Files
kandev/docs/decisions/0013-multi-branch-tasks.md
T
João Salavisa fd79d6170f feat(tasks): multi-branch tasks — N (repo, branch) pairs per task (#1226)
* feat(tasks): multi-branch tasks — N (repo, branch) pairs per task

Extends multi-repo into multi-branch so a single task can hold multiple
worktrees on the same repo (one per branch). Sibling worktrees layout at
<task>/<repo>/ + <task>/<repo>-<slug>/, dedicated PRWatch per branch,
live agentctl tracker rescan + frontend store updates so the UI splits
PRs / files / commits per branch without a session restart. MCP
add_branch_to_task_kandev tool is shielded to the worktree executor.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(web): unify multi-branch repo label as <repo> · <branch> across panels

PR Changes and Commits panels rendered repo labels differently for multi-branch
tasks — Commits showed "kandev · feature/x" while PR Changes leaked the raw
"kandev-feature-x" agentctl tracker tag. Reformat tracker-tagged repo names via
formatRepoLabel using the longest known-repo prefix so kandev-cli-* doesn't
collapse to kandev · cli-*.

* fix(tasks): address multi-branch PR review — data races, slug collisions, MCP error codes

Backend
- agentctl process.Manager: add repoTrackersMu RWMutex guarding repoTrackers
  + workspaceTracker. Reads snapshot under RLock; RescanRepositories builds
  trackers first, takes Lock for swap/append. Validates newWorkDir via
  os.Stat before publishing cfg.WorkDir.
- worktree.Manager: reject invalid explicit BranchSlug up-front; cache key
  uses sanitized wt.BranchSlug so read/write paths are symmetric.
- worktree.store: narrow isDuplicateColumnError to "duplicate column name".
- task service AddBranchToTask: slug-collision guard rejects feat/a vs feat-a.
- orchestrator resolvePushRepo: two-pass exact-name match before subdir
  prefix fallback so "backend" doesn't swallow pushes for "backend-admin".
- executor buildRepoSpecs: duplicate repos always get a non-empty BranchSlug
  (falls back to branch-N when both branch fields sanitize to empty).
- MCP handler: classifyAddBranchError maps service errors to NOT_FOUND /
  CONFLICT / VALIDATION_ERROR; add ErrorCodeConflict constant.
- MCP server: extract registerAddBranchToTaskTool, register in task mode
  only (external mode contract: config tools + create_task_kandev).
- workspace_rescan handler: reject malformed JSON with 400 instead of
  silently rescanning the current root.
- branch_materializer: split MaterializeBranch into prepare + finalize
  helpers to satisfy the 80-line cap.

Frontend
- existingPrUrl returns undefined when a task has >1 PR so per-repo View PR
  buttons take over (no silent linking to a sibling).
- formatRepoLabel checks exact known-repo match before prefix splitting so
  "kandev-cli" isn't mislabeled as "kandev · cli".
- Repo chip key now includes base_branch so siblings differing only on
  base render as distinct chips.

Docs
- multi-branch spec uniqueness wording aligned with the canonical 4-column
  key (task_id, repository_id, base_branch, checkout_branch).
- worktree.CreateRequest.BranchSlug doc describes the sibling layout
  (<repo>-<slug>) instead of the obsolete nested form.

* fix(tasks): scope slug-collision check to repo only + use errors.Is for ErrTaskNotFound

- service_branches: drop base_branch from the slug-collision check. Worktree
  path is (repo, slug); two rows on the same repo cut from different bases
  still collide on disk.
- service_branches: prepareBranchAdd wraps taskrepo.ErrTaskNotFound via
  fmt.Errorf with %w so classifiers don't have to substring-match the
  formatted task UUID.
- mcp handlers: classifyAddBranchError uses errors.Is(err, ErrTaskNotFound).

* fix(agentctl): sanitize rescan work_dir before os.Stat to clear CodeQL path-injection

CodeQL flagged the rescan endpoint as a path-injection sink (the
HTTP-supplied work_dir flowed straight into os.Stat and downstream
scanRepositorySubdirs). Add validateRescanPath which:
- requires the input to be a clean absolute path with no ".." segments
- rejects anything that isn't equal to or an ancestor of the current
  cfg.WorkDir — the only legitimate use case is the branch materializer
  promoting <task>/<repo>/ to <task>/

Defense in depth: agentctl binds to localhost, but any colocated process
could otherwise direct it at /etc or the user's home by POSTing
/api/v1/workspace/rescan.

* fix(agentctl): tighten validateRescanPath, close TOCTOU on existingTrackers, add tests

- Drop the strings.Contains(clean, "..") guard. filepath.Clean already
  resolves traversal; the substring check rejects legitimate names like
  /home/u/..hidden without adding defense (the ancestor check via
  filepath.Rel is the real boundary).
- Drop the rel == "." branch in the ancestor check — early return for
  clean == currentClean already covers identity.
- Read existingTrackers inside the write-lock section (not under RLock
  then re-Lock) so two concurrent rescans can't both see 0 trackers and
  double-bootstrap the multi-repo set.
- Add table-driven TestValidateRescanPath covering rejection paths
  (relative, descendant, sibling, traversal-cleaned, empty input),
  legitimate ancestor promotion, exact match, no-anchor first-launch,
  and a /home/u/..hidden dotted-segment case.

* fix(agentctl): break taint flow into os.Stat — derive rescan path from cfg, not HTTP body

CodeQL's go/path-injection trace still flagged manager_rescan.go after the
prior sanitizer because the user-supplied newWorkDir flowed (after
validation) into os.Stat and then into cfg.WorkDir → tracker paths →
workspace_monitor os.Stat sinks.

Replace validateRescanPath with resolveRescanPath: it returns a path
DERIVED from currentWorkDir (no-op = currentClean, promotion =
filepath.Dir(currentClean)) and uses newPath only for comparison, never
as a source for the returned string. os.Stat now receives a path whose
provenance is trusted manager config.

Functionally the legitimate caller (branch materializer promoting
<task>/<repo>/ to <task>/) is unchanged.

* test(agentctl): make TestResolveRescanPath windows-portable

The Linux Backend Tests job passed but the Backend (windows) job rejected
every "absolute" case because filepath.IsAbs("/task/repo") is false on
Windows (no volume letter).

Build inputs via filepath.Join against absRoot() (filepath.Abs of "/" /
"\\") so the same table covers POSIX (`/...`) and Windows (`C:\...`)
without per-OS branches. Keep the traversal-after-Clean case POSIX-only
since filepath.Clean is the shared primitive and that input form needs a
volume to be considered absolute on Windows anyway.

* fix(agentctl): serialize RescanRepositories + re-check trackers under write lock

Two concurrent RescanRepositories calls could both observe an empty
tracker set (between the snapshot read and the bootstrap branch) and both
enter transitionToMultiRepoMode, leaking a duplicate bare-root tracker
and duplicate per-repo trackers. Same race in appendNewRepoTrackers would
double-append the same new child across both callers.

Fix:
- Add rescanMu sync.Mutex on Manager. Acquired for the full body of
  RescanRepositories so the snapshot → branch → mutate sequence is
  serialized. repoTrackersMu still guards individual field reads from
  unrelated goroutines (subscribe/unsubscribe/poll-mode).
- appendNewRepoTrackers re-checks membership inside the write-lock
  before appending and drops already-present trackers (Stop + detach
  outside the lock). Defense in depth.
- Test: add `dotted segment is legal as promotion` case so the
  ..hidden-segment promotion path stays exercised.

---------

Co-authored-by: Kandev Agent <agent@kandev.dev>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-06-01 19:36:20 +01:00

6.6 KiB

0012: Multi-branch task support — extend multi-repo to allow N branches per repo

Status: accepted Date: 2026-06-01 Area: backend, frontend

Context

The task_repositories table previously enforced UNIQUE(task_id, repository_id), which meant a task could only attach a given repository once. In practice users wanted a single task to open multiple PRs against the same repo — feature flag rollouts, stacked PRs, A/B-of-the-same-change experiments, or simply two branches that should be reviewed together. The only workaround was creating sibling tasks, which fragmented the conversation, the agent's context, and the kanban view.

The data model already carried TaskRepository.CheckoutBranch per row — the column existed for "checkout this specific branch in the worktree" semantics — but the unique constraint on (task_id, repository_id) prevented two rows from coexisting even when their CheckoutBranch differed.

Decision

A task can hold N (repository_id, checkout_branch) rows, including multiple branches on the same repo. PRs, worktrees, sessions, and review surfaces all key on the pair instead of just repository_id.

  • Schema. task_repositories now uses UNIQUE(task_id, repository_id, base_branch, checkout_branch). Both branch columns participate because the two executor shapes carry the branch differently: the worktree executor anchors the branch in base_branch with checkout_branch empty, while the local executor splits them (base_branch = repo default, checkout_branch = chosen branch). Either column on its own is insufficient to disambiguate. An idempotent migration in apps/backend/internal/task/repository/sqlite/base_migrations.go (migrateTaskRepositoriesAllowMultiBranch) rebuilds existing tables; it runs twice with two trigger phrases so DBs already on the interim three-column constraint upgrade cleanly. New databases get the four-column constraint directly from initTaskSchema.

  • Worktree paths. When a task has more than one row sharing RepositoryID, the orchestrator (buildRepoSpecs in internal/orchestrator/executor/executor_execute.go) derives a deterministic BranchSlug per row from CheckoutBranch (falling back to BaseBranch). The first occurrence of each repo keeps the legacy flat layout ~/.kandev/tasks/<task>/<repo>/; additional occurrences sit as siblings at ~/.kandev/tasks/<task>/<repo>-<branch-slug>/. Nesting under the primary (<task>/<repo>/<slug>/) was rejected because it places the second worktree INSIDE the primary's working tree — agent file scans, git status, and IDE indexers would all see the second worktree as an unexpected subdirectory of the first.

  • Service. Service.AddBranchToTask (in internal/task/service/service_branches.go) appends a new task_repositories row to a live task. It enforces the (repo, branch) uniqueness up front so callers get a clear "already attached" error rather than an opaque DB constraint failure.

  • MCP. A new add_branch_to_task_kandev tool — backed by ws.ActionMCPAddBranchToTask — exposes the service method to agents. create_task_kandev accepts the same multi-row shape it did for multi-repo, just with duplicate repository_id entries when desired.

  • PR plumbing. No schema change needed. task_prs already used UNIQUE(task_id, repository_id, pr_number) and carried head_branch, so the existing multi-repo loops in internal/github/ and internal/orchestrator/ transparently handle a second PR opened from a same-repo-different-branch row.

  • Frontend. TaskRepository.checkout_branch was already on the http type. The Zustand worktrees.items map keys on worktree.id (not repository_id), so multi-branch worktrees already coexist in state. The chat-message repo chips render with (repository_id, checkout_branch) keys to keep distinct chips for same-repo-different-branch tasks. A full "+ Branch" UI affordance is deferred — agents drive the flow via the MCP tool today.

Consequences

  • Worktree path collision. Two branches that sanitize to the same slug (e.g. feat/a vs feat-a) would collide on disk. The service-layer dedup catches this in the common case (matching CheckoutBranch exactly), but distinct-but-equivalent slugs slip through. Acceptable because branch names are usually distinct enough in practice and the failure mode is a clean git worktree add error rather than data loss.

  • Path layout split. Single-branch tasks keep the flat layout; multi-branch tasks nest one level deeper. We considered always nesting (uniform layout), but the back-compat surface for in-flight tasks made the conditional layout the safer call.

  • PR uniqueness. task_prs did not need a head_branch-aware unique key because pr_number is already unique per (task, repo). If we later allow two rows for the same PR number under different branches (unlikely), we'd extend the constraint then.

  • Concurrent agents. Worktrees for different branches of the same repo share the underlying git directory. The worktree manager's per-repo lock already keys on RepositoryPath, so concurrent agent runs serialize on the same physical repo regardless of branch — a feature for safety, a small bottleneck for throughput. Revisit if this becomes a real contention point.

  • Frontend follow-up. No grouped tabs (repo > branch) yet; today's flat per-(repo, branch) tab is the agreed first step. Add explicit "+ Branch" buttons and an update_task_kandev extension only if usage suggests the MCP tool is too coarse.

Files touched

Backend:

  • apps/backend/internal/task/repository/sqlite/base_schema.go
  • apps/backend/internal/task/repository/sqlite/base_migrations.go
  • apps/backend/internal/task/service/service_tasks.go
  • apps/backend/internal/task/service/service_branches.go (new)
  • apps/backend/internal/worktree/worktree.go
  • apps/backend/internal/worktree/manager_lifecycle.go
  • apps/backend/internal/worktree/errors.go
  • apps/backend/internal/worktree/config.go
  • apps/backend/internal/agent/runtime/lifecycle/types.go
  • apps/backend/internal/agent/runtime/lifecycle/env_preparer.go
  • apps/backend/internal/agent/runtime/lifecycle/env_preparer_worktree.go
  • apps/backend/internal/agent/runtime/lifecycle/manager_launch.go
  • apps/backend/internal/orchestrator/executor/executor.go
  • apps/backend/internal/orchestrator/executor/executor_execute.go
  • apps/backend/internal/mcp/handlers/handlers.go
  • apps/backend/internal/mcp/server/server.go
  • apps/backend/pkg/websocket/actions.go
  • apps/backend/cmd/kandev/adapters.go

Frontend:

  • apps/web/components/task/chat/messages/kandev/task-renderers.tsx

Spec: docs/specs/tasks/multi-branch/spec.md