github-update-go-agent

README

GitHub Update Go Agent

Pattern B agent that consumes github-update-go tasks and lands a pull request bringing a Go repo to current toolchain + dependencies with zero open fixable vulnerabilities and a green repo gate (make precommit / make check) — draft by default, ready for review when the deployment sets PR_TARGET: ready. Claude-driven planning + execution (update sequence + repair-to-green), pure-Go ai_review verifier. Unfixable findings park the task for the operator — the agent never auto-suppresses, never tags, never merges, and never changes the state of a pull request that already exists.

Full design: docs/design.md. Built from the bborbe/agent-claude template.

How It Works

1. Agent pipeline ([[task/controller]] → Kafka → [[task/executor]]) spawns a K8s Job with the github-update-go-agent image.
2. The Job receives TASK_CONTENT, TASK_ID, BRANCH, ALLOWED_TOOLS, MODEL, etc. via env vars.
3. main.go assembles the prompt via lib/claude (embedded workflow.md + output-format.md + task content).
4. Runs claude --print --output-format stream-json with the allowed tools.
5. Parses the JSON result and publishes to Kafka via lib/delivery.KafkaResultDeliverer (when TASK_ID set), or falls back to NoopResultDeliverer for local runs.

Env Vars

Var	Required	Default	Purpose
TASK_CONTENT	yes	—	Raw task markdown
BRANCH	yes	—	dev/prod — used as Kafka topic prefix
TASK_ID	no	—	Required when publishing results via Kafka
MODEL	no	sonnet	sonnet or opus
PR_TARGET	no	draft	draft or ready — how the agent opens pull requests. Unset behaves exactly as before: drafts only
AUTO_MERGE_LABEL	no	—	PR label applied at creation (gh pr create --label <value>) to opt into GitHub-native auto-merge (e.g. auto-merge). Empty (default) adds no label. Never-merge boundary held: the agent only labels, it never calls gh pr merge
ALLOWED_TOOLS	no	—	Comma-separated Claude tool allowlist (e.g. Read,Grep,Bash)
AGENT_DIR	no	agent	Directory containing .claude/CLAUDE.md guardrails
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR	no	—	Claude Code OAuth config directory (PVC mount)
ENV_CONTEXT	no	—	Comma-separated KEY=VAL pairs injected into the prompt
CLAUDE_ENV	no	—	Comma-separated KEY=VAL pairs passed to the Claude CLI subprocess
KAFKA_BROKERS	no	—	Required when TASK_ID is set
SENTRY_DSN	no	—	Error reporting

Creating a New Agent

To add a domain-specific agent that reuses this binary:

1. Create a task file in OpenClaw vault with assignee: claude-agent (or a new assignee routed to this image via a Config CRD).
2. Mount a PVC or Secret containing the domain-specific .claude/CLAUDE.md and any API credentials.
3. Set ALLOWED_TOOLS on the Config CRD to the minimum tools the agent needs.
4. Set ENV_CONTEXT to inject domain context (e.g. API URLs) into the prompt without modifying the binary.

Config CRD env pattern

The Config CRD's spec.env map becomes pod env vars, which main.go consumes via struct tags. Example from k8s/github-update-go-agent.yaml:

spec:
  env:
    ALLOWED_TOOLS: WebSearch,WebFetch,Read,Grep

Tune ALLOWED_TOOLS per task shape (minimum viable set):

Task shape	Minimum tools
Web research	WebSearch,WebFetch,Read,Grep
Vault I/O via scripts	Bash(scripts/vault-read.sh:*),Bash(scripts/vault-write.sh:*),Bash(scripts/vault-list.sh:*),Grep
API query via script	Bash(scripts/trading-api-read.sh:*),Grep
Code edit	Read,Write,Edit,Grep,Glob,Bash(go:*),Bash(make:*)

Prefer constrained Bash(path:*) forms over bare Bash to minimize shell attack surface.

Claude subprocess env allowlist

lib/claude/claude-runner.go strips pod env down to a safe allowlist (HOME,PATH,USER,TZ,...) before spawning claude. Custom env vars (API URLs, credentials) must be threaded explicitly via ClaudeRunnerConfig.Env map[string]string in main.go. Don't expect pod env to reach Claude by default. See docs/ for precedent (trade-analysis commit 1ccfa674cf).

Local Quick Test

cd ~/Documents/workspaces/agent/agent/claude
go run . \
  --task-content "$(cat /path/to/task.md)" \
  --model sonnet \
  --allowed-tools "Read,Write,Edit,Bash,Grep,Glob" \
  --agent-dir agent \
  --branch dev

Skips K8s, task controller, task executor, git writeback. Useful for iterating on prompts.

For the in-repo local test harness (cmd/run-task, dummy task + Makefile targets), see cmd/run-task/README.md — it documents two gotchas that break local runs silently:

• -claude-config-dir / CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR must point at a separately logged-in config dir, e.g. -claude-config-dir=$HOME/.claude-agent. An empty/default value — or one inherited from the shell as $HOME/.claude — switches the claude CLI from macOS Keychain credential lookup to config-dir lookup and fails with Not logged in.
• Unset session ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, ANTHROPIC_MODEL, ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN before invoking locally (unset ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL ANTHROPIC_MODEL ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN). All three are CLI flags with an env-var fallback (main.go, cmd/run-task/main.go), so a value already exported in your shell (e.g. from another project's alt-provider routing) silently overrides the intended provider/model for this run.

Links

Admin endpoints:

• Dev: https://dev.quant.benjamin-borbe.de/admin/github-update-go-agent/setloglevel/3
• Prod: https://prod.quant.benjamin-borbe.de/admin/github-update-go-agent/setloglevel/3

Related

• pkg/prompts/ — embedded prompts (workflow.md, output-format.md)
• agent/.claude/CLAUDE.md — default agent guardrails
• docs/claude-oauth-setup.md — seed PVC with Claude Code OAuth credentials
• lib/claude/ — shared prompt assembly + Claude CLI invocation
• lib/delivery/ — shared Kafka result publishing
• task/controller/ — Obsidian→Kafka event source
• task/executor/ — Kafka→K8s Job spawner

Documentation

Overview

Command github-update-go-agent consumes github-update-go tasks and lands a reviewable draft PR bringing a Go repo to the current toolchain + dependencies with a green repo gate (design docs/design.md).

This binary is the Kafka entry point — spawned as a K8s Job by task/executor with TASK_CONTENT + TASK_ID + PHASE + KAFKA_BROKERS env. For local CLI mode (file-based), see cmd/run-task/main.go.