# PRD prd-new: Forge native integration

- **Status:** Draft
- **Author:** claude
- **Created:** 2026-06-29
- **Issue:** #317

## Summary

Add a webhook-driven orchestration layer that lets Gitea issues and PR comments
drive bot-bottle sessions end-to-end with no operator in the loop for the happy
path. An issue assigned to a member of the configured agent org and labelled
with an agent name triggers a headless bottle launch; the bottle processes the
issue, opens a PR, and interacts with the forge through a **forge sidecar** —
the agent never touches the Gitea API or its credentials directly. The agent
calls `signal_done(status, summary)` on the sidecar when a work unit is
complete; the sidecar relays that to the orchestrator over a queue dir (the same
pattern as the supervise sidecar), so completion is an unambiguous in-band
signal rather than a comment the orchestrator has to parse. The orchestrator
freezes the bottle. Subsequent PR comments rehydrate the frozen bottle. The
bottle is destroyed when the PR closes.

The forge sidecar is backed by a `Forge` abstract class with per-provider
implementations (Gitea first), so the agent's prompts and the sidecar protocol
stay forge-agnostic. The sidecar logs forge operations semantically ("read PR
description", "posted comment", "signalled done"), giving richer provenance than
post-hoc egress-byte parsing, and enforces a **read-anywhere / write-scoped**
permission model: the agent may read for context but may only write to the
issue and PRs it was assigned.

Run provenance is exposed through a **provenance API** (the sidecar's structured
operation log plus the run's metadata), not posted back into the forge. We do
not surface a provenance footer in the PR — the audit record lives behind the
API where it can be retained and queried, rather than as an editable comment.

The separation of concerns across the two layers: bot-bottle owns the headless
launch primitives, the forge sidecar + `Forge` abstraction, and forge state.
`bot-bottle-orchestrator` (separate binary) owns the webhook listener, bottle
lifecycle loop, and monitoring dashboard; it calls into bot-bottle via
`./cli.py orchestrate`, a thin wrapper command. This PRD covers bot-bottle's
side of that contract.

## Problem

Today an operator must open the TUI, select an agent and bottle, confirm the
preflight, and type prompts interactively. This blocks "issue → PR" automation
and produces no durable audit record of what the agent did. The security model
already provides the right isolation and egress controls, and `start --headless`
(#315) already gives `bot-bottle-orchestrator` a non-interactive launch path.
The missing pieces are a headless `resume` counterpart for rehydrating frozen
bottles, a forge-interaction surface the agent uses to read context, post
comments, and signal completion, and the provenance trail that makes the audit
story legible to reviewers on every PR.

That forge-interaction surface could be built two ways: (2) give the agent the
Gitea API directly with cred-proxy injecting the token, or (3) put a forge
sidecar between the agent and the forge. This PRD takes **option 3**. The
deciding factors: a sidecar `signal_done` call is an unambiguous completion
signal where comment-parsing is a correctness risk that surfaces in production;
the sidecar produces a semantic audit trail rather than HTTP bytes, which is
load-bearing for provenance (the stated product priority); and the sidecar can
enforce scope tighter than repo-wide API-key permissions, reducing blast radius
for a prompt-injected agent. The costs — a second sidecar process per forge run,
a new failure mode if it crashes, and per-forge implementation cost — are
accepted as the price of those properties.

## Goals / Success Criteria

1. Headless launch already exists: `./cli.py start <agent> --headless --prompt`
   (#315) runs non-interactively with no TUI selectors or y/N preflight. This
   PRD builds on it rather than re-introducing it. The remaining gap is a
   matching headless `resume` path (`./cli.py resume --headless`), since
   rehydrating a frozen bottle for a new prompt is required by the freeze /
   rehydrate loop and `resume` has no non-interactive entry point today.
2. An issue assigned to a member of the configured org (`FORGE_ORG`, default
   `bot-bottle`) and labelled `bot-bottle:<agent-name>` is the trigger
   convention. Org membership is verified via the Gitea API at event time.
3. Forge-targeted bottles run a **forge sidecar** that exposes a small,
   forge-agnostic API (comment/issue/PR CRUD plus `signal_done`) over the same
   queue-dir + HTTP/JSON-RPC machinery as the supervise sidecar. The agent calls
   the sidecar; it never sees the forge token or forge-specific endpoints.
4. The sidecar is backed by a `Forge` abstract class. Gitea is the first
   concrete implementation; adding a forge means a new subclass, not changes to
   the agent prompt or sidecar protocol. The sidecar enforces a read-anywhere /
   write-scoped model: writes are limited to the assigned issue and its PRs;
   reads are unrestricted for context.
5. The agent calls `signal_done(status, summary)` on the sidecar when a work
   unit is complete; the sidecar relays it to the orchestrator over a queue dir.
   This is the done signal — no comment parsing. A watchdog timeout
   (configurable, default 30 min) causes the orchestrator to treat the run as
   done-without-self-report if the agent exits without signalling.
6. Run provenance (agent name, bottle name(s), slug, timing, exit code,
   gitleaks result, egress summary, and the sidecar's semantic operation log)
   is available through a provenance API. It is **not** surfaced as a PR footer
   or any other forge comment.
7. Forge state (issue → slug, status) is persisted in a local SQLite database
   under `~/.bot-bottle/` and survives orchestrator restarts.
8. `./cli.py orchestrate status` lists active forge-managed bottles and their
   issue/PR URLs.
9. Unit tests cover: label parsing, org-membership check path, forge state
   store CRUD (SQLite), headless launch arg construction, forge env var
   injection, sidecar request dispatch through the `Forge` abstraction,
   write-scope enforcement (reject writes outside the assigned issue/PRs), and
   `signal_done` queue relay.

## Non-goals

- Webhook signature verification (HMAC-SHA256). Added as a follow-up.
- The `bot-bottle-orchestrator` binary itself — this PRD covers bot-bottle's
  side of the interface only. The orchestrator is a separate project.
- GitHub or GitLab support.
- Multiple simultaneous forge bottles per issue.
- Automatic retry on agent error exit.
- Bottle destruction on issue close (PR close only; issue close is ambiguous).
- Concurrent multi-issue handling (one blocking run per orchestrator process).
- A monitoring dashboard (orchestrator-side concern).
- Folding `DeployKeyProvisioner` into the `Forge` abstraction. Deploy-key
  provisioning runs at bottle-provision time on the host; the forge sidecar runs
  inside the bottle at agent time. The two have different lifecycles and actors,
  so coupling them into one class is deferred to a follow-up. This PRD only
  shares the Gitea HTTP client between them.

## Design

### Targeting convention

An issue is forge-targeted when **both** hold:

- At least one assignee is a member of the Gitea org named by `FORGE_ORG`
  (default `bot-bottle`). Checked via `GET /api/v1/orgs/{org}/members/{user}`.
- At least one label has the prefix `bot-bottle:`. The suffix names the agent
  manifest, e.g. `bot-bottle:implementer` → agent `implementer`.

`FORGE_ORG` is read at orchestrate-command startup. It is not embedded in
manifests or state files; the orchestrator stamps its value into log output for
auditability.

An optional label `bot-bottle-bottle:<name>` overrides bottle selection. When
absent the agent's default bottle is used.

### `./cli.py orchestrate` — the thin wrapper

```
./cli.py orchestrate start  --agent AGENT [--bottle BOTTLE ...] --prompt PROMPT
                            [--label LABEL] [--backend BACKEND]
./cli.py orchestrate resume --slug SLUG --prompt PROMPT [--backend BACKEND]
./cli.py orchestrate status
```

`orchestrate start` is a thin shim over the already-shipped `start --headless`
(#315): it forwards agent / bottle / label / prompt and adds the forge-specific
wiring (`forge_env`, sidecar launch). It does not re-implement headless launch.
The caller (`bot-bottle-orchestrator`) manages freeze, state, and the forge
sidecar's done signal around it.

`orchestrate resume` is the shim over the new `resume --headless` (below).

`orchestrate status` prints the forge state table.

### Headless primitives — what exists vs. what's new

Headless **start** already shipped in #315 and this PRD reuses it as-is:

- `./cli.py start <agent> --headless --prompt TEXT` — no TUI selectors, no y/N
  preflight. Internally `_start_headless()` calls the shared `_launch_bottle()`
  with `assume_yes=True` and `headless_prompt_text=prompt`.
- The prompt is delivered through `AgentProvider.headless_prompt(prompt)` —
  claude `-p`, codex positional, pi `-p`. The orchestrator does **not** hand-roll
  agent args; it relies on this provider abstraction. (An earlier draft proposed
  `start_headless` / `attach_agent_headless` helpers that constructed
  `--no-interactive`/`-p` directly — those are dropped as redundant with, and
  divergent from, what #315 merged.)

Two additions are needed on top of #315:

**1. A `forge_env` hook on the headless launch path.** The orchestrator needs to
pass forge context + token through to the forge sidecar launched alongside the
agent. This is a parameter threaded into `_launch_bottle` (the same core
`start --headless` already uses), not a parallel launch function. The agent
process itself does not receive the token.

**2. `resume --headless`** — new in `bot_bottle/cli/resume.py`, mirroring the
`--headless` flag on `start`:

```
./cli.py resume <slug> --headless --prompt TEXT
```

It rehydrates a frozen bottle and runs one headless prompt via the same
`assume_yes` + `headless_prompt` path, returning the agent's exit code. `resume`
has no non-interactive entry point today, so this is genuinely new work rather
than a rename of an existing helper.

### Forge sidecar

Forge-targeted bottles run a forge sidecar alongside the agent, mirroring the
supervise sidecar: a per-bottle process that exposes an HTTP/JSON-RPC endpoint
over a Unix socket and relays events to the orchestrator through a queue dir.
The agent calls the sidecar; the sidecar holds the forge token and makes the
actual forge API calls. The agent never receives the credential and never sees a
forge-specific endpoint — swapping Gitea for another forge does not change the
agent prompt or the sidecar protocol.

The sidecar is configured at launch from the forge context (owner, repo, issue,
PR) and the token, supplied by the orchestrator — not baked into the agent
manifest. Because the sidecar owns the token, forge traffic does not need a
cred-proxy egress route on the agent; the agent's egress policy is unchanged by
forge targeting.

**Sidecar protocol** (forge-agnostic; each method maps to a `Forge` call):

| Method | Scope | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| `read_issue(number)` | read-anywhere | Read an issue body for context |
| `read_pr(number)` | read-anywhere | Read a PR (incl. merge state) for context |
| `read_comments(number)` | read-anywhere | Read a thread for context |
| `post_comment(number, body)` | write-scoped | Post to the assigned issue/PR |
| `update_description(number, body)` | write-scoped | Edit the assigned issue/PR body |
| `signal_done(status, summary)` | — | Relay completion to the orchestrator |

Issues and PRs are distinct domain objects (`Issue` vs `PullRequest`) read
through distinct methods; a PR carries merge state an issue does not.

**Scope enforcement** is read-anywhere / write-scoped: read methods accept any
issue/PR number for context; write methods are rejected unless the target is the
assigned issue or one of its PRs. This is tighter than Gitea's repo-wide API-key
permissions and bounds the blast radius of a prompt-injected agent. Rejections
are logged semantically (operation, target, reason) so the audit trail records
attempted out-of-scope writes, not just allowed ones.

**Semantic audit**: every sidecar call is logged as a structured operation
("read PR #318 description", "posted comment to #317", "signalled done:
success") rather than as opaque HTTP bytes. This log feeds provenance directly,
with no post-hoc egress-log parsing.

### `Forge` abstraction — `bot_bottle/contrib/forge/`

The sidecar dispatches to a `Forge` abstract class. Each provider implements the
operations behind the sidecar protocol:

```python
class Forge(abc.ABC):
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def read_issue(self, number: int) -> Issue: ...
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def read_pr(self, number: int) -> PullRequest: ...
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def read_comments(self, number: int) -> list[Comment]: ...
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def post_comment(self, number: int, body: str) -> None: ...
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def update_description(self, number: int, body: str) -> None: ...
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def is_org_member(self, org: str, username: str) -> bool: ...
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def get_pr_for_issue(self, number: int) -> int | None: ...
    @abc.abstractmethod
    def is_pr_open(self, number: int) -> bool: ...
```

`Issue` and `PullRequest` are separate frozen dataclasses — a PR adds `merged`.
`ScopedForge` wraps a concrete `Forge` to enforce the read-anywhere /
write-scoped model (`post_comment` / `update_description` raise `ForgeScopeError`
outside the assigned issue and PRs).

`GiteaForge` is the first and only concrete implementation in this PRD. It wraps
the Gitea HTTP client (below). Adding GitHub or GitLab later is a new subclass;
the sidecar, protocol, and agent prompt are untouched.

> **Deferred:** `DeployKeyProvisioner` is *not* folded into `Forge` here.
> Deploy-key provisioning runs on the host at provision time; the sidecar runs
> in the bottle at agent time. They have different lifecycles and actors, so a
> shared abstract base would couple two unrelated auth contexts. For now they
> only share the Gitea HTTP client; a later PRD can revisit unification.

### Forge env vars

The orchestrator passes forge context to the **sidecar** (not the agent) at
launch. The agent does not need owner/repo/issue env vars to construct API
calls, since it only names issue/PR numbers to the sidecar:

| Var | Example | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| `FORGE_GITEA_API` | `https://gitea.dideric.is/api/v1` | Base URL the sidecar calls |
| `FORGE_OWNER` | `didericis` | Repo owner |
| `FORGE_REPO` | `bot-bottle` | Repo name |
| `FORGE_ISSUE_NUMBER` | `317` | Assigned issue (defines write scope) |
| `FORGE_PR_NUMBER` | `318` | Assigned PR (empty until PR exists) |

The agent's forge-specific prompt instructs it to call `signal_done` on the
sidecar when a work unit is complete, and to use the sidecar for any
comment/description writes. The instruction is forge-agnostic and is part of the
forge prompt overlay, not the base agent manifest, so non-forge runs are
unaffected.

### Done signal and watchdog

The agent calls `signal_done(status, summary)` on the sidecar when it finishes a
work unit. The sidecar writes the event to its queue dir; the orchestrator reads
it and:

1. Reads the forge state for `(owner, repo, issue_number)`.
2. If `status == "running"`, treats the event as the done signal: freezes the
   bottle and sets `status = "frozen"`. Provenance is recorded via the
   provenance API — no comment is posted to the forge.

Because completion is an explicit `signal_done` call, the orchestrator does not
parse comment text to detect "done", and intermediate comments the agent posts
mid-run cannot be mistaken for completion.

**Watchdog**: the orchestrator tracks `last_checkin_at` in forge state, updated
on each sidecar event. A background thread wakes every minute. If
`now - last_checkin_at > FORGE_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT` (default 30 min, configurable
via env) and `status == "running"`, the orchestrator treats the run as
done-without-self-report and freezes the bottle, flagging the run as incomplete
in the provenance record.

**Sidecar-death failure mode**: if the forge sidecar crashes mid-run the agent
loses forge access while the bottle is otherwise healthy. The orchestrator
detects a dead sidecar (socket/queue gone) the same way it detects a stalled
agent and falls back to the watchdog path.

### Forge state — `bot_bottle/contrib/gitea/forge_state.py`

State is stored in a local SQLite database at `~/.bot-bottle/bot-bottle.db`.
Access goes through a thin CRUD interface, `ForgeStateStore`, so the storage
location/engine can be swapped without touching callers. `SqliteForgeStateStore`
is the first implementation.

The `forge_state` table is keyed by `(owner, repo, issue_number)` and carries:
`slug`, `agent_name`, `bottle_names` (JSON), `backend_name`, `agent_git_user`,
`pr_number` (nullable), `status`, `last_checkin_at`.

`status`: `"running"` | `"frozen"` | `"destroyed"`.

Store interface:

```python
class ForgeStateStore(abc.ABC):
    def upsert(self, state: ForgeState) -> None: ...
    def get(self, owner: str, repo: str, issue_number: int) -> ForgeState | None: ...
    def delete(self, owner: str, repo: str, issue_number: int) -> None: ...
    def all(self) -> list[ForgeState]: ...

class SqliteForgeStateStore(ForgeStateStore):
    def __init__(self, db_path: Path | None = None) -> None: ...
```

`upsert` uses `INSERT OR REPLACE` so a re-run for the same issue overwrites in
place. The schema is created on first open.

### Provenance API

Run provenance — agent, bottle(s), slug, timing, exit code, gitleaks result,
egress summary, watchdog-fired flag, and the sidecar's semantic operation log —
is exposed through a **provenance API**, not posted into the forge. There is no
provenance footer or run-summary comment.

The rationale (per the monetization positioning): a PR comment is mutable by any
maintainer, unsigned, and per-PR, so it is worthless as an audit record and
invites false trust. The authoritative record therefore lives behind the API,
where it can be retained, queried, and (eventually) signed. Whether any
projection of it ever appears in the forge is a separate, out-of-scope decision;
this PR does not build one.

The API surface itself (schema, transport, signing, retention) is **out of scope
for this PRD** and belongs with the orchestrator / control-plane work. bot-bottle
here only produces the raw material: the sidecar's semantic operation log and the
run metadata the orchestrator collects.

### Gitea HTTP client — `bot_bottle/contrib/gitea/client.py`

`GiteaForge` (and the existing `GiteaDeployKeyProvisioner`) share one thin HTTP
client. Unlike the option-2 design, the token is held by the sidecar process and
passed to the client directly — there is no agent-side cred-proxy route to
inject it, because the agent never makes forge calls.

```python
class GiteaClient:
    def __init__(self, *, api_url: str, owner: str, repo: str, token: str) -> None: ...
    def is_org_member(self, org: str, username: str) -> bool: ...
    def get_issue(self, number: int) -> dict: ...
    def get_comments(self, number: int) -> list[dict]: ...
    def post_comment(self, number: int, body: str) -> None: ...
    def patch_issue_body(self, number: int, body: str) -> None: ...
    def get_pull(self, number: int) -> dict: ...
```

`GiteaForge` adapts this client to the `Forge` surface (mapping raw JSON to
`Issue` / `PullRequest` / `Comment`). Sharing only the HTTP client (not an
abstract base) is the deliberate boundary between the sidecar and the deploy-key
provisioner — see the deferral note under the `Forge` abstraction.

### Implementation chunks

1. **Headless additions on top of #315** — thread a `forge_env` parameter into
   the existing `_launch_bottle` core (the one `start --headless` already uses);
   add a `--headless` path to `cli/resume.py` reusing `assume_yes` +
   `headless_prompt`. No new `start_headless`/`attach_agent_headless` helpers.
   Tests: `forge_env` reaches the sidecar/`guest_env`; `resume --headless` skips
   the TUI and y/N preflight and returns the agent exit code.

2. **Forge state** — `contrib/gitea/forge_state.py`: `ForgeState` dataclass,
   `ForgeStateStore` CRUD interface, `SqliteForgeStateStore`. Tests: round-trip,
   missing → None, `INSERT OR REPLACE` upsert, delete idempotent, `all()`
   ordering, persistence across store instances.

3. **`Forge` abstraction + Gitea client** — `contrib/forge/base.py` (`Forge`
   ABC, `ScopedForge`, `Issue` / `PullRequest` / `Comment`) and
   `contrib/gitea/client.py` + `GiteaForge`: `is_org_member`, `read_issue`,
   `read_pr`, `read_comments`, `post_comment`, `update_description`,
   `get_pr_for_issue`, `is_pr_open`. Tests: mock `urllib.request.urlopen`,
   assert payloads and 404-as-false for membership; `ScopedForge` write-scope
   enforcement.

4. **Forge sidecar** — sidecar process exposing the protocol over a Unix socket,
   queue-dir relay, write-scope enforcement, semantic op log, `signal_done`.
   Reuses the supervise sidecar bundle machinery. Tests: dispatch each method to
   the `Forge`, reject out-of-scope writes, `signal_done` writes a queue event,
   scope-rejection is logged.

5. **`./cli.py orchestrate`** — `cli/orchestrate.py` with `start`, `resume`,
   `status` subcommands wired into `cli.py`; `start` launches the forge sidecar
   alongside the agent for forge-targeted runs. Tests: arg parsing, `start`
   delegates to `start --headless`, `resume` delegates to `resume --headless`.

## Provenance

Run provenance is captured (sidecar semantic operation log + run metadata) and
exposed through a provenance API. It is deliberately **not** surfaced in the
forge — no footer, no run-summary comment. A mutable, unsigned PR comment is not
an audit record; the authoritative record lives behind the API where it can be
retained and signed. The `watchdog_fired` flag marks runs where the agent did
not self-report completion so consumers of the API know the record may be
incomplete.

The provenance API's schema, transport, signing, and retention are out of scope
for this PRD (control-plane work); bot-bottle here produces the raw material
only.
