PR #62675: fix: forward optional params dropped at the runEmbeddedAttempt call site

• Repository: openclaw/openclaw
• Author: hexsprite
• State: closed | merged: True
• Link: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/62675

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

toolsAllow set on a cron agentTurn payload has no effect at runtime — the model still receives the complete tool catalog (all built-in + all MCP plugin tools) on every run, because runEmbeddedPiAgent does not forward params.toolsAllow to its runEmbeddedAttempt call. The CLI/persistence layers work correctly; only the runtime plumbing was missing.

Fixes #62569

Why it matters

PR #58504 (closes #58435) added --tools / payload.toolsAllow for per-job tool allowlists, with a stated motivation of making small local models usable for focused cron tasks. The PR's writeup advertised a ~95% input-token reduction (~16K → ~800) when a single-tool restriction is applied. docs/automation/cron-jobs.md:85 documents the same intent:

--tools exec,read: restrict which tools the job can use

But on the runtime path, the value is silently dropped before reaching the consumer, so the documented behavior never takes effect. Affects every cron agentTurn job that sets toolsAllow (or uses --tools).

Root cause

runEmbeddedPiAgent (in src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run.ts) hand-enumerates ~80 fields when calling runEmbeddedAttempt({...}). PR #58504 wired toolsAllow through:

• cron/isolated-agent/run-executor.ts:132 — cron payload → runEmbeddedPiAgent ✅
• pi-embedded-runner/run/params.ts:103 — added to RunEmbeddedPiAgentParams ✅
• pi-embedded-runner/run/attempt.ts:523-525 — consumer filter ready ✅
• pi-embedded-runner/run.ts runEmbeddedAttempt({...}) call — never wired ❌

toolsAllow is declared as ?: optional on EmbeddedRunAttemptParams (via Omit<RunEmbeddedPiAgentParams, ...> in run/types.ts:13-16), so TypeScript does not flag the missing field at the object literal. The attempt silently receives undefined and the filter at attempt.ts:523-525 is never entered.

This is the same plumbing gap that #62264 (f1b7dd6c0a, "fix: honor lightContext in spawned subagents") fixed for bootstrapContextMode and bootstrapContextRunKind at the same call site. PR #62264 was scoped to subagent lightContext; the toolsAllow field was adjacent in the same hand-listed object literal but not included in that fix. PRs #60776 and #56484 (now closed) had previously identified the bootstrap* half of the same gap.

Fix

One additional line in the runEmbeddedAttempt({...}) call in src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run.ts, immediately after the lines added by #62264:

bootstrapContextMode: params.bootstrapContextMode,
bootstrapContextRunKind: params.bootstrapContextRunKind,
toolsAllow: params.toolsAllow,

Test plan

A new file src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run.attempt-param-forwarding.test.ts exercises the field-forwarding seam end-to-end via the existing loadRunOverflowCompactionHarness() (which mocks runEmbeddedAttempt and lets us call the real runEmbeddedPiAgent). It contains three tests, one per optional param that's been bitten by this class of bug:

• forwards toolsAllow so the per-job tool allowlist can be honored — fails on main before the fix, passes after.
• forwards bootstrapContextMode so lightContext cron jobs strip workspace bootstrap files — guardrail for #62264.
• forwards bootstrapContextRunKind so the bootstrap filter knows the caller context — guardrail for #62264.

The two bootstrapContext* tests are deliberately included so the next ?: optional field added to RunEmbeddedPiAgentParams without wiring at this call site will fail a test instead of silently shipping broken — same gap PR #60776's writeup explicitly called out as missing detection.

Verified locally

pnpm test src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run.attempt-param-forwarding.test.ts
  ✓ forwards toolsAllow so the per-job tool allowlist can be honored
  ✓ forwards bootstrapContextMode so lightContext cron jobs strip workspace bootstrap files
  ✓ forwards bootstrapContextRunKind so the bootstrap filter knows the caller context
  Test Files  1 passed (1)
       Tests  3 passed (3)

pnpm test src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run
  Test Files  21 passed (21)
       Tests  258 passed (258)

pnpm test src/cron/isolated-agent
  Test Files  18 passed (18)
       Tests  176 passed (176)

node scripts/run-oxlint.mjs
  Found 0 warnings and 0 errors. (10595 files, 136 rules)

node scripts/run-tsgo.mjs
  exit 0

End-to-end verification on a real cron

Verified against the actual cron path with a haiku probe (so the full request payload could be inspected, since the payload logger only records Anthropic requests). Same payload.toolsAllow: ["lobster"] cron, before/after applying the same forwarding gap fix:

Without this PR, the toolsAllow: ["lobster"] setting is observable in jobs.json but ignored at runtime, and the request still ships all 72 registered tools. With this PR applied, only the listed tool reaches the model.

Scope boundary

Intentionally not in this PR:

• attempt.ts:549-572 (bundle MCP / LSP tool merge): even with this fix, plugin-contributed tools are spread into effectiveTools after the toolsAllow filter, so --tools exec would still ship all installed plugin tools (lossless-claw, engram, work, shared, etc.). That's a scope-of-filter design question (should toolsAllow restrict plugin tools too?) rather than a plumbing bug, and deserves its own discussion. Filed as a separate concern in issue #62569.
• No changes to the cron write path, the cron edit --tools schema (#59211 covers that), the bootstrap filter, the system prompt builder, or any plugin SDK surface.

Linked work

• Fixes: #62569 (the issue documenting this bug end-to-end)
• Related: #58504 (closed, original toolsAllow feature implementation), #58435 (closed, original feature request), #62264 (merged, sister bootstrapContextMode / bootstrapContextRunKind forwarding fix at the same call site)
• Superseded by #62264: #60776, #56484 (both now closed) — same call site, same ?: optional plumbing gap class

cc @claygeo per the offer in #56484 and @theSamPadilla per the related work in #62264 — feedback welcome from either of you on the regression test shape, since this is the kind of guardrail #60776's writeup explicitly noted as missing.

Changed files

• CHANGELOG.md (modified, +1/-0)
• src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run.attempt-param-forwarding.test.ts (added, +80/-0)
• src/agents/pi-embedded-runner/run.ts (modified, +4/-0)