pyro-mcp/docs/roadmap/llm-chat-ergonomics.md
Thales Maciel 788fc4fad4
Add second-pass chat UX milestones
Extend the chat-ergonomics roadmap with the remaining UX work highlighted by the readiness review.

Document a second pass focused on removing shell glue from canonical CLI handoff flows, making the recommended chat-host profile more obvious without changing 3.x compatibility defaults, and polishing human-mode content reads for cleaner transcripts and copy-paste behavior.

Keep these milestones explicitly workspace-first and scoped to product UX, with CLI-only shortcuts allowed where the SDK and MCP surfaces already provide the structured behavior natively.
2026-03-13 10:44:44 -03:00

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# LLM Chat Ergonomics Roadmap
This roadmap picks up after the completed workspace GA plan and focuses on one
goal:
make the core agent-workspace use cases feel trivial from a chat-driven LLM
interface.
Current baseline is `3.6.0`:
- the stable workspace contract exists across CLI, SDK, and MCP
- one-shot `pyro run` still exists as the narrow entrypoint
- workspaces already support seeding, sync push, exec, export, diff, snapshots,
reset, services, PTY shells, secrets, network policy, and published ports
- stopped-workspace disk tools now exist, but remain explicitly secondary
## What "Trivial In Chat" Means
The roadmap is done only when a chat-driven LLM can cover the main use cases
without awkward shell choreography or hidden host-side glue:
- cold-start repo validation
- repro plus fix loops
- parallel isolated workspaces for multiple issues or PRs
- unsafe or untrusted code inspection
- review and evaluation workflows
More concretely, the model should not need to:
- patch files through shell-escaped `printf` or heredoc tricks
- rely on opaque workspace IDs without a discovery surface
- consume raw terminal control sequences as normal shell output
- choose from an unnecessarily large tool surface when a smaller profile would
work
The remaining UX friction for a technically strong new user is now narrower:
- the best chat-host profile is recommended in docs, but not yet obvious enough
from the default live `mcp serve` path
- canonical CLI walkthroughs still need small amounts of shell glue such as
`python -c` extraction of `workspace_id` and `$(cat fix.patch)` expansion
- human-mode file reads are functional, but still need final transcript polish
for copy-paste and chat logs
## Locked Decisions
- keep the workspace product identity central; do not drift toward CI, queue,
or runner abstractions
- keep disk tools secondary and do not make them the main chat-facing surface
- prefer narrow tool profiles and structured outputs over more raw shell calls
- capability milestones should update CLI, SDK, and MCP together
- CLI-only ergonomics are allowed when the SDK and MCP surfaces already have the
structured behavior natively
- every milestone below must also update docs, help text, runnable examples,
and at least one real smoke scenario
## Milestones
1. [`3.2.0` Model-Native Workspace File Ops](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.2.0-model-native-workspace-file-ops.md) - Done
2. [`3.3.0` Workspace Naming And Discovery](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.3.0-workspace-naming-and-discovery.md) - Done
3. [`3.4.0` Tool Profiles And Canonical Chat Flows](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.4.0-tool-profiles-and-canonical-chat-flows.md) - Done
4. [`3.5.0` Chat-Friendly Shell Output](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.5.0-chat-friendly-shell-output.md) - Done
5. [`3.6.0` Use-Case Recipes And Smoke Packs](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.6.0-use-case-recipes-and-smoke-packs.md) - Done
6. [`3.7.0` Handoff Shortcuts And File Input Sources](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.7.0-handoff-shortcuts-and-file-input-sources.md) - Planned
7. [`3.8.0` Chat-Host Onramp And Recommended Defaults](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.8.0-chat-host-onramp-and-recommended-defaults.md) - Planned
8. [`3.9.0` Content-Only Reads And Human Output Polish](llm-chat-ergonomics/3.9.0-content-only-reads-and-human-output-polish.md) - Planned
Completed so far:
- `3.2.0` added model-native `workspace file *` and `workspace patch apply` so chat-driven agents
can inspect and edit `/workspace` without shell-escaped file mutation flows.
- `3.3.0` added workspace names, key/value labels, `workspace list`, `workspace update`, and
`last_activity_at` tracking so humans and chat-driven agents can rediscover and resume the right
workspace without external notes.
- `3.4.0` added stable MCP/server tool profiles with `vm-run`, `workspace-core`, and
`workspace-full`, plus canonical profile-based OpenAI and MCP examples so chat hosts can start
narrow and widen only when needed.
- `3.5.0` added chat-friendly shell reads with plain-text rendering and idle batching so PTY
sessions are readable enough to feed directly back into a chat model.
- `3.6.0` added recipe docs and real guest-backed smoke packs for the five core workspace use
cases so the stable product is now demonstrated as repeatable end-to-end stories instead of
only isolated feature surfaces.
Planned next:
- `3.7.0` removes the remaining shell glue from canonical CLI flows with shortcut flags for
identifier handoff and file-backed text inputs.
- `3.8.0` makes the recommended chat-host entrypoint obvious from the top-level docs, help text,
and shipped MCP examples without changing the `3.x` compatibility default.
- `3.9.0` makes human-mode file reads cleaner in terminals and chat logs, with explicit
content-only reads where summaries would otherwise get in the way.
## Expected Outcome
After this roadmap, the product should still look like an agent workspace, not
like a CI runner with more isolation.
The intended model-facing shape is:
- one-shot work starts with `vm_run`
- persistent work moves to a small workspace-first contract
- file edits are structured and model-native
- workspace discovery is human and model-friendly
- shells are readable in chat
- CLI handoff paths do not depend on ad hoc shell parsing
- the recommended chat-host profile is obvious from the first MCP example
- human-mode content reads are copy-paste safe
- the five core use cases are documented and smoke-tested end to end