AI Agents Portability Campaign

ai-agents Portability Campaign

This skill changes hooks. agent-harness-reference owns hook facts. ai-agents-empirical-probe-toolkit owns probe design. ai-agents-generation-and-release owns mirror generation and the release path.

Triggers

• run the portability campaign
• port hooks to a new harness
• copilot hook timeout regression
• verify the copilot runtime contract
• new copilot cli release, recheck the contract

Process

Phase 0: Load the Settled Contract

Read:

1. .claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/SKILL.md
2. .claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/references/official-hook-contracts.md
3. .claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/references/probe-evidence.md
4. .agents/architecture/ADR-068-consolidated-hook-dispatcher.md
5. .agents/architecture/ADR-071-plugin-hook-runtime-contract-verification.md
6. .claude/rules/generated-artifacts.md

Do not run open-ended documentation research. Re-search or re-probe only when the reference skill's refresh rules apply.

Current load-bearing facts:

Phase 1: Classify the Source Hook

For every source registration, record:

1. Claude event and Copilot event.
2. Input payload fields in each harness.
3. Matcher target and matcher syntax.
4. Output schema.
5. Exit, crash, timeout, and malformed-output behavior.
6. Local CLI and cloud reach.
7. Whether stdout is diagnostic text or documented structured host output.

Use this repository mapping:

Why Stop stays direct: Copilot parses one final JSON document from each command hook. Concatenating two decision objects makes invalid JSON and discards both. The same parser boundary applies to additionalContext, modifiedResult, and other structured outputs. The active PostToolUse merger treats successful observer stdout as ordered, flat context text and emits one additionalContext object. Failed-observer partial output is discarded. It does not merge modifiedResult or pre-structured JSON. Dormant SessionStart and PreCompact adapters discard stdout and stderr. Their direct rollback tests preserve side effects but suppress both channels. PostToolUseFailure stays direct because exit-2 stdout becomes recovery context. Copilot documents no output field for UserPromptSubmit, so its stdout is redirected to stderr in dispatcher and direct rollback modes. Stderr is not a documented model-context path. Every unclassified event stays direct until its host contract is reviewed.

Phase 2: Change Canonical Sources

Edit the smallest canonical surface:

• Hook script: .claude/hooks/**
• Hook registrations: .claude/settings.json
• Event mapping: templates/platforms/copilot-cli.yaml
• Copilot generation: build/scripts/generate_hooks*.py and build/scripts/generate_dispatcher.py
• Runtime adapter: .claude/lib/hook_dispatch.py

Do not hand-edit src/copilot-cli/**.

Rules:

• Keep PascalCase target events when source hooks expect snake_case payloads.
• Keep script-side matcher checks as defense in depth.
• Keep canonical Claude PermissionRequest output unchanged.
• Translate only in the generated Copilot dispatcher.
• Translate Claude approve to Copilot allow.
• Translate Claude deny to Copilot deny.
• Translate Claude ask to empty stdout.
• Never map Stop to SessionEnd.
• Never consolidate structured host output without a tested, event-specific merger.
• Merge PostToolUse context text into one additionalContext.
• Capture SessionStart and PreCompact Python stdout and stderr, direct writes to file descriptors 1 and 2, and inherited child-process output on both channels. Discard the content unless a reviewed trust boundary makes it safe model context.
• Reuse the same process-level capture in Claude grouped dispatch. Python-only stream capture does not protect the single-document protocol.
• Treat unknown Claude JSON as context and continue later gates.
• Treat only event-valid Claude blocking shapes as terminal: continue: false; Stop or SubagentStop decision: block with a string reason; or nested PreToolUse permissionDecision: deny with a string reason. Fail closed on malformed object-shaped JSON, allow-shaped decisions, unsupported fields, and invalid field types.
• Reject empty, malformed, event/mode-mismatched, duplicate, or path-escaping Claude dispatch groups before any shim runs.
• Keep direct rollback commands for SessionStart and PreCompact silent on both stdout and stderr while preserving producer side effects.
• Keep PostToolUseFailure direct unless an event-specific merger preserves exit-2 recovery context.
• Discard UserPromptSubmit stdout and stderr. Do not invent fields or treat undocumented stderr as model context.
• Keep unclassified events direct. Do not assign observe mode by default.

Phase 3: Test Before Generation

Run the smallest suites that cover the changed contract:

uv run pytest \
  tests/build_scripts/test_generate_dispatcher.py \
  tests/build_scripts/test_generate_hooks.py \
  tests/test_hook_dispatch.py -q

For a launcher or cwd change, also run:

uv run pytest \
  tests/build_scripts/test_generate_hooks_runtime_contract.py \
  tests/build_scripts/test_generate_hooks_plugin_root.py -q

Every runtime-contract test needs a negative control. A test that compares the generator with its own expected string is one closed loop.

Phase 4: Regenerate All Mirrors

Use ai-agents-generation-and-release. The required outcome is one coherent change containing canonical sources and every generated artifact.

uv run python build/scripts/build_all.py

Current inventories:

• Local .claude/settings.json: six events, eight registrations.
• Vendored .claude/hooks/hooks.json: two events, four registrations.
• Generated src/copilot-cli/hooks/hooks.json: two events, two dispatcher registrations.

Expected generated Copilot hook shape:

No PermissionRequest policy hook is registered. Generic advise translation remains covered by generator and dispatcher tests for a future reviewed policy.

Only the generated PreToolUse and PostToolUse event directories may remain. Inactive event directories must be removed through ownership-proven generation.

Phase 5: Test Shipped Artifacts

uv run pytest \
  tests/build_scripts/test_copilot_dispatcher_artifact.py \
  tests/build_scripts/test_hook_contract_knowledge.py \
  tests/e2e/test_cli_hook_e2e.py -q

Run the isolated real-CLI smoke when hook paths, event names, matchers, decisions, exit handling, or timeout behavior changed:

uv run pytest tests/e2e/test_plugin_load_smoke.py -q

The smoke uses --plugin-dir; it must not install or mutate the user's default plugin.

Phase 6: Refresh Knowledge Only When Needed

If the runtime matches the settled contract, do not create a new research artifact.

If the runtime differs:

1. Pin the CLI version.
2. State the expected result before probing.
3. Use an isolated plugin and foreign cwd.
4. Capture raw stdin, cwd, env, stdout, stderr, and exit.
5. Run a negative control.
6. Compare the previous pinned version when possible.
7. Update the official sidecar, probe evidence, affected ADRs, tests, generated mirrors, and Serena memory together.

Do not replace an official statement with a single probe. Record the conflict and scope the observation to the measured version.

Anti-Patterns

Extension Points

When a harness adds an event or output field, update agent-harness-reference first. Then extend this campaign's mapping, generator tests, shipped-artifact tests, real CLI probe, and generated mirrors together.

Verification

• Official sidecar and probe evidence were read.
• Each hook has an event, payload, matcher, output, failure, and cloud classification.
• PermissionRequest ask produces empty stdout.
• No multi-producer structured output is concatenated.
• PreCompact remains available in eventRemap, even with no active vendored registration.
• Canonical and generated artifacts changed together.
• Targeted generator and runtime tests pass.
• Real CLI ran for runtime-only changes.
• Both project-toolkit plugin manifests are still version-free (validate_plugin_version_bump.py exits 0).
• No stale contract claim remains in requirements, audits, memories, or mirrors.

Provenance and Maintenance

Verified 2026-08-14 against .claude/settings.json, .claude/hooks/hooks.json, generated Copilot manifests, ADR-068, ADR-071, ADR-085, agent-harness-reference, and the hook contract knowledge tests.

Refresh this campaign after a host CLI version change, hook inventory change, dispatcher design change, or vendor documentation update. First refresh agent-harness-reference and its official and empirical sidecars. Then amend affected ADRs, review them through adr-review, regenerate every mirror, and rerun this skill's verification commands. Do not preserve dated inventory counts as current operational guidance.