config-audit/scanners/lib/agent-listing-budget.mjs
Kjell Tore Guttormsen 2a3cb537f9 feat(scanner): add AGT per-agent description bloat advisory (v5.9 B1-rest)
Flag any single active agent whose description exceeds a 500-char soft cap
(the same bloat threshold TOK pattern F applies to SKILL.md descriptions).
Every char of an agent description re-enters context in the always-loaded
agent listing on every turn, so a long one is a per-turn cost.

Framing is deliberately ADVISORY, severity low: unlike CA-SKL-001 agents
have NO verified per-description cap, so nothing is dropped — this is a bloat
advisory, never a truncation claim. Per-agent advisories are emitted BEFORE
the aggregate roll-up (mirrors SKL 001->002).

- PER_AGENT_DESC_SOFT_CAP (=500) added to lib/agent-listing-budget.mjs as the
  single source of truth, disclosed as a heuristic.
- Per-agent loop reuses measureActiveAgentListing()'s agents[] (name, source,
  pluginName, path, descLength) — no new enumeration.
- 5 new tests (fire/strict-boundary/no-truncation-claim/recommendation/order).

Byte-stable: AGT already stripped from frozen v5.0.0 baselines; SC-5 unchanged
(HOME-scoped, hermetic HOME has no agents). Suite green: 1181 tests.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-06-23 16:27:24 +02:00

132 lines
6.3 KiB
JavaScript

/**
* Agent-listing budget — single source of truth for the AGT scanner.
*
* Claude Code injects a listing of every active agent's name+description into the
* system prompt so the model knows which subagents it can delegate to. With many
* installed agents that listing is a large always-loaded cost: re-sent every turn
* whether or not a delegation actually happens.
*
* CRUCIAL HONESTY CAVEAT — this is why AGT differs from SKL. Unlike the skill
* listing (documented ~2% allotment, CC 2.1.32; verified 1,536-char truncation
* cap, CC 2.1.105), the agent-listing mechanism is NOT documented — agents are
* absent from Claude Code's published context breakdown. Therefore:
* - "always-loaded" is INFERRED (reasoned from the skill analogue + agents'
* absence from the deferred/on-demand list), not documented.
* - the token figure is an UPPER-BOUND ESTIMATE, not measured telemetry.
* - there is no documented per-listing allotment, so the aggregate budget is a
* config-audit heuristic anchored — by analogy to the skill listing — on a
* conservative 200k window, and the evidence says so loudly.
* - there is no verified per-description truncation cap, so (unlike CA-SKL-001)
* each description contributes its FULL length to the aggregate.
*
* Zero external dependencies.
*/
import { estimateTokens, enumeratePlugins, enumerateAgents } from './active-config-reader.mjs';
import { readTextFile } from './file-discovery.mjs';
import { parseFrontmatter } from './yaml-parser.mjs';
import { CONTEXT_WINDOW_ANCHOR, LARGE_CONTEXT_WINDOW, withCommas } from './context-window.mjs';
// Heuristic budget by analogy to the skill listing's documented ~2% allotment.
// Agents have NO documented allotment of their own — disclosed loudly in
// BUDGET_CALIBRATION_NOTE so the number is never mistaken for a CC guarantee.
export const BUDGET_FRACTION = 0.02;
export const AGGREGATE_BUDGET_TOKENS = Math.round(BUDGET_FRACTION * CONTEXT_WINDOW_ANCHOR); // 4000
export const LARGE_CONTEXT_BUDGET_TOKENS = Math.round(BUDGET_FRACTION * LARGE_CONTEXT_WINDOW); // 20000
export { CONTEXT_WINDOW_ANCHOR, LARGE_CONTEXT_WINDOW, withCommas };
// Per-agent soft cap for the description-bloat advisory. This is a HEURISTIC,
// NOT a truncation cap: agents have no verified per-description limit (unlike
// the skill listing's 1,536-char cap, CC 2.1.105). We reuse the 500-char
// bloat threshold TOK pattern F already applies to SKILL.md descriptions, so a
// long agent description is flagged for the same reason — every char re-enters
// context in the always-loaded agent listing on every turn — without ever
// claiming Claude Code drops the tail.
export const PER_AGENT_DESC_SOFT_CAP = 500;
// The honest framing required because (a) the mechanism is inferred and (b) the
// budget depends on a context window we cannot observe. Appended to overflow evidence.
export const BUDGET_CALIBRATION_NOTE =
'the agent-listing always-loaded mechanism is INFERRED, not documented (agents are absent from ' +
"Claude Code's published context breakdown), so this token figure is an UPPER-BOUND ESTIMATE, not " +
'measured telemetry. unlike the skill listing there is no documented per-listing allotment, so this ' +
'budget is a config-audit heuristic anchored on a conservative 200k window; at ' +
`${withCommas(LARGE_CONTEXT_WINDOW)} context the budget is ~${withCommas(LARGE_CONTEXT_BUDGET_TOKENS)} ` +
'tok and you are likely within it';
/**
* @typedef {object} AgentBudgetAssessment
* @property {number} scanned - number of agent descriptions assessed
* @property {number} aggregateChars - sum of description lengths (no cap; no verified truncation)
* @property {number} aggregateTokens - estimateTokens(aggregateChars, 'markdown')
* @property {number} budgetTokens - AGGREGATE_BUDGET_TOKENS (the 200k-anchored heuristic)
* @property {boolean} overBudget - aggregateTokens strictly greater than budgetTokens
* @property {number} overBy - tokens over budget (0 when not over)
*/
/**
* Pure aggregate-budget assessment. Each description contributes its full length:
* agents have no verified truncation cap, so nothing is dropped from the estimate.
*
* @param {number[]} descLengths - one entry per active agent (description char count)
* @returns {AgentBudgetAssessment}
*/
export function assessAgentListingBudget(descLengths) {
let aggregateChars = 0;
for (const len of descLengths) {
const safe = (typeof len === 'number' && Number.isFinite(len) && len > 0) ? len : 0;
aggregateChars += safe;
}
const aggregateTokens = estimateTokens(aggregateChars, 'markdown');
const overBudget = aggregateTokens > AGGREGATE_BUDGET_TOKENS;
return {
scanned: descLengths.length,
aggregateChars,
aggregateTokens,
budgetTokens: AGGREGATE_BUDGET_TOKENS,
overBudget,
overBy: overBudget ? aggregateTokens - AGGREGATE_BUDGET_TOKENS : 0,
};
}
/**
* @typedef {object} ActiveAgentEntry
* @property {string} name
* @property {'user'|'plugin'} source
* @property {string|null} pluginName
* @property {string} path
* @property {number} descLength
*/
/**
* Enumerate every active agent (user + plugin) and measure the listing budget.
* HOME-scoped (mirrors the skill listing): resolves ~/.claude via process.env.HOME
* and excludes project-scoped agents — those load only inside their own repo.
* Callers that run under test MUST override HOME (runScannerWithHome pattern).
*
* @returns {Promise<{ agents: ActiveAgentEntry[], aggregate: AgentBudgetAssessment }>}
*/
export async function measureActiveAgentListing() {
const plugins = await enumeratePlugins();
// enumerateAgents yields project + user + plugin; drop project (repo-local).
const allAgents = await enumerateAgents('', plugins);
const agents = [];
for (const agent of allAgents) {
if (!agent || agent.source === 'project' || typeof agent.path !== 'string') continue;
const content = await readTextFile(agent.path);
if (!content) continue;
const fm = parseFrontmatter(content)?.frontmatter || null;
const desc = (fm && typeof fm.description === 'string') ? fm.description : '';
agents.push({
name: agent.name,
source: agent.source,
pluginName: agent.pluginName,
path: agent.path,
descLength: desc.length,
});
}
const aggregate = assessAgentListingBudget(agents.map((a) => a.descLength));
return { agents, aggregate };
}