Eric Garcia 16d45d9a11 feat: alignment dialogue subagents, MCP instructions, and document batch

Alignment dialogues now use custom `alignment-expert` subagents with
max_turns: 10, tool restrictions (Read/Grep/Glob), and hard 400-word
output limits. Judge protocol injects as prose via RFC 0023. Moved
Blue voice patterns from CLAUDE.md to MCP server instructions field
for cross-repo portability.

Includes RFCs 0017-0026, spikes, and alignment dialogues from
2026-01-25/26 sessions.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-01-26 07:09:39 -05:00

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Spike: MCP Project Detection


Status	In Progress
Date	2026-01-26
Time Box	30 minutes

Question

Why does the Blue MCP server fail to detect the project directory, and what's the correct solution?

Investigation

Current Behavior

Claude Code starts Blue MCP server via blue mcp
Server starts with unknown working directory
First tool call without cwd param fails: "Blue not detected in this directory"
Tool call with explicit cwd works

Root Cause Analysis

Hypothesis 1: Process working directory

MCP servers are child processes of Claude Code
Working directory may be Claude Code's install location, not project

Hypothesis 2: MCP protocol provides workspace info

MCP spec has roots capability for filesystem boundaries
Claude Code may send roots during initialize or via roots/list

Hypothesis 3: Environment variables

Claude Code sets CLAUDECODE=1, CLAUDE_CODE_SSE_PORT, CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT
No project path variable observed

MCP Protocol Research

Per MCP Specification:

Roots - Servers can request roots from clients
Initialize params - May contain client capabilities but not workspace path
No standard workspace field - Unlike LSP's rootUri/workspaceFolders

Attempted Fixes

Attempt	Result
Fall back to `current_dir()`	Failed - wrong directory
Parse `roots` from initialize	Unknown - needs testing
Walk up directory tree	Implemented but untested

Key Finding

The MCP protocol does not provide a standard way for servers to know the user's project directory. This is a gap compared to LSP.

Options Discovered

Require cwd in every tool call - Current workaround, verbose
Walk up directory tree - Find .blue/ from process cwd
Use MCP roots - Request roots from client, use first root
Wrapper script - Shell wrapper that sets cwd before starting server
Config file - Store project path in ~/.blue/projects.json

Alignment Dialogue Result

6 experts, 98% convergence on Option 1: C → B → fail

Round	Result
R1	B (3), C (2), Combined (1)
R2	Option 1 (3), Option 2 (2), Option 3 (1)
R3	Option 1 unanimous

Consensus: MCP roots first → Walk tree fallback → Fail with guidance

The current code already implements this. The remaining issue is that:

Claude Code may not send roots during initialize
Process cwd starts outside project tree (e.g., $HOME)

Conclusion

Root cause: Claude Code starts MCP servers from a non-project directory and doesn't send MCP roots.

Solution: The C → B fallback chain is correct. Need to verify Claude Code sends roots, or ensure walk-tree can find project from wherever the process starts.

Recommended next step: Draft RFC to formalize the detection algorithm and add better error messaging.

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