DEVELOPMENT.md

Development

Requirements

• Rust nightly, because .cargo/config.toml uses nightly hardening flags.
• Node.js 18+ for npm package checks and install.js.
• Linux x86-64 or arm64.

Install Rust with:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- \
  -y --profile minimal --default-toolchain nightly \
  --component rustfmt --component clippy

Then:

. "$HOME/.cargo/env"

Common commands

cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo test
cargo build --release
node --check scripts/install/install.js
python3 -m json.tool package.json >/dev/null
python3 -m json.tool integrations/lobehub/lhm.plugin.json >/dev/null

Mock and dry-run testing

Command-backed handlers respect two safety mechanisms:

• "dry_run": true in MCP params returns a command/action preview without mutating the host.
• AETHER_MOCK_COMMANDS=1 makes command-backed handlers return MOCK: ... instead of executing binaries. This is used by tests/mock_action_tests.rs.

Example:

{
  "action": "install",
  "params": {
    "package": "curl",
    "dry_run": true
  }
}

MCP smoke test

Build first:

cargo build

Then run:

python3 scripts/smoke_stdio.py

The script sends newline-delimited JSON-RPC messages to target/debug/aether-mcp-server. The server should respond to:

• initialize
• tools/list
• tools/call with a safe read-only action such as system_info / uptime

Conventions

• stdout must remain JSON-RPC only.
• Use stderr for tracing and audit logs.
• Do not use bash -c, sh -c, or interpolated command strings for tool actions.
• Prefer direct Linux APIs: /proc, /sys, nix, libc, DBus.
• If a CLI is unavoidable, use Command::new(program).args([...]).
• Destructive actions require force: true.
• Kernel/system-dangerous actions require .env feature gates.
• Every unsafe block must have a // SAFETY: comment.

Test layout

File	Scope
tests/config_tests.rs	Feature gate defaults and env parsing
tests/error_tests.rs	Error formatting and helper behavior
tests/integration_tests.rs	Public API smoke tests
tests/tool_dispatch_tests.rs	Tool names, destructive action error shape, gate checks