Watcher config for this repo** (`ci-release-watcher` skill, hub-only shape —
pi-devbox has no downstream host to deploy to):

- `EXPECT_WORKFLOW=docker-publish.yml` — the skill's `preflight_run()` aborts at
  startup if the run id belongs to lint instead.
- `EXPECTED_FRESH_TAGS='vX.Y.Z latest vX.Y.Z-studio latest-studio'`
- `EXPECTED_EXISTS_TAGS='base-latest'` — existence only: it is content-addressed
  and legitimately keeps its old timestamp when the base is a cache hit.
- `CRITICAL_JOBS='build-variant build-variant-studio'` — job names are matched
  **exactly** (`critical.issubset(succeeded)`), so the studio variant must be
  listed explicitly; the skill's default omits it. Leave `promote-base-latest`
  out: it legitimately skips on a base cache hit, which would misclassify a good
  run. `update-description` is the cosmetic post-publish job.

## Cache-hit footgun (must-know)

`PI_VERSION` defaults to `latest` in `Dockerfile.variant` but **CI must
resolve it to a concrete version string** before passing as a build-arg.
Otherwise the build-arg string is byte-identical across releases →
identical layer hash → registry buildcache silently reuses the old
layer. `resolve-versions` job in the workflow handles this.

Discovered in pi-devbox 2026-05-23 (every release v0.74.0..v0.75.5
shipped the same image bytes); preventatively fixed for `PI_VERSION` +
`PI_FORK_REF` + `PI_OBSMEM_REF`.

## Smoke-test gate

`scripts/smoke-test.sh` runs amd64-only against a freshly-built variant
image. Verifies binaries, repo clones, runtime deployment (waits for
keybindings + mempalace bridge + ≥4 extensions before sampling — fixes
the parallel-build-load race documented in opencode-devbox c6f9d11
2026-06-08), build-time leftovers (see below), and image size threshold
(3800 MB in `SIZE_THRESHOLD_MB`; revisit after a few releases as actuals
settle — this doc said 3500 until 2026-09-11, after the bar had already
moved twice).

If smoke fails on size threshold but build is otherwise fine: bump
`SIZE_THRESHOLD_MB` in scripts/smoke-test.sh in a follow-up commit and
re-run. The threshold exists to catch *runaway* growth (an accidental
texlive bake-in, a forgotten chrome dependency), not to block ordinary
upstream bumps.

**The size gate is not a substitute for naming the residue.** It carries
~225 MB of deliberate margin, so v1.9.1 shipped +131 MB of pure build
residue — 110 MB of it npm's own download cache under `/root/.npm`, the
rest foreign platform packages — and stayed green. Four named assertions
now cover that ground: no foreign npm-11 platform packages beyond the
host arch (`@esbuild/*`, `@mariozechner/clipboard-*`), no `/root/.npm` in
the image, and — because the prune's real risk is *removing something
needed*, not size — esbuild must compile TS and clipboard must load its
native binding at **every** install site.

Two failure shapes to copy from those, both of which bit here:
- `test ! -d /root/.npm` on mode-700 `/root` passes for a **permission**
  error, so the cache assertion refuses to run as non-root. Watch for
  this in any assertion about a path you may not be allowed to read.
- `node -e 'require("esbuild")'` resolves by walking up from the CURRENT
  DIRECTORY, so it fails with `MODULE_NOT_FOUND` from `/workspace` on a
  perfectly healthy image (esbuild is nested inside the pi trees;
  `NODE_PATH` is unset). Always path-qualify: `require("<abs>/esbuild")`.
  A runbook shipped the bare form with "if this fails, revert the
  release" attached, and it duly went red for the wrong reason.

## Build pipeline notes

- **Two-phase**: base + variant. Base is rebuilt only when
  `Dockerfile.base`, `rootfs/`, or `entrypoint*.sh` change (CI computes
  a content hash and probes Hub for an existing `base-<hash>` tag).
- **`base-latest` alias** is promoted from `base-<hash>` via `crane copy`
  (manifest copy, no rebuild) only when the base actually changed.
- **`docker buildx build --push` retry**: 3 attempts with backoff for
  transient Hub blips. Deterministic failures fail all 3 and the job
  fails as expected.
- **Registry buildcache disabled**: buildkit's cache-export hits HTTP 400
  on Hub CDN since ~2026-05-23. Image push works fine; we pay the full
  base build on Dockerfile.base change, but base tags are content-
  addressed so unchanged bases short-circuit at the probe step.

## Decoupling history (briefly)

Pre-v1.0.0 pi-devbox was `FROM joakimp/pi-devbox:base-pi-only`, where
`base-pi-only` was a tag built by **opencode-devbox CI** (with
`INSTALL_OPENCODE=false` in their variant Dockerfile) and pushed under
the pi-devbox repo as an internal building-block tag. This setup
required rebuilding opencode-devbox before pi-devbox could be tagged
and meant pi-devbox docs needed cross-referencing into opencode-devbox.

v1.0.0 brings pi install logic into this repo, drops the cross-repo
dependency, and the `base-pi-only*` tags from opencode-devbox become
deprecated artifacts (to be removed in opencode-devbox v2.0.0).

## What we DON'T install (and why)

- **No texlive** (~600 MB–1 GB). PDF export from pandoc / pi-studio works
  out of the box via **`typst`** (~30 MB static binary), which the base ships
  as the pandoc PDF engine (`pandoc --pdf-engine=typst`) — small enough to live
  in base rather than a dedicated `:latest-studio-tex` variant. We don't bake in
  a full TeX Live: it's heavy and typst covers the common Markdown→PDF case.
  Users needing LaTeX-exact output can install the higher-fidelity fallback on
  demand: `sudo apt-get install texlive-xetex texlive-latex-recommended` (then
  `pandoc --pdf-engine=xelatex`).
- **pi-studio** ships in the `:latest-studio` variant (since v1.1.0),
  vendored to `/opt/pi-studio` and registered at container start via
  `pi install /opt/pi-studio` (see Dockerfile.variant `INSTALL_STUDIO`).
  The default `:latest` image stays studio-free. Note: pi-studio binds
  `127.0.0.1` inside the container, so browser access needs host
  networking or the bundled `studio-expose` bridge (socat; auto-starts
  when `STUDIO_EXPOSE=1`) — see README "Using pi-studio".
- **No Julia/R/GHCi/Clojure runtimes**. Use `uv run --with X` for
  Python REPLs; `apt install` other-language runtimes ad-hoc per
  container if needed.

## Backward compatibility

- The host `~/.mempalace` bind-mount path is unchanged.
- Volume names (`devbox-pi-config`, `devbox-ssh-local`,
  `devbox-shell-history`, `devbox-zoxide`, `devbox-nvim-data`,
  `devbox-uv`; optional `devbox-palace`, `devbox-chroma-cache`) are
  unchanged.
- `~/.pi/agent/` layout inside the container is unchanged; existing
  named volumes work without recreation.
- The `:latest` and `vX.Y.Z` Hub tags continue to point at a "base + pi"
  image. Same tag, same shape, just built differently.