left4me/AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md

Guidance for coding agents working in this repository.

Mission

Build left4me according to the two implementation plans:

• docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-22-l4d2-host-lib-v1.md
• docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-23-l4d2-web-app-v1.md

Do not invent architecture outside these plans unless explicitly requested.

Current Project State

• l4d2host/ and l4d2web/ implementation directories exist.
• Implementation plans remain the source of truth for contract changes and task sequencing.

Non-Negotiable Constraints

Workspace and tools

• Do not use git worktrees.
• Repo is a uv workspace; Python is pinned to 3.13 via .python-version. After fresh checkout: install uv (brew install uv / curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh), then direnv allow (or uv sync directly). See README Local development for details.

Modals: inline vs routed

Two coexisting modal mechanisms, one module (l4d2web/l4d2web/static/js/modals.js). When adding a new modal, decide which pipeline it belongs to:

Inline modal — the dialog markup is pre-rendered into the page HTML. Content is whatever's already there; the JS just calls showModal() / close() on a specific <dialog> by id. Use when:

• It's a confirmation (delete, overwrite, reset)
• It's a transient prompt mid-flow (conflict resolution during upload)
• It's a form whose URL state would be noise (rename, new-folder, new-server)
• The content has no standalone-page equivalent

Hooks: <button data-inline-modal-open="<dialog-id>"> opens; <button data-inline-modal-close> inside the dialog closes; Esc and backdrop click also close. Programmatic: window.modals.openInline(idOrEl) / window.modals.closeInline(idOrEl).

Routed modal — content is server-rendered from a URL and lands in the persistent <dialog id="modal-container"> slot. URL gains ?modal=<path>, refresh + share + back/forward all work. Use when:

• The content has standalone-page meaning (editor, detail view, settings panel)
• "Share this view" or "refresh-stays-here" matters
• The URL state earns its keep

Hooks: <a data-routed-modal href="<path>"> opens (full-page nav fallback if JS fails); <button data-routed-modal-dismiss> inside the swapped content closes. Programmatic: window.modals.openRouted(path) / window.modals.closeRouted().

Conventions for routed-modal templates (templates that {% extends base_layout %}, where base_layout resolves to _modal_partial.html for HX-Modal: 1 requests and base.html otherwise — see app.py:inject_base_layout):

• The outermost element of {% block content %} is a <div>, NOT a <dialog>. The persistent slot in base.html already provides top-layer + backdrop + focus-trap + Esc-to-close semantics. Nested <dialog> collapses to 2 px in every browser.
• Close buttons use data-routed-modal-dismiss (NOT the inline-modal attribute). modals.js delegates at document level.
• Form-bearing content needs document-level event delegation for submit/save/delete, gated on event.target.closest("#modal-content"). Direct binding to elements in the swapped-in fragment only works in standalone mode — HTMX-swapped content arrives as fresh DOM nodes with no listeners attached. See files-overlay.js lines ~599-664 for the canonical pattern (read data-* attributes from the swapped DOM, NOT from JS state set during open).
• CSS classes targeting modal chrome are scoped to the outer slot — dialog.modal, div.modal in components.css. The inner content div should NOT carry class="modal modal-wide" (the outer dialog owns chrome; otherwise both paint card-in-a-card).

Reference: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-17-url-addressable-modals-design.md (design + verification matrix) and the plan errata at the top of docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-17-url-addressable-modals.md.

Dev server and filesystem paths

• Production paths (/var/lib/left4me, /usr/local/lib/systemd/system, /usr/local/libexec/left4me, /etc/left4me) exist only on Linux deploy hosts. Never create or write to these on a developer machine. They are referenced in l4d2host/l4d2host/paths.py and the spec only as the production layout.
• For local dev, always use scripts/dev-server.py. It sets LEFT4ME_ROOT=./.tmp/dev-server, runs migrations, seeds demo content (admin + blueprint + script overlay + files overlay), and starts Flask on port 5051. Reset state with rm -rf .tmp/dev-server then re-run. Never invoke flask run directly — that leaves LEFT4ME_ROOT unset and the app falls back to the production /var/lib/left4me, which on macOS surfaces as "route returns 404 / empty modal / file not found" and can be mistaken for a code bug.
• All ephemeral dev state lives under .tmp/ (gitignored). Use $TMPDIR only for transient files outside the repo. Do NOT use /tmp, ~/Library/Application Support, or any system path for project state — only .tmp/ (project-local) or $TMPDIR (sandbox-blessed).
• Symptom-to-cause translation: if a route returns 404 or behaves as if the filesystem is empty, the first diagnosis is "LEFT4ME_ROOT is wrong" (defaulted to the production path), not "code bug." Restart via scripts/dev-server.py.

Planning artifacts

• Design specs live in docs/superpowers/specs/ as YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md.
• Implementation plans live in docs/superpowers/plans/ as YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md (suffix the topic with -v1/-v2/etc. if a plan is versioned).
• Commit both to git as soon as the user approves them.
• Do not leave specs or plans outside this repo. The ~/.claude/plans/<slug>.md plan-mode scratch file is acceptable while plan mode is open; the persisted artifact must end up under docs/superpowers/ and be committed.

Naming and boundaries

• Use l4d2 naming consistently.
• Keep host library and web app as separate components.
• Do not collapse them into one package.

Host library (l4d2host / l4d2ctl)

• Exposed CLI write command set is fixed:
  • install
  • initialize <name> -f <spec.yaml>
  • start <name>
  • stop <name>
  • delete <name>
• CLI read commands are allowed for web/host boundary consistency:
  • status <name> --json
  • logs <name> --lines <n> --follow/--no-follow
• Runtime paths are rooted at LEFT4ME_ROOT, defaulting to /var/lib/left4me.
• Deployment/config management owns global units under /usr/local/lib/systemd/system and privileged helpers under /usr/local/libexec/left4me.
• Overlay directories are populated by the web app (workshop downloads, managed-global refresh). The host library only mounts them.
• Fail-fast subprocess behavior; pass raw stderr; propagate return code.
• No lock manager, no rollback, no preflight runtime checks.
• Delete missing instance/runtime dirs must succeed (no-op).
• Read APIs required for web app integration:
  • get_instance_status(name)
  • stream_instance_logs(name, lines=200, follow=True)

Web app (l4d2-web-app)

• Flask + server-rendered templates + vendored HTMX.
• No external frontend framework/dependencies.
• Custom CSS with tokenized, consistent link and accent colors.
• Local username/password auth and admin flag.
• Persist command logs in job_logs table (retain indefinitely).
• Desired vs actual server state model.
• Live logs in UI for both jobs and servers.
• Web app host operations go through l4d2ctl via a host command client, not direct l4d2host imports.
• Blueprint semantics (locked):
  • private per user in v1
  • live-linked to servers
  • no server-level overrides
  • deleting in-use blueprint is blocked
  • updates apply on next action
  • servers can reassign blueprint anytime

Delivery Workflow

1. Read both plan files fully before coding.
2. Execute plan tasks in order.
3. Keep changes scoped to one task at a time.
4. Run task-level tests before moving forward.
5. Do not claim completion without command evidence.
6. Keep docs updated when behavior/contracts change.

Verification Expectations

Before claiming success on any step, run the relevant command and report actual output status.

Typical commands (once components exist):

• pytest l4d2host/tests -q
• pytest l4d2web/tests -q

Change Control

• If a requested change conflicts with this file, follow explicit user instruction.
• If plans and code diverge, update plans or flag the mismatch clearly.

End-to-end tests

The Playwright-based browser tests under l4d2web/tests/e2e/ need a chromium binary, fetched on first setup:

uv run playwright install chromium

Always invoke as uv run pytest -m e2e ... (excluded from the default fast suite via the e2e marker). Other forms crash Chromium under the macOS sandbox; only this exact invocation is exempt.

Editor bundle (CodeMirror 6)

The in-browser code editor on the blueprint config / overlay script / files-modal textareas is bundled from l4d2web/scripts/editor-src/ via esbuild and committed pre-built to l4d2web/l4d2web/static/vendor/editor.bundle.js. Source lives under l4d2web/scripts/editor-src/; design and plan at docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-17-textarea-editor-v2-design.md and docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-17-textarea-editor-v2.md.

Rebuild after editing the source:

./l4d2web/scripts/build-editor.sh

Requires node + npm locally. The script overrides the npm cache to $TMPDIR/npm-cache (set NPM_CACHE to override) to dodge root-owned files in ~/.npm/_cacache/ from older npm versions. Commit the regenerated editor.bundle.js, editor.bundle.css, and editor.bundle.sha256 alongside any source change.

Regenerate the autocomplete vocab from ./cvar_list (live L4D2 cvarlist dump committed at repo root) after replacing the dump:

./l4d2web/scripts/build-vocab.py