majordomo/README.md

# majordomo

A clean-slate Go library for building LLM-backed agents: one canonical API
over many model providers, a parseable model naming / failover / tiering
system with built-in health tracking, capability-aware multimodality, tool
calls, structured output, and composable agents and skills.

> **Status:** under construction, phase by phase. The
> [support matrix](#featureprovider-support-matrix) below is kept honest:
> *pending* means not built yet, and this README is updated in the same
> commit as the behavior it describes.

## Install

```bash
go get gitea.stevedudenhoeffer.com/steve/majordomo
```

Requires Go 1.26+.

## Quickstart

```go
package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"

    "gitea.stevedudenhoeffer.com/steve/majordomo"
)

func main() {
    reg := majordomo.New() // built-ins + LLM_* env providers

    m, err := reg.Parse("ollama-cloud/minimax-m3:cloud")
    if err != nil { panic(err) }

    resp, err := m.Generate(context.Background(), majordomo.Request{
        Messages: []majordomo.Message{majordomo.UserText("hello!")},
    })
    if err != nil { panic(err) }
    fmt.Println(resp.Text())
}
```

`majordomo.Parse(...)` (package level) uses a lazily-built default registry
if you don't need isolation.

## Model specs: targets, chains, tiers

A model spec is a comma-separated **failover chain**; each element is either
a `provider/model` target or a registered **alias** (tier):

```go
// Try minimax-m3 first; on failure kimi-k2.6; finally fall back to opus-4.8.
m, _ := reg.Parse("ollama-cloud/minimax-m3:cloud,ollama-cloud/kimi-k2.6:cloud,anthropic/opus-4.8")

// Identical, with the registered alias "thinking" appended and expanded
// in place as the tail of the chain:
m, _ = reg.Parse("ollama-cloud/minimax-m3:cloud,ollama-cloud/kimi-k2.6:cloud,anthropic/opus-4.8,thinking")
```

Everything after the **first `/`** (up to the next comma) is the model id,
passed to the provider **verbatim** — tags (`:cloud`, `:30b`) and ids with
extra slashes survive intact. majordomo never validates ids against a
catalog.

### Custom tiers (aliases)

```go
reg.RegisterAlias("thinking", "anthropic/opus-4.8,ollama-cloud/minimax-m3:cloud")
reg.RegisterAlias("workhorse", "ollama-cloud/minimax-m2.7:cloud,ollama-cloud/qwen3-coder:480b-cloud")

m, _ := reg.Parse("thinking") // a chain, same Model interface as a single target
```

Aliases may appear anywhere in a chain (head, middle, tail), may reference
other aliases, and expand inline and recursively; cycles are detected and
returned as errors.

### Failover & health

Chains are health-tracked per target:

- A **single transient error** (429/5xx, timeout, connection failure) is
  retried once on the same target.
- **Repeated transient errors** (default: 2 consecutive failed attempts)
  bench the target — chains skip it until its cooldown expires (exponential:
  5s, 10s, 20s, ... capped at 5m). Any success resets it.
- `model not found` advances down the chain without penalty; auth/malformed
  errors fail fast (failing over can't fix a bad key). All knobs are
  configurable via `WithChainConfig` / `WithHealthConfig`.
- If every element fails, you get one joined error naming each target and
  why it failed.

## Providers

### Built-in env vars

| Provider | Spec name | Key env var | Default endpoint |
|----------|-----------|-------------|------------------|
| OpenAI (+compatible) | `openai` | `OPENAI_API_KEY` | api.openai.com *(pending)* |
| Anthropic (+compatible) | `anthropic` | `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` | api.anthropic.com *(pending)* |
| Google (Gemini) | `google` | `GOOGLE_API_KEY` / `GEMINI_API_KEY` | Gen AI API *(pending)* |
| Ollama Cloud | `ollama-cloud` | `OLLAMA_API_KEY` | https://ollama.com *(pending)* |
| Ollama (local) | `ollama` | — | `OLLAMA_HOST` or http://localhost:11434 *(pending)* |
| foreman | `foreman` | — (token via DSN) | requires DSN/base URL *(pending)* |

### `LLM_*` env-DSN provider definitions

Define named providers entirely from the environment (go-llm parity):

```
LLM_M1=foreman://test-token-change-me@foreman-m1.orgrimmar.dudenhoeffer.casa
LLM_M5=foreman://test-token-change-me@foreman-m5.orgrimmar.dudenhoeffer.casa
```

defines providers `m1` and `m5` (foreman targets — native Ollama wire
protocol behind a bearer token). They are first-class in `Parse`, chains,
and aliases:

```go
m, _ := reg.Parse("m5/qwen3:30b,m1/qwen3:30b,thinking")
```

DSN format: `scheme://[token@]host[/path]`, scheme ∈ `foreman`, `ollama`,
`ollama-cloud`, `openai`, `anthropic`, `google`/`gemini`, or any scheme you
add with `RegisterScheme`. The token is the credential (bearer token / API
key); the base URL is always `https://host[/path]`. `New()` loads `LLM_*`
vars eagerly; unknown provider names also resolve lazily at Parse time
(`my-prov/x` → `LLM_MY_PROV`).

### Custom providers

Implement the two-method `Provider` interface and register it:

```go
reg.RegisterProvider(myProvider) // now "myprovider/model-x" parses, chains, aliases
```

## Multimodality *(pending — Phase 3)*

Attach images without knowing the target's limits; majordomo normalizes
(downscale, re-encode, count/size limits) against the resolved target's
declared capabilities and rejects clearly what cannot fit.

```go
resp, err := m.Generate(ctx, majordomo.Request{
    Messages: []majordomo.Message{
        majordomo.UserParts(majordomo.Text("what's in this image?"),
            majordomo.Image("image/png", pngBytes)),
    },
})
```

## Tool calls *(canonical API ready; provider wiring pending — Phase 3)*

```go
weather := majordomo.Tool{
    Name:        "get_weather",
    Description: "Current weather for a city",
    Parameters:  json.RawMessage(`{"type":"object","properties":{"city":{"type":"string"}},"required":["city"]}`),
    Handler: func(ctx context.Context, args json.RawMessage) (any, error) {
        var p struct{ City string `json:"city"` }
        _ = json.Unmarshal(args, &p)
        return map[string]any{"city": p.City, "temp_c": 21}, nil
    },
}
resp, _ := m.Generate(ctx, req, majordomo.WithTools(weather))
// resp.ToolCalls → execute → append ToolResultsMessage → continue
```

## Structured output *(canonical API ready; provider wiring pending — Phase 3)*

```go
resp, _ := m.Generate(ctx, req, majordomo.WithSchema(schemaJSON, "answer"))
```

A generic `Generate[T]` helper (schema from your struct, unmarshal into it)
lands with the agent phase.

## Agents & skills *(pending — Phases 5–6)*

Agents = model + system prompt + toolboxes, running a tool-dispatch loop;
skills = reusable instruction+tool bundles attachable to any agent.

## Feature/provider support matrix

| Provider | Resolve/Parse | Chat | Streaming | Tools | Structured | Images | Env DSN |
|----------------------|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
| OpenAI (+compatible) | ✅ | pending | pending | pending | pending | pending | ✅ |
| Anthropic (+compat) | ✅ | pending | pending | pending | pending | pending | ✅ |
| Google (Gemini) | ✅ | pending | pending | pending | pending | pending | ✅ |
| Ollama Cloud | ✅ | pending | pending | pending | pending | pending | ✅ |
| Ollama (local) | ✅ | pending | pending | pending | pending | pending | ✅ |
| foreman | ✅ | pending | pending | pending | pending | pending | ✅ |
| fake (testing) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | — |

Cross-cutting: Parse grammar ✅ · aliases/tiers ✅ · failover chains ✅ ·
health tracking/backoff ✅ · LLM_* env DSNs ✅ · media pipeline pending ·
agent loop pending · skills pending · `Generate[T]` pending.

## Development

```bash
go build ./... && go vet ./... && go test -race -count=1 ./...
```

The default test suite is fully hermetic (no network, no credentials).
Live integration tests (Phase 8) are gated behind the `live` build tag and
read `.env` (see `.env.example`; never commit `.env`).

Design decisions are recorded in [docs/adr/](docs/adr/README.md);
conventions in [CLAUDE.md](CLAUDE.md); build history in
[progress.md](progress.md).