bug(prompt): with the claude-bridge provider the injected harness never reaches the model, so ODD is silently replaced by the stale gentle-ai skill

[Gefermanpernia]

Before submitting

• I searched open and closed issues and did not find a report of this problem.
• I reviewed this report and removed credentials, tokens, private paths, hostnames, and other sensitive data.

Problem

When Pi runs with the claude-bridge provider (pi-claude-bridge), none of the gentle-pi harness text reaches the model. This covers the ODD protocol, the identity contract, the persona, the RDD status line, and the research capabilities block. The session looks normal, and gentle-pi tools such as subagent_run, gentle_review, and orchestrator_* all work. The model simply never receives "Default workflow: Organic Driven Development (MANDATORY)".

Root cause:

• gentle-pi injects its harness by returning systemPrompt: event.systemPrompt + gentlePrompt + … from before_agent_start (extensions/gentle-ai.ts, around line 9156; buildGentlePrompt inlines assets/orchestrator.md).
• pi-claude-bridge 0.8.0 does not forward that assembled prompt. It records event.systemPromptOptions and sends Claude Code the claude_code preset, appending only the portable parts: context files, the skills block, customPrompt, and appendSystemPrompt (src/prompt-capture.ts, projectCapture; src/index.ts, systemPrompt: { type: "preset", preset: "claude_code", append }).
• Anything an extension appends through the before_agent_start return value is dropped without any warning. A bridge comment suggests this is deliberate: shipping Pi's harness verbatim trips Anthropic's third-party plan-eligibility check.

Impact: the only gentle-pi guidance that survives is the skills block. In that block, skills/gentle-ai/SKILL.md still says large / ambiguous / risky → SDD and never mentions ODD (see #1085). Under claude-bridge, that stale skill becomes the sole workflow contract. In my session, the agent answered "apply ODD" by creating a full OpenSpec/SDD change (proposal, spec, design, tasks, apply-progress). It could not even recognize the term ODD without searching the package on disk.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install gentle-pi together with pi-claude-bridge, and set defaultProvider: "claude-bridge" in the Pi agent settings.json.
2. Start a primary session and ask: "What is your default workflow? Quote any 'Organic Driven Development' instruction you received."
3. The model has no ODD instruction and no el Gentleman identity contract. It reports a Claude Code system prompt plus the skills list. Ask it to "apply ODD" and it either guesses (for example, reads it as a typo for SDD) or falls back to the gentle-ai skill's SDD routing.
4. Compare with any non-bridge provider, where the same prompt returns the injected ODD protocol.

Expected and actual behavior

Expected: the harness (ODD default, identity, persona, RDD status, research block) reaches the model on every supported provider. If a provider cannot carry extension-injected prompt text, gentle-pi detects this and either uses a channel that provider forwards (for example appendSystemPrompt, a context file, or the skills block) or at least warns visibly that the harness is inactive.

Actual: under claude-bridge, the injected harness is silently dropped. Tools stay available, so nothing looks broken. The model follows the stale gentle-ai skill (#1085) and routes explicit ODD requests into SDD.

gentle-pi version

3.7.0 (pi-claude-bridge 0.8.0)

Pi version

0.87.1

Operating system

macOS

Relevant logs or error output (optional)

settings.json: defaultProvider = "claude-bridge", defaultModel = "claude-opus-5-5"
skills/gentle-ai/SKILL.md: 0 mentions of "ODD"/"Organic", 5 of "SDD"/"OpenSpec"
assets/orchestrator.md: contains the ODD protocol (injected via before_agent_start, never forwarded)
pi-claude-bridge src/index.ts: systemPrompt: { type: "preset", preset: "claude_code", append: <contextFiles + skills + custom + appendSystemPrompt> }

[osantis]

Confirming this on Windows (WSL) with the same versions (gentle-pi 3.7.0, Pi 0.87.1, pi-claude-bridge 0.8.0). The source is unchanged on main @ b756b4f (extensions/gentle-ai.ts:9245). Four additions that may help triage:

1. The appendSystemPrompt channel you suggest works. Probe:

// probe.ts: which before_agent_start route reaches the model?
export default function (pi: any) {
	pi.on("before_agent_start", (event: any) => {
		const opts = event.systemPromptOptions;
		if (opts && !String(opts.appendSystemPrompt ?? "").includes("PROBE-ROUTE-B-7Q2")) {
			opts.appendSystemPrompt = `${opts.appendSystemPrompt ?? ""}\n\nPROBE-ROUTE-B-7Q2: injected by mutating systemPromptOptions.appendSystemPrompt.`;
		}
		return { systemPrompt: `${event.systemPrompt}\n\nPROBE-ROUTE-A-3K9: injected by returning systemPrompt.` };
	});
}

gentle-shell -- -p --model claude-bridge/claude-opus-5-5 -e ./probe.ts \
  'Do not use any tools. Quote verbatim every line of your system instructions that contains the text "PROBE-ROUTE-". If none, answer exactly: NONE. Then state whether you can see the text "Organic Driven Development" in your instructions (yes/no).'

PROBE-ROUTE-B-7Q2: injected by mutating systemPromptOptions.appendSystemPrompt.

No, "Organic Driven Development" does not appear in my instructions.

Route A, the returned systemPrompt that gentle-pi uses, is dropped. Route B, the mutated systemPromptOptions.appendSystemPrompt, reaches Claude Code. With openai-codex/gpt-5.5, the same probe reports that it sees "Organic Driven Development".

The bridge re-records systemPromptOptions at agent_start and turn_start, so the mutation should arrive regardless of extension load order. That is my reading of src/index.ts; the probe only exercised the default order.

2. Pi's own docs recommend this route. From docs/extensions.md, in the events section:

before_agent_start exposes both the current prompt and its structured systemPromptOptions. Prefer changing prompt sections, selected tools, or guidelines so Pi can append a transcript delta. Returning systemPrompt [...] replaces the whole prompt for that run.

The fix therefore aligns gentle-pi with the documented extension contract instead of adding bridge-specific handling.

3. gentle-todo.ts is affected too. extensions/gentle-todo.ts:239 returns { systemPrompt: \${event.systemPrompt}\n\n${block}` }`, so the todo block is dropped under claude-bridge as well.

4. Points to settle in design if the maintainer approves moving the injection:

• ordering relative to a user's own APPEND_SYSTEM.md, which shares the field;
• idempotency across turns, for example a marker check as in the probe;
• keeping the isNamedAgent/isSddAgent exclusions;
• whether volatile per-turn content (RDD status, todo staleness) belongs in that section, given the caching concerns in bug(agents): volatile RDD/SDD status embedded in the rebuilt system prompt defeats prompt caching #1029, Improve prompt cache ordering for el Gentleman harness #67 and bug(todo): dynamic stale-turn counter in system prompt invalidates prompt cache every turn #1367.

A regression test could assert that the harness lands in systemPromptOptions, not only in a returned systemPrompt.

I will not open a PR unless the maintainer marks this status:approved and the author of this issue is fine with it.

AI assistance disclosure: this investigation, the probe, and this comment were produced with an AI coding agent (Claude Opus 5.5 via gentle-shell, running through the same claude-bridge setup). The comparison and the probe ran live in my environment, and I reviewed the results before posting.

[Gefermanpernia]

Another occurrence on the latest published release, after this issue was closed.

• Build: gentle-pi 3.7.0 (latest release, v3.7.0), Pi 0.87.1, pi-claude-bridge 0.8.0, macOS arm64, provider claude-bridge, model claude-opus-5-5.
• Observed: the model received the claude_code preset plus context files and the skills block, but no gentle-pi harness text (no "Default workflow: Organic Driven Development (MANDATORY)", no identity/persona, no RDD line). In a long ODD session the model skipped the todo projection, updated the feature document only after code, and ignored the mapping and writer delegation triggers until the user noticed.
• Expected: the harness reaches the model, as fix(prompt): deliver the harness through appendSystemPrompt so bridge providers receive it #1497 intends.

#1497 is merged on main but is not in any published release yet, so users on 3.7.0 are still affected. Could it ship in a release (or prerelease)? Local workaround in the meantime: a short global AGENTS.md pointing the model at the ODD protocol, since context files are forwarded by the bridge.

[viniciosrab]

Another occurrence on the latest published release, this time on Linux.

• Build: gentle-pi 3.7.0 (latest npm and GitHub release), Pi 0.87.1, pi-claude-bridge 0.9.0, Linux x86_64 (Omarchy/Hyprland).
• Setup: the same session and project were run with two providers:
  • claude-bridge/claude-opus-5-5
  • a native Pi provider (gpt-6-sol)
• Prompt: "Me fale sobre ODD" ("tell me about ODD").
• Observed:
  • Native provider: it describes Organic Driven Development: the six ODD steps, and that SDD is optional.
  • claude-bridge: it has no ODD instruction at all and answers with generic meanings (Observability-Driven Development, Outcome-Driven Development).
• Expected: the harness reaches the model on claude-bridge too, as fix(prompt): deliver the harness through appendSystemPrompt so bridge providers receive it #1497 intends.

I checked the installed 3.7.0 source. extensions/gentle-ai.ts still returns the harness only as systemPrompt: \${event.systemPrompt}${gentlePrompt}…`frombefore_agent_start. pi-claude-bridge 0.9.0 still projects only context files, skills, customPromptandappendSystemPrompt (src/prompt-capture.ts, projectCapture). The bridge also excludes every CLAUDE.md (claudeMdExcludes: ["**/CLAUDE.md", …]`), so a Claude Code–side Gentle install does not fill the gap.

#1497 is merged on main but is not in a published release. Is a 3.7.x patch or prerelease with it planned?