the-workshop: desk cards open an in-place Copilot CLI (prefer a wrapper CLI when installed)

[jennyf19]

Syncs the signals-dashboard (Cairn) canvas extension to jennyf19/the-workshop@f3d2298.

What changed

Each desk card in the Cairn dashboard had a path button that copied the desk's filesystem path. It is now an open button: clicking it launches a Copilot CLI right in that desk's folder, oriented to read the desk journal and continue. This mirrors the workshop app's console launcher and keeps every desk inside the one workshop repo rather than a separate checkout elsewhere on disk.

Behavior

• Prefers a wrapper agent CLI when one is on PATH (for example an agency wrapper that preconfigures MCPs), so users who have it get a fully configured desk.
• Falls back to vanilla copilot for everyone else, so it works out of the box.
• Override with WORKSHOP_DESK_AGENT=copilot to force vanilla, or =agency to insist on the wrapper (authoritative even when the wrapper is not detected on PATH).
• Graceful: if no terminal can be launched from the host, it copies the desk path instead. No new dependencies (node builtins only).

New open_desk canvas action; /api/open/<name> now returns whether a terminal launched.

Security hardening (addressing review)

• PATH detection requires a genuinely runnable file (X_OK on POSIX, a PATHEXT match on Windows) — a directory or non-executable agency no longer wins auto-detection.
• Launch target is realpath-contained to the workshop root, so a symlinked desk cannot escape the repo (callers stat() through symlinks).
• Desk names that reach a shell are restricted to a conservative slug, and the orientation prompt is quote-free — no untrusted text reaches a shell parser.
• Mutating /api/* routes require the canonical loopback Host (127.0.0.1:<port>) plus a per-server capability token echoed by the page, in addition to the existing CSRF check — defeating DNS rebinding. Mirrors extensions/connector-namespaces/server.mjs.
• The dashboard copies the desk path only on the non-launch fallback, never after a successful open.

Scope

• extensions/signals-dashboard/extension.mjs (synced to the-workshop's committed version)
• plugins/the-workshop/README.md (one line documenting the open button)
• plugin.json and assets/preview.png are unchanged.

Provenance and validation

• Source of truth: jennyf19/the-workshop@f3d2298
• node eng/validate-plugins.mjs passes (all 70 plugins, 19 extensions, and the external catalog valid).

[github-actions]

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[github-actions]

🔒 PR Risk Scan Results

Scanned 2 changed file(s).

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🟠 Medium	0
ℹ️ Info	0

✅ No matching risk patterns were detected in changed files.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Syncs the Cairn dashboard with upstream desk-launch behavior.

Changes:

• Adds cross-platform desk terminal launching and an open_desk action.
• Updates dashboard behavior and Workshop documentation.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

File	Description
extensions/signals-dashboard/extension.mjs	Adds desk CLI launching and UI/API integration.
plugins/the-workshop/README.md	Documents the desk open button.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

extensions/signals-dashboard/extension.mjs:69

• spawn only confirms that the launcher process was created, not that the terminal opened successfully. In particular, osascript can emit spawn and then exit nonzero when Apple Events are denied or the script fails, yet this reports launched: true and suppresses the fallback message. Please observe early launcher failure (and the osascript exit status) before returning success.

            child.on("spawn", () => done(true, child));
            setTimeout(() => done(true, child), 600);

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

extensions/signals-dashboard/extension.mjs:70

• Resolving on spawn only confirms that the terminal-emulator process exists, not that it opened a terminal. For example, on a headless Linux host gnome-terminal can emit spawn and then exit nonzero because no display is available; this returns launched: true, suppresses both the remaining emulator attempts and the documented clipboard fallback. Allow a short-lived nonzero exit to report failure before treating a still-running process as launched.

            child.on("spawn", () => done(true, child));
            setTimeout(() => done(true, child), 600);

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

[Copilot]

Review details

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

extensions/signals-dashboard/extension.mjs:73

• spawn only confirms that the launcher process was created, not that it opened a terminal. For example, osascript can start and then exit nonzero when Terminal automation is denied, and a Linux emulator can start and fail when no display/session bus is available. This currently returns launched: true, suppressing the documented clipboard fallback even though no terminal appeared. Account for launcher failure/readiness (at least early nonzero exits, with platform-specific handling where needed) before reporting success.

            const child = spawn(cmd, args, { detached: true, stdio: "ignore", ...opts });
            child.on("error", () => done(false));
            child.on("spawn", () => done(true, child));

• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Medium