Pipeline system

Everything Agent Smith does is a pipeline: an ordered list of commands executed in sequence.

Commands and handlers

Each pipeline step is a command with a matching handler. The command names what needs to happen, the handler does it. Handlers receive a typed context object and return a CommandResult, success or failure with a message. A failed step stops the pipeline, but the WriteRunResult, CommitAndPR and PrCrossLink steps still ahead of it run anyway, so a failed run still leaves its record and its partial work on the branch.

This is the code pipeline as it is defined in PipelinePresets.Code.cs:

Pipeline: code
├── LoadCatalog
├── PipelineNameInitializer
├── FetchTicket
├── ScopeRepos
├── CheckoutSource
├── RunPreflight
├── SetupRegistryAuth
├── BootstrapCheck
├── BootstrapGate
├── LoadCodingPrinciples
├── LoadMemoryIndex
├── LoadContext
├── AnalyzeCode
├── DeriveSpec
├── SpecHandback
├── SpecGate
├── EnsurePrerequisites
├── ProbeTarget
├── MaterializeReferenceSets
├── SpecSequence
├── WriteRunResult
├── CommitAndPR
└── PrCrossLink

Steps that expand at runtime

A preset is fixed, but a handler can splice further commands into the running pipeline, directly after itself. Two do:

• SpecSequence in code inserts one block per spec the run derived: SelectSpec, CheckSpecPremises, AgenticMaster, MasterOpenQuestions, CommitSpecWork, VerifySpec, ReviewSpecDiff, WriteSpecRecord. How many blocks a ticket becomes is decided during the run. See The code pipeline.
• BootstrapDispatch in init-project inserts one BootstrapRound per repository and discovered component.

Pipeline presets

The presets live in src/backend/AgentSmith.Contracts/Commands/PipelinePresets.*.cs, one file per preset. Each preset that needs judgement hands it to one master skill at its AgenticMaster step. Pipelines lists them with what starts them and which master they load, and shows the control flow generated from these files.

A project chooses which presets it hosts with pipelines: in its configuration; it cannot define its own command sequence. A pipeline name that is not a preset fails the run when it starts.

PipelineContext

All commands of a run share a PipelineContext, a key-value store that flows through the pipeline. Commands read from and write to it:

// Write
pipeline.Set(ContextKeys.RunId, runId);

// Read
pipeline.TryGet<SpecSet>(ContextKeys.SpecSet, out var set);

This is how data flows between steps without the handlers knowing about each other.