12e4d93b19
* fix(#2393): add GSD_ALLOW_SYMLINKED_DEST opt-in for intentional user-owned symlink layouts Bug: v1.7.0's destSubpath write-confinement (ADR-1239 Phase B) refused install/update whenever CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR (or an artifact-kind child like skills/, hooks/) was a pre-existing symlink, with no opt-out. Three legitimate user-owned layouts were blocked: - (lars-hh) CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-personal with skills/hooks symlinked to a user-owned external dir - (Mamiki) ~/.claude/skills is a Windows Junction to a shared skills dir - (Azd325) ~/.claude itself is a symlink to a dotfiles repo (the early root-is-symlink return refused before the component loop ran) Fix: add GSD_ALLOW_SYMLINKED_DEST env var (accepts '1' or 'true'). When set, hasExistingSymlinkBetween follows symlinks instead of refusing them. Cross-platform: fs.lstatSync().isSymbolicLink() returns true for both POSIX symlinks and NTFS junctions (Node ≥ 16), so Mamiki's Junction case is handled by the same code path. Threat model preserved (these still refuse EVEN WITH opt-in): (a) path-traversal in the destSubpath string itself ('../../etc'-style) — ADR-1239 Phase B threat (a), untrusted destSubpath protection (b) a symlink whose resolved real path equals the install root itself — would let _removeGsdEntries wipe the root; #1704 threat (b) (c) broken symlinks (realpathSync throws) — fail-closed What opt-in RELAXES specifically: the 'pre-existing symlink pointing outside configHome' refusal — #1704 threat (c). The user has explicitly asserted they own and trust the symlink target. Error messages at all 4 call sites (installRuntimeArtifacts, _copyStaged, migrateLegacyDevPreferencesToSkill, installOpencodeFamilySkills) updated to (1) name the env var opt-in, (2) be accurate when the root itself is a symlink (Azd325's complaint that the old message accused destDir of 'containing' a symlink when the root was the actual symlink). Docs: docs/CONFIGURATION.md Environment Variables table updated. Regression tests in tests/install-write-confinement.test.cjs cover: - child-symlink layout (lars-hh / Mamiki): default refuses, opt-in allows - root-is-symlink layout (Azd325): default refuses, opt-in follows - path-traversal '../../etc' refused EVEN WITH opt-in (threat a preserved) - resolved-target-equals-install-root refused EVEN WITH opt-in (threat b) - broken symlink refused EVEN WITH opt-in (fail-closed) * test(#2393): import beforeEach/afterEach in install-write-confinement suite The original file imported only { describe, test } from node:test. The new #2393 opt-in describe block uses beforeEach/afterEach to manage the GSD_ALLOW_SYMLINKED_DEST env var lifecycle — add them to the import. * test(#2393): correct broken-symlink test — existsSync follows link → loop terminates early Initial test expected broken symlinks to be refused even with opt-in. That was wrong: fs.existsSync follows symlinks, so a broken symlink returns false from existsSync and the component loop terminates before the symlink check fires. Both default and opt-in paths share this behavior; the fix preserves it. Updates the test to pin the actual current behavior so a future refactor (e.g. switching to lstatSync for existence) is a deliberate behavior change. * fix(#2393): realpath the install root — guard against macOS /var ↔ /private/var Code review (security subagent) flagged a HIGH-severity hole in the threat-(b) preservation: realTarget (from fs.realpathSync) is fully symlink-resolved, resolvedRoot (from path.resolve) is lexical-only. On macOS /var is a symlink to /private/var, so resolvedRoot='/var/foo/.claude' but realConfigHome is '/private/var/foo/.claude'. A symlink whose realtarget matches the install root by real path would compare unequal to the lexical resolvedRoot — defeating the wipe-protection guard exactly in the reporter's case (Azd325, nix-darwin: ~/.claude is itself a symlink). Fix: compute realRoot once via fs.realpathSync(resolvedRoot) at function entry (with fail-closed fallback to lexical form on realpath failure — broken/missing root, permission denied, exotic FS). Threat (a) path-traversal check above still confines regardless. Compare against BOTH lexical and real forms in both the root-symlink and component-symlink branches. Also adds the reviewer's transitivity-trust clarification comment: once a symlink is followed under opt-in, the walk continues from the resolved real path WITHOUT re-checking further segments stay inside a confining boundary. This is documented opt-in semantics — one opt-in trusts the whole reachable tree — and the comment makes the design choice explicit so a future maintainer doesn't add a 'follow one symlink only' expectation. Regression test added for the macOS /var normalization case (spelled configHome via os.tmpdir() lexically while pointing the test symlink through its realpath). Test skips on non-darwin platforms and when os.tmpdir() has no symlink component. * fix(#2393): root-symlink branch — do not apply threat-(b) check to root itself Initial fix applied the wipe-threat-(b) check to the root-symlink branch unconditionally. That was wrong: when root itself is a symlink (Azd325's nix-darwin case), its realpath IS realRoot by construction — so the check always fires, defeating the opt-in for exactly the case it was meant to enable. The wipe threat (b) does NOT apply to root being a symlink: destDir is a CHILD of root, and resolving root just gives root's target. There is no circular back-reference to root from a path that descends from a resolved root. So the root-symlink branch should just follow the symlink under opt-in and continue the walk, no threat-(b) check. Threat (b) only fires in the COMPONENT loop, where a child symlink can resolve back to the install root. That branch keeps the (b) check using BOTH lexical and real forms of root (the macOS /var ↔ /private/var fix from the prior commit). * fix(#2393): apply opt-in at the 5 bin/install.js call sites + add env-var/transitive tests Code review (correctness subagent) flagged a Critical coverage gap: the initial fix updated only the 4 src/install-engine.cts call sites. Five more call sites in bin/install.js still used the 2-arg signature, so the opt-in env var was silently ignored on: - installCodexConfig (config.toml + agents/ dir + per-agent .toml paths) — Codex only - copyWithPathReplacement (the generic emit path: workflows, commands, staging) — ALL runtimes - resolveInstallRelativePath (path resolver used in various places) Result: a user setting GSD_ALLOW_SYMLINKED_DEST=1 would see SOME refusals disappear (engine path) and OTHERS remain (bin/install.js paths) — a partially-applied install and a confusing UX, directly contradicting the PR's headline claim. Fix: - Export isSymlinkedDestOptIn from src/install-engine.cts alongside hasExistingSymlinkBetween - Import it in bin/install.js - Update all 5 bin/install.js call sites to pass { allowOptInFollow } - Update all 3 bin/install.js error messages to name the env var, matching the engine's phrasing Also addresses reviewer's Medium test-adequacy findings: - isSymlinkedDestOptIn env-var parsing now tested directly (accepts only documented '1' / 'true'; rejects 'TRUE', 'yes', 'on', '0', 'false', empty, unset) - transitive symlink chain (configHome/outer → outside1 → outside2) test pins the documented 'transitive and unbounded' opt-in semantics so a future contributor can't accidentally narrow it * chore(changeset): backfill pr:2445 in .changeset/eager-wasps-swim.md
GSD Core documentation
Documentation is organised into four quadrants: tutorials help you learn by doing, how-to guides solve specific tasks, reference states authoritative facts, and explanation explores concepts and design decisions.
Language versions: English · Português (pt-BR) · 日本語 · 简体中文
Tutorials
- Your first project — install to first shipped phase, one guaranteed path
- Onboarding an existing codebase — bring GSD Core to a brownfield repo
- Build your first capability — author a tiny declarative capability and watch it act in the loop
- Install your first capability — install a third-party capability end-to-end: consent, verify, check for updates, remove
How-to guides
- Install on your runtime — runtime-specific install steps for all 16 supported runtimes
- Install a minimal GSD and add skills later — install only the core skills, then grow the surface with profiles and
/gsd:surface - Attach a plugin-provided skill to a GSD agent — use the
global:plugin:skillentry form to load Claude Code plugin skills into agent prompts - Discuss a phase — capture implementation decisions before planning begins
- Resolve edge-coverage findings — turn the spec phase's surfaced domain-boundary edges into covered, dismissed, or backstopped spec decisions
- Resolve prohibition findings — turn the spec phase's surfaced must-NOT constraints into resolved, dismissed, or deferred spec decisions
- Plan a phase — run research, decompose work, and verify plan quality
- Execute a phase — run plans in parallel waves with fresh-context subagents
- Verify and ship — walk through completed work, diagnose failures, and create the PR
- Run phases autonomously — use autonomous mode for unattended phase execution
- Handle quick and fast tasks — use
/gsd-quickand/gsd-fastfor ad-hoc work outside the phase loop - Configure model profiles — switch between quality, balanced, and budget model tiers
- Set up cross-AI review — configure a second AI to review code produced by the primary agent
- Work in parallel with workstreams — run independent lines of work simultaneously using workstreams
- Isolate work with workspaces — use workspaces to sandbox experimental or risky changes
- Debug a failed execution — diagnose and recover from broken or incomplete phase execution
- Spike and sketch — use
/gsd-spikeand/gsd-sketchfor exploratory work before committing to a plan - Design a UI phase — use the UI phase loop for frontend and visual work
- Develop a Capability for GSD 1.5+ — add feature Capabilities, hook fragments, and registry entries
- Add or update a host's integration — set a host's documentation-sourced
runtime.hostIntegrationaxes (ADR-1239 Phase A), with theundocumentedsentinel rule - Turn a capability off (and keep it off) — disable a capability via the surface, or gate individual hooks off without removing the capability
- Drive GSD from a tracker issue — start a phase from a GitHub, Linear, or Jira issue
- Migrate from GSD 2 — upgrade an existing GSD 2 project to GSD Core
- Update GSD — re-run the installer to pick up the latest release
- Clean up get-shit-done-cc — remove leftover old-package artifacts that cause a spurious
⬆ /gsd:updateindicator after migrating to@opengsd/gsd-core - Fix the worktree base-mismatch (exit 42) error — resolve the branch-divergence condition that halts parallel phase execution
- Recover and troubleshoot — fix common problems, rebuild context, and uninstall
Reference
- Commands — every command with flags and examples
- Configuration — full config schema, model profiles, git branching strategies
- CLI tools —
gsd-tools.cjsprogrammatic API for workflows and agents - Features — complete feature index
- Inventory — installed skills and surface map
- STATE.md schema — field-by-field reference for
.planning/STATE.md - CONTEXT.md schema — field-by-field reference for
.planning/phases/<N>/CONTEXT.md - PLAN.md schema — field-by-field reference for
.planning/phases/<N>/PLAN.md - Planning artifacts — all
.planning/files and their roles - Review and verification capabilities — code review, security, and Nyquist capability ownership and hook contracts
- Capability matrix — generated catalogue of every capability's role, tier, extension points, hook kinds, and
engines.gsd - Capability manifest — the full
capability.jsonschema and validation rules gsd capabilitycommand — install / update / remove / list reference for third-party capabilities
Explanation
- Context engineering — how context rot forms and how GSD Core prevents it
- The phase loop — design rationale for the Discuss → Plan → Execute → Verify → Ship cycle
- Multi-agent orchestration — how subagents are spawned, scoped, and coordinated
- Security model — trust boundaries, permissions, and safe automation
- The capability trust model — why third-party capabilities are gated by consent + integrity + reversibility, not a sandbox
- How overlay capabilities compose — why first-party always wins and how the loader resolves precedence, conflicts, and fail-open load-failure warnings
- Architecture — system architecture, agent model, and data flow
- The Embeddable Orchestration System — one public, versioned contract for embedding GSD across many hosts
- Discuss modes — assumptions mode vs interview mode for
/gsd-discuss-phase - Context monitoring — context window monitoring hook architecture
- Issue-driven orchestration — recipe for driving GSD from a tracker issue using existing primitives
Related
- What's new in 1.7.0 — curated highlights of the 1.7.0 release
- Root README — landing page, quickstart, and documentation overview
- Changelog — release history