Insight for: ADR: Headless Mode as GSD's Programmable Surface for the Agent Ecosystem

Hardening and extending GSD-2's headless mode and JSON-RPC protocol for ecosystem integration

Analyzed: Mar 31, 2026

This Architectural Decision Record (ADR) outlines a critical strategic move for GSD-2: solidifying its headless mode and JSON-RPC protocol as the primary programmable surface for AI agent ecosystems. Positioning GSD-2 as an execution backend for platforms like OpenClaw and CI/CD pipelines is a direct response to market demand for robust, interoperable AI tools. The proposal addresses current limitations like weak completion detection and lack of versioning, which are anti-patterns in automation. While the strategic direction is sound, the internal audit reveals factual inaccuracies regarding existing MCP server capabilities, indicating a need for precise baseline assessment before locking in architectural changes.

ADR Headless Mode JSON-RPC protocol ecosystem integrations OpenClaw MCP CI/CD SDKs TUI programmatic, non-interactive operation execution backend subprocess exec machine-parseable output versioning string matching shutdown command phased rollout protocol hardening orchestration-oriented MCP surface rpc-types.ts Discriminated unions RpcCommand RpcResponse RpcExtensionUIRequest waitForIdle() collectEvents() promptAndWait() RpcClient headless-events.ts

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ADR: Headless Mode as GSD's Programmable Surface for the Agent Ecosystem

State: Open