Develop and extend
Understand the system, extend supported boundaries, test changes, and contribute safely.
- For
- Contributors, maintainers, and integration developers
Recommended
How Agent Barn Fits Together
A current map of the Product API, Ingest API, Communications Gateway, web app, Agent runtimes, and deployment boundaries.
ConceptChoose your contribution path
Start with the boundary you intend to extend. Communication Platforms, tool Integrations, and Templates or Skills have different ownership, credential, runtime, and testing contracts.
Work on Communications internals
Understand the Communications application, generic Connection model, gateway-owned ingress and delivery, durable Conversations, runtime-neutral delivery protocol, and provider webhook boundary.
Understand the architectureReview API boundariesCommunication ConnectionsTest a change
Add a Communication Platform
Build or update a Platform Plugin for the Communications service, including typed settings and credentials, Connection lifecycle, inbound admission, outbound delivery, optional provider capabilities, registry wiring, and gateway tests.
Add a communication platformPlatform compatibilityTest a change
Add a tool Integration
Add an external tool provider across credential validation, encrypted Agent Secrets, runtime materialization, provider metadata, and an isolated bundled aai-<integration> Skill package. Tool Integrations are distinct from Communication Platforms; Communication Connection credentials do not use Agent Secrets or Shared Credentials.
Contribute Templates and Skills
Contribute bootstrap Templates or isolated bundled Skills while preserving draft and publish workflows, immutable versions, exact Skill Version requirements, scope ownership, runtime mount paths, and existing database-owned resources.
Available documentation
How Agent Barn Fits Together
A current map of the Product API, Ingest API, Communications Gateway, web app, Agent runtimes, and deployment boundaries.
API Architecture and Request Boundaries
Follow the route, service, repository, tenancy, transaction, migration, and dependency-injection conventions.
Web App Architecture and Data Flow
Understand shared Template feature scopes, Organization data flow, and authenticated Web Chat and Agent log streaming.
Domain Events, Outbox, and Delivery
Add typed business events, transactional Outbox Messages, Event Deliveries, handlers, and safe monitoring.
Backend Code Standards
Apply repository-wide layering, HTTP, schema, authorization, style, review, and definition-of-done rules.
Testing and Verification
Select API, UI, runtime, migration, Kubernetes, and documentation checks that prove the changed contract.
Coordinate a Multi-PR Epic
Keep cross-ticket delivery state accurate without replacing feature docs, ADRs, or the issue tracker.
Write and Maintain Architecture Decisions
Capture hard-to-reverse technical choices, their trade-offs, consequences, and later supersession.
System Architecture
Map Product API, Ingest, Communications, Web Chat, runtime execution, persisted costs, and Organization and Agent authorization boundaries.
Develop against the API
Extend Product, Ingest, and Communications APIs with authentication boundaries, Organization and Agent scoping, route-service-repository layering, transactions, migrations, and PostgreSQL-backed tests.
Develop the web app
Develop shared feature scopes, Organization-aware data flows, and authenticated Web Chat and Agent log streaming.
Work with domain events
Model immutable business facts, stage them transactionally with business state, deliver them through idempotent handlers, and diagnose delivery failures.
Test a change
Select API, UI, runtime, and Email Worker coverage while distinguishing required checks from automatic CI path selection.
Add a communication platform
Add a Platform Plugin across typed configuration, encrypted Connection credentials, provider admission, outbound Delivery, optional directory or webhook support, registry wiring, diagnostics, and gateway tests.
Add an integration
Add a tool Integration across credential validation, encrypted persistence, runtime materialization, provider metadata, isolated bundled Skills, web app configuration, and focused tests.
Contribute templates and Skills
Contribute bootstrap Templates and isolated bundled Skills with missing-only seeding, draft/publish workflows, immutable versions, exact Skill pins, scope ownership, runtime mounts, and review.