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ADR 0011 — GarraMaxPower: Native Agent-Advanced Mode

Status: Accepted
Date: 2026-05-19 (America/New_York — first sub-issue merged)
Updated: 2026-05-24 (all sub-issues merged; ADR promoted to Accepted)
Epic: GAR-492 — GarraMaxPower
Plan: 0176

Context and Problem Statement​

GarraIA is a Rust-native, privacy-first AI gateway that powers multiple channels (Telegram, Discord, mobile, CLI, web). The upstream ClaudeMaxPower / Superpowers plugin delivers advanced agent behaviours (capability snapshots, brainstorm→spec→plan→execute→review pipeline, skill registry, agent teams, safety gates, handoff / "Auto Dream") for Claude Code sessions.

The question: How should GarraIA expose its own agentic advanced mode?

Two tensions drove the decision:

  1. Portability: GarraIA must work without the Claude Code CLI, with any LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Ollama).
  2. Directness: Copying .claude/ artefacts into the runtime couples our release cycle to an external plugin's schema and update cadence.

Decision Drivers​

WeightDriver
★★★No runtime dependency on Claude Code or the Superpowers plugin
★★★Executable from garra binary on any platform (Linux / macOS / Windows)
★★★Safety gates prevent destructive commands from any skill or phase
★★Sub-agents communicate via typed Rust channels, not shell pipes
★★Handoff / Auto Dream produces a machine-readable TOML state file
★Feature parity with ClaudeMaxPower is not a goal — MVP only

Considered Options​

Option A — Copy .claude/ artefacts into the Garra runtime​

Import superpowers-config.md, skill markdown files, and the Superpowers plugin configuration verbatim and have garraia-cli execute them.

Pros: Immediate compatibility with skill definitions written for Claude Code.
Cons:

  • Runtime dependency on the Claude Code CLI and Superpowers plugin binaries.
  • Markdown skill definitions are not type-safe; skill execution is shell round-trips.
  • ADR, ROADMAP, and skills are owned by an external repo with its own versioning cadence.
  • No reuse of existing garraia-agents, garraia-common, or garraia-security crates.

Option B — Do nothing; rely on the harness​

Keep using the Superpowers plugin exclusively for agent workflows and do not add a native mode to the garra binary.

Pros: Zero implementation cost in this phase.
Cons:

  • GarraIA users without the Claude Code harness (e.g., server deployments, custom integrations) get no agentic advanced mode.
  • No dogfooding of garraia-agents / AgentRuntime.
  • Blocks future use-cases like auto-triggered pipelines from channels or API.

Option C — Native Rust primitives inside the garra binary (chosen)​

Implement GarraMaxPower as a set of Rust crates + a garra max-power CLI entry point that is fully self-contained, provider-agnostic, and safety-gated.

The six-phase pipeline (Brainstorm → Spec → Plan → Execute → Review → Finish) is encoded as typed Rust enums and driven by an AgentTeam (Orchestrator + Executor + Reviewer communicating via std::sync::mpsc).

Pros:

  • Zero external runtime dependencies — compiles and runs on any target that garraia-cli supports.
  • Skills are first-class Rust structs (NativeSkillRegistry), eliminating the markdown-to-shell gap.
  • safety_gate(cmd) is enforced as a synchronous Rust function in garraia-common, not a shell hook.
  • HandoffState / .garra-estado.md TOML is version-controlled alongside the project.
  • Reuses AgentRuntime and garraia-agents providers already in the workspace.

Cons:

  • Feature surface is smaller than the Superpowers plugin in the short term.
  • Skills must be ported manually from markdown to Rust (ongoing).

Decision Outcome​

Chosen option: C — Native Rust primitives inside the garra binary.

The implementation was delivered across eight sub-issues, all merged to main by 2026-05-24 (Florida):

Sub-issueDeliverablePRSHA
GAR-494garra max-power skeleton + banner#4318a9a915
GAR-497safety_gate(cmd) denylist in garraia-common#437f2ab1d9
GAR-501garra verify pipeline (fmt/clippy/test/flutter/gitleaks)#441ca9f1fa2
GAR-500HandoffState + Auto Dream / .garra-estado.md#445f1fb596
GAR-495build_snapshot capability prompt#453e5a2a08
GAR-496GitRunner / RepoWorkflow safe branch ops#4551b7f04c
GAR-498NativeSkillRegistry (brainstorm, write-spec, write-plan, pre-commit, verify)directc65e099
GAR-499AgentTeam (Orchestrator + Executor + Reviewer via mpsc)#490(pending)

Consequences​

Positive​

  • garra max-power --goal "fix X" runs end-to-end on any machine with a compiled garraia-cli binary and a valid ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (or equivalent).
  • safety_gate is compile-time enforced: no shell skill can bypass it by running outside the Rust process.
  • NativeSkillRegistry and AgentTeam are unit-tested (26 tests across the two modules).
  • HandoffState TOML persists session context across invocations, enabling resumable runs.

Negative​

  • New skills require Rust code; markdown-only authors cannot contribute skills without a PR.
  • The six-phase pipeline is synchronous in this MVP; async phases (long LLM calls) require a future upgrade to tokio::sync::mpsc.

Neutral​

  • The Superpowers plugin remains the harness for Claude Code sessions; GarraMaxPower is an additive layer that does not replace it.
  • Feature parity with ClaudeMaxPower is intentionally deferred — ADR records the current MVP scope, not a long-term parity target.

Invariants (Do not violate without a new ADR)​

  1. safety_gate(cmd) in garraia-common is called before any shell execution by any skill or pipeline phase.
  2. AgentTeam::run() is infallible at the API boundary; phase failures are recorded in PhaseResult.decision, not propagated as panics or Err.
  3. No garra max-power code imports std::env::var("GARRAIA_JWT_SECRET") or any secret directly — secrets follow garraia-config::auth only.
  4. .garra-estado.md TOML is always written via HandoffState::write_toml() and never contains raw secrets (enforced by RedactedString).