Playa/CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

What this is

VolcanicAgenticCore is a headless, extensible agent harness for .NET 10, ported from earendil-works/pi without the terminal UI. It also ships a C# port of chem/pi-claude-code-provider, which drives the local claude CLI on a Claude subscription as a model provider. A Telegram bot is the first front end.

When porting behaviour, pi and pi-claude-code-provider are the reference: event names, JSON shapes and invariants deliberately match them.

Commands

dotnet build                                   # whole solution (VolcanicAgenticCore.slnx)
dotnet test                                    # all three test projects; no test calls a paid API
dotnet test tests/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Tests   # one project
dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~AgentLoopTests"            # one class
dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~AgentLoopTests.SomeTest"   # one test

# reference host with the scripted faux provider (no keys)
dotnet run --project samples/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Sample.Headless -- --faux "Say hello"
dotnet run --project samples/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Sample.Headless -- --model claude-code/sonnet "List the files here"

# Telegram bot
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123:abc TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USER_IDS=111111111 dotnet run --project hosts/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Telegram

Directory.Build.props sets TreatWarningsAsErrors=true, nullable and implicit usings for every non-test project, so a new warning fails the build. Test projects turn warnings-as-errors off. Tests use xunit 2.

Architecture

Read docs/architecture.md first. Key points:

• src/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Abstractions holds the contracts: messages, Model/IProvider, the streaming event protocol, ITool/Tool<TArgs>, IExtension/IExtensionApi and extension events, session entries/stores, IUserInterface, IChatChannel, and AgentSessionEvent. Extensions reference only this assembly, so it stays small and stable. Don't let runtime types leak into it.
• src/Volcanic.AgenticCore is organised as vertical slices under Features/ (Agent, Sessions, Models, Tools, Extensions, Commands, SystemPrompt, Compaction, Processes). Each slice exposes one entry type (AgentSession, SessionManager, ModelRegistry, ToolRegistry, ExtensionRunner, CommandRegistry, SystemPromptBuilder, Compactor, ProcessSpawnPolicy). Slices talk only through those entry types and the Abstractions. Hosting/ has AddAgenticCore(...) and AgenticCoreOptions; Testing/FauxProvider.cs is the scripted provider that tests and --faux use.
• One conversation = one AgentSession, built by IAgentSessionFactory.CreateAsync. Extensions are instantiated per session and each session has its own ModelRegistry, so provider registrations and extension fields are per conversation. Process-wide state has to be explicit (e.g. ClaudeLoginCoordinator.Shared).
• Two event systems. AgentSessionEvents go to hosts via session.Subscribe and are invoked synchronously on the loop. ExtensionEvents go to extensions via api.On<T>: they are mutable event args (Block, Cancel, MarkHandled, set Text/Message/...), run sequentially in load order, and some short-circuit.
• Loop invariants (from pi): providers never throw, they emit Error events. An error or abort ends the run. Tool preparation runs in source order, execution runs in parallel by default, results are appended in source order. Failed assistant messages are persisted but dropped from model context. Context overflow triggers one compaction and a retry.
• Processes: every agent-requested process gets its environment from IProcessSpawnPolicy (AgenticCoreOptions.ProcessEnvironment: deny-list, Allow, SecretValues, host hooks); AgentSession redacts SecretValues from tool output; HostProcessHardening makes the host non-dumpable on Linux, once per process. Test projects apply it with HardenHostProcess = false from a module initializer (NoHostHardening.cs).
• Persistence: a session is a tree of JSONL entries (id/parentId + leaf pointer) under ~/.volcanic/agent/sessions/<scope>/ (VOLCANIC_AGENT_DIR overrides the root). Compaction entries replace older messages when context is built.
• System prompt pulls project context from the working directory: AGENTS.md, or CLAUDE.md if there is no AGENTS.md (never both), plus PERSONA.md and MEMORY.md. File names match case-insensitively.
• Extension discovery: host code, then <cwd>/.volcanic/settings.json / .volcanic/extensions/*.dll, then the same under ~/.volcanic/agent. Earlier sources win name collisions. Each assembly loads in its own AssemblyLoadContext and shares Volcanic.AgenticCore.*, Microsoft.Extensions.* and System.* with the host.

Extensions (extensions/)

Extensions built on the public API only: providers Anthropic (Messages API), OpenAI (chat-completions compatible), ClaudeCode + ClaudeCode.Bridge; Mcp (an MCP client: stdio servers as tools, plus the Playwright browser preset; docs/mcp.md); and the GoogleCalendar feature extension (calendar tool, /calendar_connect|status|disconnect, one Google account per chat keyed by session scope, tokens under <agentDir>/google-calendar/; docs/google-calendar.md). The Claude Code provider is the most intricate piece (docs/claude-code-provider.md):

• Every model call spawns a fresh claude -p with built-in tools off and replays the whole transcript as stream-json. Core tools are exposed as MCP tools mcp__volcanic__<alias> through the Bridge, a tiny MCP server that never executes tools. On tool_use the provider kills the process and returns Done(ToolUse), and the core runs the tool.
• system/init is validated strictly (fail closed). The extension refuses to run if ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or a similar env var is set, because it is subscription-only.
• Session expiry → ClaudeLoginCoordinator runs one login flow at a time through ClaudeCodeProviderOptions.LoginUi, then replays the paused request exactly once. /claude-code-doctor and /claude-code-login are its commands.
• Tests replay recorded CLI output from tests/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Extensions.Tests/ClaudeCode/Fixtures/*.jsonl.
• Mcp: the tool catalogue is discovered once per host process (McpCatalogCache.Shared), each session starts its own server process on the first call, and tests run tests/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Extensions.Tests.FakeMcpServer.

Telegram host (hosts/Volcanic.AgenticCore.Telegram)

Long polling (Polling/, with ReconnectPolicy backoff). Each private chat gets its own AgentSession (Chats/ChatRegistry), with workspace <WorkspaceRoot>/<chatId> and session scope telegram-<chatId>. Access is limited by AllowedUserIds. Incoming messages go through Inbound/: the router takes a ChatInbox lease per message in update order, InboundComposer builds its part (reply/forward headers from MessageContext, text and photo) in the background, and the inbox flushes a batch InputDebounce (600 ms) after the last message as one prompt with a local-time header. Files, audio and voice are saved to <workspace>/inbox/ (voice transcribed by Speech/OpenAiSpeechToText when OPENAI_API_KEY is set) through InboundComposer's content steps (Inbound/InboundMedia), and Chats/TelegramChatChannel implements IChatChannel for the core send tool through ChatRenderer.RunInOrderAsync. The first allowed id is the "owner": OwnerLoginChannel sends Claude Code re-login prompts to that chat. It resolves lazily to break the DI cycle ChatRegistry → session factory → extension → ChatRegistry. Answers go out complete, not streamed (Rendering/). Tests drive the host through Support/FakeBotClient and ChatHost.

Conventions

• Commits follow Conventional Commits scoped by area: feat(claude-code): ..., fix(telegram): ..., docs(spec): ..., test(...), chore: ....
• Design specs and implementation plans live in docs/superpowers/specs/ and docs/superpowers/plans/. Update the relevant spec and the user docs in docs/ when behaviour changes.
• By design, the port leaves out pi's terminal UI, themes, keybindings, skills/prompt templates, OAuth logins and session-tree navigation commands.