Octo Agent

OctoMesh Developer Agent

Purpose

Developer-facing debugging and investigation agent for OctoMesh. This skill provides deep platform knowledge for safely investigating bugs, performing selective builds, inspecting database state, and rolling back when things go wrong.

Complements the octo-devtools skill (build/start/stop operations) and octo skill (CLI/data exploration). This skill focuses on the why and how of debugging — understanding the build dependency chain, CK model internals, and safe investigation workflows.

Prerequisites:

• octo-devtools skill — this skill reuses its PowerShell wrapper (run_pwsh.sh) for build commands
• MongoDB MCP server — must be configured and connected for direct database diagnostic queries
• Workspace root — backup/restore operations require the working directory to be the OctoMesh monorepo workspace root (where octo-tools/ lives)

Decision Tree

When a developer needs help, determine the right approach:

Developer has a problem
├── "Something is broken at runtime"
│   ├── Check service health endpoints
│   ├── Check service logs (logFiles/*.log)
│   ├── Query MongoDB for CK model states
│   └── See: Debugging Workflows reference
│
├── "I need to test a risky change"
│   ├── Create Docker volume backup FIRST
│   ├── Make the change + rebuild selectively
│   ├── Observe results
│   └── Restore if needed
│
├── "Build is failing / packages not found"
│   ├── Check build dependency chain
│   ├── Verify NuGet packages in ./nuget/
│   ├── Consider clearing global NuGet cache
│   └── See: Build System reference
│
├── "CK model is broken / ResolveFailed"
│   ├── Query CkModel collection for states
│   ├── Check dependency references
│   ├── Identify orphaned version references
│   └── See: CK Model Internals reference
│
└── "I need to understand how X works"
    ├── CK model YAML, versioning → CK Model Internals
    ├── Build chain, DebugL, NuGet → Build System
    ├── Database, tenants, backup → Database Operations
    └── Test patterns, fixtures → Debugging Workflows

Safe Investigation Protocol

For any investigation that might corrupt data:

1. Backup — Stop infrastructure, create named backup, restart
2. Baseline — Record current database state (query, save to temp file)
3. Change — Apply the minimal change to reproduce or test
4. Observe — Check health, query database, review logs
5. Restore — If something broke, stop everything and restore the backup

Use Backup-OctoInfrastructure -Name <name> and Restore-OctoInfrastructure -Name <name> for Docker volume snapshots. Use Get-OctoInfrastructureBackup to list and Remove-OctoInfrastructureBackup -Name <name> to delete. Infrastructure must be stopped first.

For full backup/restore procedures, read references/database-operations.md.

Selective Build Strategy

Build only what's needed to minimize iteration time. Invoke-BuildAll enforces this explicit order (each repo's packages are copied to ./nuget/ for downstream consumers):

mm-common → octo-distributedEventHub → octo-construction-kit-engine → octo-sdk
  → octo-construction-kit-engine-mongodb → octo-common-services
    → octo-mesh-adapter → octo-bot-services
      → octo-communication-controller-services (System.Communication, consumed by octo-ai-services)
        → [remaining service repos, alphabetical]

Key principle: A change in a library repo needs everything downstream of it rebuilt too — and only Invoke-BuildAll propagates the NuGet packages that make that happen. Reserve Invoke-Build for a single service repo that publishes no package.

For the full dependency chain, NuGet package mappings, and selective build commands, read references/build-system.md.

CK Model Debugging

CK (Construction Kit) models define the entity type system. Each tenant's CkModel collection shows model health:

Common cause of ResolveFailed: A base model (e.g., System) was version-bumped without recompiling all dependent models. The old version ID gets deleted, leaving orphaned references. A multi-version conflict (two incompatible versions of the same model resolved transitively) surfaces as fatal error code 66 at compile time.

CK dependency diagnostics:

• octo-cli -c LibraryStatus (-na/--needs-action to filter) — lists installed CK models with catalog availability and which need action. Read-only.
• octo-cli -c FixAll (-w wait, -y skip confirm) — imports/updates all models needing a fix. Mutating.
• Compare-CkVersions <otherBranch> [-Details] — diffs every ckModel.yaml under $Global:ROOTPATH against another branch checkout; sets $LASTEXITCODE to the count of non-equal models. Use after a merge or branch switch to spot a CK version that drifted. Read-only.

Blueprint failures: Blueprint state is stored tenant-locally in three CK types — System/BlueprintInstallation, System/BlueprintHistory, System/BlueprintBackup (no longer a cross-tenant collection). When a blueprint apply fails, query those collections in the tenant DB and check the platform event log for BlueprintOperationFailed events.

For CK model YAML format, versioning semantics, source generation, migrations, and blueprint internals, read references/ck-model-internals.md.

Database Diagnostics

Query MongoDB directly via the MongoDB MCP server to diagnose issues. Key collections per tenant database:

System tenant database: octosystem. Default test tenant: meshtest. Local replica set connection string: mongodb://localhost:27017,localhost:27018,localhost:27019/?replicaSet=rs.

For diagnostic queries, tenant operations, and log analysis, read references/database-operations.md.

Test Isolation

Run targeted tests without full suite:

dotnet test -c DebugL --filter "FullyQualifiedName~SpecificTest"   # One test
dotnet test -c DebugL --filter "FullyQualifiedName!~SystemTests"   # Skip system tests
dotnet test ./specific-repo -c DebugL                               # One repo

Most integration tests use Testcontainers.MongoDb (ephemeral MongoDB). System tests require running services.

For test framework details and fixture patterns, read references/debugging-workflows.md.

Service Architecture Quick Reference

Start-Octo starts bot, identity, asset-repo, mesh-adapter, comm-controller, admin panel, MCP, and AI services by default. reportingService and aiWorker default to $false (off). MCP/AI start only if their repo directory exists locally.

References

Consult these for detailed procedures:

• references/build-system.md — DebugL configuration, NuGet dependency chain, selective build strategies, service startup options
• references/ck-model-internals.md — CK model YAML format, versioning, dependency resolution, source generation, migrations, MongoDB collections
• references/database-operations.md — Docker volume backup/restore, MongoDB diagnostic queries, multi-tenant data, service logs, health endpoints
• references/debugging-workflows.md — Safe investigation protocol, bug isolation steps, common bug categories, test framework reference