Preset Health

Preset Health Check (read-only)

A repeatable, read-only procedure for testing whether saved presets are healthy, classifying any failures, and producing an actionable report — without printing or mutating credentials.

Read-only contract. This reference enumerates, probes, and reports. It does not edit ~/.lingtai-tui/presets/saved/*.json, agent init.json, or any manifest.preset.allowed list. Remediation is described as a recommendation for the human to confirm and apply (or to explicitly authorize you to apply through the normal preset tooling). Never run a "fix" step automatically.

When to use

• The human asks "are my presets still working?" or "which preset is broken?"
• system(action="presets") surfaced a non-ok connectivity status (for example no_credentials, an auth failure, or an unreachable endpoint).
• A provider rotated keys, retired a model, or moved an endpoint and you need to find every saved preset affected.
• A new agent needs a clear procedure to triage presets before relying on them.

Where saved presets live

Saved (user-owned) presets are JSON files here:

~/.lingtai-tui/presets/saved/*.json

Built-in templates live under ~/.lingtai-tui/presets/templates/ and are rewritten on every lingtai-tui bootstrap — the directory itself is the marker distinguishing built-in from user-owned, so a health check focuses on saved/. The skill tree this reference ships in is extracted to ~/.lingtai-tui/utilities/swiss-knife/reference/preset-health/SKILL.md.

Each preset's relevant shape (other fields omitted):

{
  "manifest": {
    "llm": {
      "provider": "gemini",
      "model": "gemini-2.0-flash",
      "base_url": "https://...",
      "api_key_env": "GEMINI_API_KEY"
    }
  }
}

The credential is referenced indirectly through api_key_env (an environment variable name), not stored inline. That indirection is what lets a health check report "credential missing" without ever reading the secret value.

Step 1 — Enumerate saved presets

Prefer the structured listing the runtime already exposes:

lingtai-tui presets --saved --json

This emits one entry per preset (name, description, source, path). If the CLI is unavailable, list the directory directly (read-only):

ls -1 ~/.lingtai-tui/presets/saved/*.json 2>/dev/null

For each preset, read only the non-secret config fields you need to classify it: manifest.llm.provider, manifest.llm.model, manifest.llm.base_url, and the name manifest.llm.api_key_env. Do not read or echo the value of the env var named by api_key_env.

Step 2 — Check credential presence (no secret values)

A preset that declares api_key_env needs that variable set in the agent's resolved environment. Check presence only:

# Reports set / not-set WITHOUT revealing the value.
env_name="GEMINI_API_KEY"
if [ -n "${!env_name+x}" ] && [ -n "${!env_name}" ]; then
  echo "$env_name: set"
else
  echo "$env_name: NOT set"
fi

The runtime resolves credentials the same way internally: a preset with a non-empty api_key_env is considered to have a usable credential only when that variable is non-empty (Codex is the documented exception — it authenticates via ChatGPT OAuth and declares no api_key_env). A "not set" result maps to the no_credentials class below — this is exactly the case the issue saw with gemini-test.json reporting GEMINI_API_KEY not set in environment.

Step 3 — Probe connectivity (read-only)

Reuse the live check the TUI already performs rather than inventing a new probe. /doctor runs the canonical LLM connectivity probe against the active agent's configuration; run it (or read the most recent doctor output) to see the real state. The doctor probe distinguishes these outcomes, which are the source of truth for classification:

To probe a saved preset that is not the active one without mutating anything, do not edit the agent to switch presets. Instead report what static inspection (Steps 1–2) shows, and recommend the human refresh onto that preset in a throwaway/dev agent if a live probe is required. Switching the active preset is a configuration change and is out of scope for this read-only skill.

Step 4 — Classify each preset

Map findings to a fixed taxonomy so reports are consistent:

Notes:

• model_not_found vs auth_failed: read the error detail — an authentication message points to credentials; a "model" message points to the model field. When the provider conflates them, report both as candidates.
• config_error is a static finding (bad JSON, empty provider/model, a base_url that is not a valid URL) and needs no network call. The runtime's own validation requires a non-empty summary, a tier in 1..5, and non-empty llm.provider/llm.model; a preset failing those is config_error.
• A transient class (rate_limited) should be retried before being reported as a hard failure.

Step 5 — Report safely (no secrets)

Produce a concise table. Columns: preset name, provider/model, status class, short error summary, recommended fix.

Redaction rules (mandatory):

• Never print API key values, tokens, or full Authorization headers.

• Refer to credentials by env-var name only (GEMINI_API_KEY), never value.

• If a raw error body might embed a key or signed URL, redact it: keep the status code and the human-readable message, drop query strings and bearer tokens. A safe redactor for ad-hoc error text:

  # Redact bearer tokens, sk-/key-like strings, and URL query strings.
  redact() {
    sed -E \
      -e 's/(Bearer )[A-Za-z0-9._-]+/\1[REDACTED]/g' \
      -e 's/\b(sk|key|tok)[-_][A-Za-z0-9]{6,}/[REDACTED]/g' \
      -e 's/([?&](api[_-]?key|token|key|sig)=)[^&[:space:]]+/\1[REDACTED]/gi'
  }
  

Example report shape (illustrative values):

Step 6 — Remediation guidance (recommend, do not apply)

State the smallest change and let the human confirm it. Common fixes:

• no_credentials — set the env var named by api_key_env in the agent's environment (or env_file), then system(action="refresh") so the agent re-resolves config.
• auth_failed / expired_key — rotate the credential (ask the human for a replacement key) and refresh. If the preset is simply no longer wanted on this agent, recommend removing it from manifest.preset.allowed — flag that this is a config edit requiring explicit human confirmation before anyone applies it.
• endpoint_unreachable — verify base_url, network/DNS, and provider status; do not change the URL speculatively.
• model_not_found — update manifest.llm.model to a currently-served model for that provider (human-confirmed).
• config_error — fix the malformed field; re-validate.

Every one of these is a recommendation. This skill stops at the report — it does not write to any preset or init.json.

Read-only checklist

• Listed presets via presets --json or a directory read — no writes.
• Checked credential presence, never value.
• Used /doctor's existing probe for live state; did not switch the active preset to probe another one.
• Classified each preset against the fixed taxonomy.
• Redacted all secrets and key-bearing URLs in the report.
• Presented remediation as human-confirmed recommendations only.

Found a bug or issue? If you encounter any problems with this skill, load the lingtai-issue-report skill and follow its instructions to report it.