Role delegation GitHub issue

A mechanism for one role to grant — or pass through — some of its permissions to code running under a different role. Driven by the $agent.yield need but kept general so the mechanism isn't agent-specific.

vibecode
{"vibecode": {
    "doc": "idea_role_delegation",
    "role": "design exploration for letting one Caspian role delegate or pass through permissions to code running in another role; scoped narrowly to support agent-yield without overdesigning the broader roles system",
    "status": "idea_scope_set_design_open",
    "forcing_function": "agent_yield_run_as_self_block_needs_a_way_for_caller_role_to_apply_to_agent_code",
    "design_principle": "narrow_not_agent_specific",
    "related": ["requirements/caspian/roles.md (settled roles spec)",
        "ideas/agent-yield.md (the forcing function)"]
}}

What we want to accomplish GitHub issue

Two design principles, both equally load-bearing:

  1. Don't make a special case for $agent.yield. The mechanism we add should be general — a property of the roles system, not a feature bolted onto the agent yield protocol. If two unrelated features ever need the same delegation behavior, they should use the same mechanism.
  2. Don't overdesign the roles system. Add as narrow a concept as we can. The bar is "just enough to make $agent.yield's as_self mode work." Speculative future delegation patterns can wait until they have their own forcing functions.

So the target is a single, general, minimum-viable delegation primitive. Not a delegation framework. Just the smallest thing that lets the as_self block in $agent.yield cleanly inherit the caller's role for the agent's code.

The forcing case GitHub issue

From the agent-yield protocol:

$agent.as_self do
    $agent.yield db: $db, foo: $bar
end

Inside the as_self block, the agent's returned function should execute under the caller's current role rather than under a freshly-created sandboxed role. That's the entire feature we need from delegation right now.

The block-level wrapping is intentional: the developer is marking a region where they're deliberately letting outside code run with their own privileges. It's a visible gesture, not an invisible default.

Sketches GitHub issue

(To be filled in.)

See also GitHub issue

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