> This PR was authored by Mux on behalf of Mike.
Introduce Explore mode, a read-only subagent modality for delegated
discovery and code investigation.
## What
Adds a `spawn_explore_agent` tool that creates child chats restricted to
read-only operations. An admin can optionally configure a
deployment-wide
model override so Explore subagents use a model optimized for large
context
or reasoning without changing the root chat's model.
### Backend
- New `ChatModeExplore` enum value (migration 000471).
- `spawn_explore_agent` tool definition with read-only allowlist:
`read_file`, `execute`, `process_output`, `read_skill`,
`read_skill_file`.
Write tools, file editors, and nested subagent spawning are blocked.
- Deployment config storage for the Explore model override
(`agents_chat_explore_model_override` in `site_configs`).
- Model resolution hierarchy: configured override, then current turn
model,
then global default. Silent fallback with warning log when the override
becomes unavailable.
- RBAC: `AsChatd` for daemon reads, `ActionRead` and `ActionUpdate` on
`ResourceDeploymentConfig` for admin API calls.
- Plan mode root chats can use `spawn_explore_agent` for read-only
research,
matching the planning prompt guidance.
- The Explore override config API now reports malformed saved overrides
as
"treated as unset" so admins can clear them explicitly.
### Frontend
- `ExploreModelOverrideSettings` component in admin agent behavior
settings.
Uses `ModelSelector`, handles unavailable model warnings, and supports
explicit Save and Clear actions.
- Malformed saved overrides show a warning and require an explicit Save
to
clear, instead of Clear auto-submitting behind the scenes.
### Tests
- Integration: `TestExploreSubagentIsReadOnly` (full spawn flow, tool
verification, prompt overlay, DB state).
- Unit: tool allowlist tests for explore, plan, and default modes.
- Internal: model override resolution with valid, invalid UUID,
disabled, and
unconfigured override scenarios.
- RBAC: `dbauthz_test.go` for `GetChatExploreModelOverride` and
`UpsertChatExploreModelOverride`.
- API: admin set and clear, malformed stored override reporting,
disabled
model rejection, non-admin denial.
Add a `chat_client_type` enum (`ui` | `api`) and `client_type` column to
the `chats` table. The column defaults to `api` for new rows so API
callers don't need to set it explicitly. Existing rows are backfilled to
`ui`.
The field flows through `CreateChatRequest`, `chatd.CreateOptions`,
`InsertChat`, and is returned in the `Chat` response via `db2sdk`.
<details>
<summary>Implementation notes (Coder Agents generated)</summary>
### Changes
**Database migration (000469)**
- New enum `chat_client_type` with values `ui`, `api`.
- New `client_type` column, `NOT NULL DEFAULT 'api'`.
- Backfill: `UPDATE chats SET client_type = 'ui'`.
**SQL query** — `InsertChat` now includes `client_type`.
**SDK** — `ChatClientType` type added; `ClientType` field added to both
`CreateChatRequest` (optional, defaults server-side to `api`) and `Chat`
response.
**Handler** — `postChats` maps the request field (defaulting to `api`)
and passes it through `chatd.CreateOptions`.
**Sub-agent** — Child chats inherit their parent's `client_type`.
**db2sdk** — Maps the database value to the SDK type.
### Decision log
- Default is `api` (not `ui`) so existing API integrations get the
correct value without code changes.
- Backfill sets existing rows to `ui` per requirement.
- Child chats inherit `client_type` from parent rather than defaulting.
</details>
Fixes https://github.com/coder/internal/issues/1436
* Adds organization_id to chats with backfill (workspace org → user org membership → default org)
* No support yet for ACLs (follow-up issue)
- Cross-org workspace binding rejected (both in `CreateChatRequest` and in `create_workspace` tool
- Adds `OrganizationAutocomplete` to `AgentCreateForm`
- Docs updated with `organization_id` in chats-api.md
> 🤖 Written by a Coder Agent. Reviewed by many humans and many agents.
---------
Co-authored-by: Mathias Fredriksson <mafredri@gmail.com>
The agents chat interface displays thumbnails for videos recorded by the
computer use agent. Currently, to display a thumbnail, the frontend
downloads the entire video and shows the first frame. This PR starts
storing a new thumbnail file in the database for every recorded video,
and exposes the file id in the `wait_agent` tool result alongside the
recording file id, so the frontend can fetch just the thumbnail.
This PR introduces screen recording of the computer use agent using the
virtual desktop.
- Screen recording is triggered by a `wait_agent` tool call. Recording
is stopped by a successful `wait_agent` tool call or when there hasn't
been any desktop activity for 10 minutes.
- Recordings are handled by the `portabledesktop` cli via the `record`
command. The videos are sped up in periods of inactivity.
- Recordings are saved to the database to the `chat_files` table.
There's a hard limit of 100MB per recording. Larger recordings are
dropped.
- A successful `wait_agent` on a computer use subagent tool call returns
a `recording_file_id`, later allowing the frontend to display the
corresponding video.
Hugo Dutka