IdeaSDK/docs/commands-and-feedback.md

# Commands And Feedback

This document is the normative SDK contract for plugin commands that may launch
background work.

## Contract

Every menu click or plugin slash command follows this sequence:

```text
manifest contribution -> command id -> registered command handler -> optional task -> feedback surfaces
```

- A manifest menu item declares a `command` id; it does not run tools directly.
- A manifest slash command declares a slash `name`, autocomplete metadata and a
  `command` id; it does not run tools directly.
- Menu items and slash commands may share the same `command` id, or point to
  different handlers. The plugin owns that choice.
- The command handler is the only place that decides whether work should start.
- The host slash-command registry only lists/filters metadata and returns a
  callback dispatch effect. The plugin handler decides what the command does.
- A launched process is represented by a background task returned from
  `ctx.services.tasks.runCommand()`.
- A skipped command is represented by the command handler return value and logs,
  not by a fake task.
- Feedback objects must be stable enough for agents and programmatic callers to
  parse, and their messages must be readable by humans.
- The current human menu-click UI does not guarantee display of a command
  handler return value. When a human must see feedback from a menu action, open
  or focus a plugin layout/window from the handler with
  `ctx.services.windows.open({ layoutType, state })`.

## Preconditions

Check preconditions before calling `runCommand()`:

- `ctx.services` exists. Plugins need the `ui` or `tooling` capability for the
  service facade.
- `ctx.services.workspace.getCurrentProject()` returned a project, or the caller
  supplied a valid `projectId`.
- Required executables, environment variables and workspace files were validated,
  preferably with `ctx.services.tooling.diagnose()`.
- `ownerAgentId` is a real agent id when the work is owned by an agent workflow.
  Do not use all-zero placeholders in production.
- `cwd` is relative to the project root.
- `command` and `args` are separate values. Do not shell-join user input.

If any required precondition fails, return a skipped result:

```ts
return {
  status: "skipped",
  reason: "missing-owner-agent",
  message: "Configure an owner agent before launching the hello-plugin task."
};
```

## Feedback Surfaces

Command handlers should return one of these shapes, or a plugin-specific object
with equivalent fields:

```ts
type CommandFeedback =
  | { status: "skipped"; reason: string; message: string }
  | { status: "launched"; taskId: string; state: string; message: string };
```

Use the same `status` vocabulary consistently:

- `skipped`: no background task was created.
- `launched`: a task was created; inspect the task state for later progress.
- `failed`: the handler itself failed before it could return normally.

Visible surfaces are intentionally distinct:

- Command return value: immediate feedback for programmatic callers, agents and
  future host surfaces. It is not a guaranteed visible UI surface for current
  human menu clicks.
- Plugin layout/window: the normative visible feedback surface for menu actions
  that need to show status, results or next steps to a human. The layout must be
  declared in `idea-plugin.json` and registered during activation.
- Plugin logs: diagnostics for developers and operators.
- Work/background-task surfaces: only for tasks actually launched through
  `runCommand()`.
- Plugin layouts or files: optional plugin-owned user feedback.

`recordOnly: true` affects completion delivery to the owning agent. It does not
mean hidden, skipped or UI-silent. A record-only command task can still appear in
Work and can still emit background-task events.

## Best-Effort Watches

`ctx.services.workspace.watch()` is not a baseline precondition for commands.
The host may reject it until workspace watch support is delivered. Treat watch
setup as optional and non-fatal:

```ts
try {
  const watch = await ctx.services.workspace.watch(".ideai", refresh, project.id);
  ctx.subscriptions.push(watch);
} catch (error) {
  ctx.logger.info("workspace watch unavailable", { error });
}
```

Commands that depend on fresh workspace state should refresh or re-read that
state when invoked instead of assuming a watch was installed at activation.

## Example

Visible menu feedback:

```tsx
import type { IdeAPluginModule, PluginLayoutProps } from "@idea/plugin-sdk";

function HealthView(_props: PluginLayoutProps<{ source?: string }>) {
  return <section>Unity tools are ready.</section>;
}

const plugin: IdeAPluginModule = {
  activate(ctx) {
    ctx.layouts?.register({
      type: "unity-plugin.health",
      component: HealthView
    });

    ctx.commands?.registerCommand("unity-plugin.health", async () => {
      const win = await ctx.services?.windows.open({
        layoutType: "unity-plugin.health",
        state: { source: "menu" }
      });

      return win
        ? { status: "opened", message: "Opened Unity Health.", alreadyOpen: win.alreadyOpen }
        : { status: "skipped", reason: "ui-service-unavailable", message: "UI service unavailable." };
    });
  }
};

export default plugin;
```

Background task feedback:

```ts
const project = await ctx.services?.workspace.getCurrentProject();
if (!project) {
  return {
    status: "skipped",
    reason: "no-focused-project",
    message: "Open a project before running this command."
  };
}

const ownerAgentId = await ctx.storage?.get<string>("myPlugin.ownerAgentId");
if (!ownerAgentId) {
  return {
    status: "skipped",
    reason: "missing-owner-agent",
    message: "Configure an owner agent before launching this task."
  };
}

const task = await ctx.services.tasks.runCommand({
  projectId: project.id,
  ownerAgentId,
  label: "Run my tool",
  command: "npm",
  args: ["--version"],
  cwd: ".",
  recordOnly: true
});

return {
  status: "launched",
  taskId: task.taskId,
  state: task.state,
  message: "Started Run my tool."
};
```

## Counterexample

Do not launch a shell command just to produce feedback:

```ts
await ctx.services?.tasks.runCommand({
  ownerAgentId: "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  label: "Skipped: missing config",
  command: "echo",
  args: ["missing config"],
  recordOnly: true
});
```

This creates misleading Work history, uses a placeholder owner and turns a
precondition failure into a fake task. Return `status: "skipped"` instead.