sandbox-agent/factory/CLAUDE.md

Project Instructions

Breaking Changes

Do not preserve legacy compatibility. Implement the best current architecture, even if breaking.

Language Policy

Use TypeScript for all source code.

• Never add raw JavaScript source files (.js, .mjs, .cjs).
• Prefer .ts/.tsx for runtime code, scripts, tests, and tooling.
• If touching old JavaScript, migrate it to TypeScript instead of extending it.

Monorepo + Tooling

Use pnpm workspaces and Turborepo.

• Workspace root uses pnpm-workspace.yaml and turbo.json.
• Packages live in packages/*.
• core is renamed to shared.
• packages/cli is disabled and excluded from active workspace validation.
• Integrations and providers live under packages/backend/src/{integrations,providers}.

CLI Status

• packages/cli is fully disabled for active development.
• Do not implement new behavior in packages/cli unless explicitly requested.
• Frontend is the primary product surface; prioritize packages/frontend + supporting packages/client/packages/backend.
• Workspace build, typecheck, and test intentionally exclude @openhandoff/cli.
• pnpm-workspace.yaml excludes packages/cli from workspace package resolution.

Common Commands

• Install deps: pnpm install
• Full active-workspace validation: pnpm -w typecheck, pnpm -w build, pnpm -w test
• Start the full dev stack: just factory-dev
• Start the local production-build preview stack: just factory-preview
• Start only the backend locally: just factory-backend-start
• Start only the frontend locally: pnpm --filter @openhandoff/frontend dev
• Start the frontend against the mock workbench client: OPENHANDOFF_FRONTEND_CLIENT_MODE=mock pnpm --filter @openhandoff/frontend dev
• Stop the compose dev stack: just factory-dev-down
• Tail compose logs: just factory-dev-logs
• Stop the preview stack: just factory-preview-down
• Tail preview logs: just factory-preview-logs

Frontend + Client Boundary

• Keep a browser-friendly GUI implementation aligned with the TUI interaction model wherever possible.
• Do not import rivetkit directly in CLI or GUI packages. RivetKit client access must stay isolated inside packages/client.
• All backend interaction (actor calls, metadata/health checks, backend HTTP endpoint access) must go through the dedicated client library in packages/client.
• Outside packages/client, do not call backend endpoints directly (for example fetch(.../api/rivet...)), except in black-box E2E tests that intentionally exercise raw transport behavior.
• GUI state should update in realtime (no manual refresh buttons). Prefer RivetKit push reactivity and actor-driven events; do not add polling/refetch for normal product flows.
• Keep the mock workbench types and mock client in packages/shared + packages/client up to date with the frontend contract. The mock is the UI testing reference implementation while backend functionality catches up.
• Keep frontend route/state coverage current in code and tests; there is no separate page-inventory doc to maintain.
• If Foundry uses a shared component from @sandbox-agent/react, make changes in sdks/react instead of copying or forking that component into Foundry.
• When changing shared React components in sdks/react for Foundry, verify they still work in the Sandbox Agent Inspector before finishing.
• When making UI changes, verify the live flow with agent-browser, take screenshots of the updated UI, and offer to open those screenshots in Preview when you finish.
• When asked for screenshots, capture all relevant affected screens and modal states, not just a single viewport. Include empty, populated, success, and blocked/error states when they are part of the changed flow.
• If a screenshot catches a transition frame, blank modal, or otherwise misleading state, retake it before reporting it.

Runtime Policy

• Runtime is Bun-native.
• Use Bun for CLI/backend execution paths and process spawning.
• Do not add Node compatibility fallbacks for OpenTUI/runtime execution.

Defensive Error Handling

• Write code defensively: validate assumptions at boundaries and state transitions.
• If the system reaches an unexpected state, raise an explicit error with actionable context.
• Do not fail silently, swallow errors, or auto-ignore inconsistent data.
• Prefer fail-fast behavior over hidden degradation when correctness is uncertain.

RivetKit Dependency Policy

For all Rivet/RivetKit implementation:

1. Use SQLite + Drizzle for persistent state.
2. SQLite is per actor instance (per actor key), not a shared backend-global database:
   • Each actor instance gets its own SQLite DB.
   • Schema design should assume a single actor instance owns the entire DB.
   • Do not add workspaceId/repoId/handoffId columns just to "namespace" rows for a given actor instance; use actor state and/or the actor key instead.
   • Example: the handoff actor instance already represents (workspaceId, repoId, handoffId), so its SQLite tables should not need those columns for primary keys.
3. Do not use backend-global SQLite singletons; database access must go through actor db providers (c.db).
4. The default dependency source for RivetKit is the published rivetkit package so workspace installs and CI remain self-contained.
5. When working on coordinated RivetKit changes, you may temporarily relink to a local checkout instead of the published package.
   • Dedicated local checkout for this workspace: /Users/nathan/conductor/workspaces/handoff/rivet-checkout
   • Preferred local link target: ../rivet-checkout/rivetkit-typescript/packages/rivetkit
   • Sub-packages (@rivetkit/sqlite-vfs, etc.) resolve transitively from the RivetKit workspace when using the local checkout.
6. Before using a local checkout, build RivetKit in the rivet repo:

   cd ../rivet-checkout/rivetkit-typescript
   pnpm install
   pnpm build -F rivetkit
   

Inspector HTTP API (Workflow Debugging)

• The Inspector HTTP routes come from RivetKit feat: inspector http api (#4144) and are served from the RivetKit manager endpoint (not /api/rivet).
• Resolve manager endpoint from backend metadata:

  curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:7741/api/rivet/metadata | jq -r '.clientEndpoint'
  

• List actors:
  • GET {manager}/actors?name=handoff
• Inspector endpoints (path prefix: /gateway/{actorId}/inspector):
  • GET /state
  • PATCH /state
  • GET /connections
  • GET /rpcs
  • POST /action/{name}
  • GET /queue?limit=50
  • GET /traces?startMs=0&endMs=<ms>&limit=1000
  • GET /workflow-history
  • GET /summary
• Auth:
  • Production: send Authorization: Bearer $RIVET_INSPECTOR_TOKEN.
  • Development: auth can be skipped when no inspector token is configured.
• Handoff workflow quick inspect:

  MGR="$(curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:7741/api/rivet/metadata | jq -r '.clientEndpoint')"
  HID="7df7656e-bbd2-4b8c-bf0f-30d4df2f619a"
  AID="$(curl -sS "$MGR/actors?name=handoff" \
    | jq -r --arg hid "$HID" '.actors[] | select(.key | endswith("/handoff/\($hid)")) | .actor_id' \
    | head -n1)"
  curl -sS "$MGR/gateway/$AID/inspector/workflow-history" | jq .
  curl -sS "$MGR/gateway/$AID/inspector/summary" | jq .
  

• If inspector routes return 404 Not Found (RivetKit), the running backend is on a RivetKit build that predates #4144; rebuild linked RivetKit and restart backend.

Workspace + Actor Rules

• Everything is scoped to a workspace.
• Workspace resolution order: --workspace flag -> config default -> "default".
• ControlPlaneActor is replaced by WorkspaceActor (workspace coordinator).
• Every actor key must be prefixed with workspace namespace (["ws", workspaceId, ...]).
• CLI/TUI/GUI must use @openhandoff/client (packages/client) for backend access; rivetkit/client imports are only allowed inside packages/client.
• Do not add custom backend REST endpoints (no /v1/* shim layer).
• We own the sandbox-agent project; treat sandbox-agent defects as first-party bugs and fix them instead of working around them.
• Keep strict single-writer ownership: each table/row has exactly one actor writer.
• Parent actors (workspace, project, handoff, history, sandbox-instance) use command-only loops with no timeout.
• Periodic syncing lives in dedicated child actors with one timeout cadence each.
• Actor handle policy:
• Prefer explicit get or explicit create based on workflow intent; do not default to getOrCreate.
• Use get/getForId when the actor is expected to already exist; if missing, surface an explicit Actor not found error with recovery context.
• Use create semantics only on explicit provisioning/create paths where creating a new actor instance is intended.
• getOrCreate is a last resort for create paths when an explicit create API is unavailable; never use it in read/command paths.
• For long-lived cross-actor links (for example sandbox/session runtime access), persist actor identity (actorId) and keep a fallback lookup path by actor id.
• Docker dev: compose.dev.yaml mounts a named volume at /root/.local/share/openhandoff/repos to persist backend-managed git clones across restarts. Code must still work if this volume is not present (create directories as needed).
• RivetKit actor c.state is durable, but in Docker it is stored under /root/.local/share/rivetkit. If that path is not persisted, actor state-derived indexes (for example, in project actor state) can be lost after container recreation even when other data still exists.
• Workflow history divergence policy:
• Production: never auto-delete actor state to resolve HistoryDivergedError; ship explicit workflow migrations (ctx.removed(...), step compatibility).
• Development: manual local state reset is allowed as an operator recovery path when migrations are not yet available.
• Storage rule of thumb:
• Put simple metadata in c.state (KV state): small scalars and identifiers like { handoffId }, { repoId }, booleans, counters, timestamps, status strings.
• If it grows beyond trivial (arrays, maps, histories, query/filter needs, relational consistency), use SQLite + Drizzle in c.db.

Testing Policy

• Never use vitest mocks (vi.mock, vi.spyOn, vi.fn). Instead, define driver interfaces for external I/O and pass test implementations via the actor runtime context.
• All external service calls (git CLI, GitHub CLI, sandbox-agent HTTP, tmux) must go through the BackendDriver interface on the runtime context.
• Integration tests use setupTest() from rivetkit/test and are gated behind HF_ENABLE_ACTOR_INTEGRATION_TESTS=1.
• End-to-end testing must run against the dev backend started via docker compose -f compose.dev.yaml up (host -> container). Do not run E2E against an in-process test runtime.
  • E2E tests should talk to the backend over HTTP (default http://127.0.0.1:7741/api/rivet) and use real GitHub repos/PRs.
  • Secrets (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY, GITHUB_TOKEN/GH_TOKEN) must be provided via environment variables, never hardcoded in the repo.
• Treat client E2E tests in packages/client/test as the primary end-to-end source of truth for product behavior.
• Keep backend tests small and targeted. Only retain backend-only tests for invariants or persistence rules that are not well-covered through client E2E.
• Do not keep large browser E2E suites around in a broken state. If a frontend browser E2E is not maintained and producing signal, remove it until it can be replaced with a reliable test.

Config

• Keep config path at ~/.config/openhandoff/config.toml.
• Evolve properties in place; do not move config location.

Project Guidance

Project-specific guidance lives in README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, and the relevant files under research/.

Keep those updated when:

• Commands change
• Configuration options change
• Architecture changes
• Plugins/providers change
• Actor ownership changes

Friction Logs

Track friction at:

• research/friction/rivet.mdx
• research/friction/sandbox-agent.mdx
• research/friction/sandboxes.mdx
• research/friction/general.mdx

Category mapping:

• rivet: Rivet/RivetKit runtime, actor model, queues, keys
• sandbox-agent: sandbox-agent SDK/API behavior
• sandboxes: provider implementations (worktree/daytona/etc)
• general: everything else

Each entry must include:

• Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Commit SHA (or uncommitted)
• What you were implementing
• Friction/issue
• Attempted fix/workaround and outcome

History Events

Log notable workflow changes to events so hf history remains complete:

• create
• attach
• push/sync/merge
• archive/kill
• status transitions
• PR state transitions

Validation After Changes

Always run and fix failures:

pnpm -w typecheck
pnpm -w build
pnpm -w test

After making code changes, always update the dev server before declaring the work complete. If the dev stack is running through Docker Compose, restart or recreate the relevant dev services so the running app reflects the latest code.