Production session provisioned the container but the service never installed:
apt failed with "Temporary failure resolving deb.debian.org" — a static-IP LXC
whose assigned nameserver couldn't resolve. The operator also got zero feedback:
the approval banner just sat there with no running/complete/failed status.
Backend robustness (provisionScript):
- Wait for real DNS/connectivity inside the container before apt, and self-heal
/etc/resolv.conf to a public resolver (1.1.1.1/8.8.8.8) if the assigned one
is dead. `set -e` after the gate so apt/post_install failures surface.
- apt-get update/install with Acquire::Retries=3.
Frontend feedback (InlineApproval):
- After approve, poll GET /executions/{id} and show live phase: submitting →
provisioning… → provisioned successfully / execution failed (with the error).
- add getExecution() to api.ts.
Agent guidance (SOUL.md):
- omit vmid (auto-assigned), prefer dhcp, docker-compose-plugin is not in Debian
(use docker.io + get.docker.com), end post_install with a health check.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The final "UPDATE executions SET result=$::jsonb" built its payload with
fmt.Sprintf and only escaped newlines. apt/pct output contains quotes,
backslashes and control chars, so the payload was invalid JSON, the jsonb
cast failed, and the (unchecked) UPDATE was silently discarded — the
execution stayed 'approved' with a NULL result even though the LXC was fully
provisioned (verified live: vmid auto-assigned, container running, service
installed, post_install ran).
- executeApprovedAction: marshal result via json.Marshal; log UPDATE errors
- add jsonErr() helper; route all pct_create failure-path results through it
- mcp/server.go: add jsonOut() for restart/systemctl/pct_exec inline results
- regression test for JSON validity on quote/backslash/control-char output
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Root cause of "asks permission but never acts": the approved pct_create
execution failed to parse because the LLM emitted `"privileged":0` /
`"nesting":1` (numbers) into strict `bool` fields, so the container was
never created. Compounded by a hardcoded template name (debian-13.0-1)
that no longer exists on the host, and no way for the agent to read the web.
- flexBool: accept 0/1, "true", bool for privileged/nesting (the exact prod failure)
- pct_create template pre-flight: list host cache, validate/auto-pick newest debian
- pct_create services[] + post_install: one approval provisions a working service
- new http_get MCP tool (sanitized, size-capped, SSRF-guarded) — agent can read repos/sites
- request_execution description: target=host, full JSON schema + example
- SOUL.md: agent CAN fetch the web; prefer one-step provisioning
- default model deepseek-v4-flash -> v4-pro; maxIterations 15 -> 25
- unit tests for flexBool, template resolve, pkg sanitize, HTML sanitize + SSRF block
Verified live on host:strong with a throwaway VMID 999: template auto-resolved,
container created + booted, services installed, post_install ran, then destroyed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
