ado-script

ado-script is the umbrella name for the TypeScript workspace at scripts/ado-script/. It produces small, ncc-bundled Node programs that the compiler injects into emitted pipelines as runtime helpers. Today it produces three bundles:

• gate.js — trigger-filter gate evaluator (Setup job)
• import.js — runtime prompt resolver described in Runtime Imports (Agent job)
• exec-context-pr.js — PR execution-context precompute described in Execution Context (Agent job, PR builds only)

Internal-only

ado-script is not a user-facing front-matter feature. Authors never write an ado-script: block in their agent markdown. The compiler decides when an ado-script bundle is needed and how to wire it. See Tools for what is user-facing.

What gate.js does

gate.js is a single-shot Node program that runs as a step in the pipeline’s Setup job and decides whether the downstream Agent / SafeOutputs jobs should execute. It evaluates a declarative GateSpec against runtime facts (PR title, labels, changed files, build reason, etc.) and emits exactly one ##vso[task.setvariable] line:

##vso[task.setvariable variable=SHOULD_RUN;isOutput=true]true   (or false)

Downstream jobs gate themselves on that variable via a condition: clause emitted by the compiler.

The gate is a data interpreter, not a code evaluator. The GateSpec is a typed JSON document; predicates are dispatched via a switch on a discriminated union. There is no eval, no Function, no vm — a compromised compiler cannot use the spec to run arbitrary code on the pipeline runner.

What import.js does

import.js is a single-shot Node program. It reads the prompt file path from argv[2] and resolves {{#runtime-import path}} markers in place. The compiler runs it as a post-prepare-prompt step when inlined-imports: false. See Runtime Imports for the author-facing marker syntax.

Env-var contract

import.js takes no environment variables. Relative-path markers resolve against dirname(argv[2]); in pipeline use this is irrelevant because the compiler always embeds an absolute marker path and import.js is single-pass (nested markers inside the inlined body are not re-expanded).

The bundle lives at import.js and ships in the same ado-script.zip release asset as gate.js, so pipelines download it through the same Setup-job asset flow. import.js uses only the Node standard library, so the ncc bundle is small (~1.5 KB) and carries no SDK dependency.

The Stage-2 threat-analysis prompt is not runtime-imported. src/data/threat-analysis.md is include_str!’d into the ado-aw binary and inlined into the emitted YAML at compile time, matching gh-aw’s pattern (their threat_detection.md ships with the setup action and is read directly from disk — no marker, no resolver).

What exec-context-pr.js does

exec-context-pr.js is a single-shot Node program injected into the Agent job’s prepare phase only on PR-triggered builds. It resolves the PR merge-base and stages artefacts the agent can use to reason about the diff:

aw-context/
└── pr/
    ├── base.sha     # target merge-base SHA (40-char hex)
    ├── head.sha     # PR head SHA (40-char hex)
    └── error.txt    # present only on failure; one-line reason

It also appends a tailored prompt fragment to /tmp/awf-tools/agent-prompt.md (the file assembled by the “Prepare agent prompt” base-YAML step). On success the fragment tells the agent its PR number, project, repository, and provides pre-filled example ADO MCP tool call arguments. On failure it surfaces a graceful degradation message so the agent can still proceed without panicking.

Merge-base resolution

Two paths, both computing the same “merge-base of target tip and PR head”:

1. Synthetic merge commit — ADO’s default PR checkout produces a merge commit (HEAD has ≥ 2 parents). HEAD^1 is the target tip; HEAD^2 is the PR head. The bundle runs git merge-base HEAD^1 HEAD^2.
2. Progressive deepening — when HEAD is a normal commit (shallow clone without a merge commit), the bundle fetches the target branch at increasing depths (--depth=200, 500, 2000, --unshallow) until git merge-base origin/<target> HEAD resolves.

Trust boundary

SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN is mapped only into this step’s env: block — never into the agent step’s env. The bearer is passed to spawned git child processes via GIT_CONFIG_COUNT / GIT_CONFIG_KEY_0 / GIT_CONFIG_VALUE_0 env vars (the http.extraheader pattern), so it never appears in argv or in .git/config.

Env-var contract

Env var	ADO source	Purpose
SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN	$(System.AccessToken)	Bearer for git fetch of the target branch
SYSTEM_PULLREQUEST_PULLREQUESTID	$(System.PullRequest.PullRequestId)	PR number (validated: digits only)
SYSTEM_PULLREQUEST_TARGETBRANCH	$(System.PullRequest.TargetBranch)	Target branch ref (e.g. refs/heads/main)
SYSTEM_TEAMPROJECT	$(System.TeamProject)	ADO project name (validated: alphanumeric + . _ -)
BUILD_REPOSITORY_NAME	$(Build.Repository.Name)	Repository name (validated: alphanumeric + . _ -)
BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY	$(Build.SourcesDirectory)	Workspace root — where aw-context/pr/ is staged

All four identifier env vars are validated against strict allowlist regexes before any value is interpolated into a git refspec or the agent prompt. A validation failure writes aw-context/pr/error.txt and a failure-fragment to the agent prompt, then exits 0 so the rest of the pipeline can continue.

End-to-end data flow

       ┌──────────────────────┐
       │  Rust compiler       │
       │  (filter_ir.rs)      │
       └──────────┬───────────┘
                  │ build_gate_spec(...)  →  GateSpec  (JSON, base64)
                  ▼
       ┌──────────────────────┐
       │  Generated pipeline  │
       │  Setup job:          │
       │   1. UseNode@1       │
       │   2. curl + sha256   │     downloads ado-script.zip
       │      + unzip         │     from the matching ado-aw release
       │   3. node gate/index │     reads GATE_SPEC env var
       │      .js             │
       └──────────┬───────────┘
                  │ ##vso[task.setvariable variable=SHOULD_RUN;…]
                  ▼
       ┌──────────────────────┐
       │  Agent / SafeOutputs │  conditioned on SHOULD_RUN=true
       │  jobs                │
       └──────────────────────┘

The same GateSpec shape is generated as a JSON Schema by cargo run -- export-gate-schema and converted to TypeScript by json-schema-to-typescript into src/shared/types.gen.ts. The TS gate evaluator imports from types.gen.ts, never from a hand-written mirror of the IR — so the spec contract cannot drift between compiler and evaluator. CI enforces this with a git diff --exit-code step on the codegen output.

Runtime stages inside gate.js

gate.js’s entry point is src/gate/index.ts. It runs five stages, all single-shot, all fail-closed on error:

1. Decode + size-cap — base64-decode GATE_SPEC, reject if the decoded JSON exceeds MAX_SPEC_DECODED_BYTES (256 KiB), then JSON.parse.
2. Pre-flight validation — walk the predicate tree and throw on any unknown type discriminant. This catches version drift between a newer compiler and an older bundled gate.js before fact acquisition runs, so the failure mode is “loud” rather than “silent skip when the dependent fact is unavailable”. Deliberately runs before runBypass so a malformed spec fails fast regardless of build reason.
3. Bypass — if ADO_BUILD_REASON does not match spec.context.build_reason (e.g. spec is for PullRequest but the build is Manual), auto-pass: emit SHOULD_RUN=true, tag the build, complete Succeeded, exit.
4. Fact acquisition — for every FactSpec in the spec, either read a pipeline env var (isPipelineVarFact) or call the ADO REST API (pr_metadata, pr_labels, changed_files, …). Each per-fact failure is recorded in the PolicyTracker and dispatched via that fact’s failure_policy (fail_closed / fail_open / skip_dependents).
5. Predicate evaluation — for each CheckSpec, the PolicyTracker decides whether the check is evaluate, pass, skip, or fail based on which referenced facts are still available. Evaluator dispatches the predicate via the switch in evaluatePredicate. Failing checks emit addBuildTag and the overall SHOULD_RUN is true iff every check is pass or skip.

If SHOULD_RUN ends up false, selfCancelIfRequested issues a best-effort BuildStatus.Cancelling PATCH so the pipeline run is visibly cancelled in the ADO UI rather than just paused on a gated job.

Runtime env-var contract

The compiler injects these environment variables on the bash: node gate.js step. gate.js reads them via process.env:

Env var	Source	Purpose
GATE_SPEC	compiled inline (base64)	The full GateSpec JSON
SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN	$(System.AccessToken)	ADO REST auth
ADO_COLLECTION_URI	$(System.CollectionUri)	ADO org base URL
ADO_BUILD_REASON	$(Build.Reason)	Used by the bypass branch
ADO_BUILD_ID	$(Build.BuildId)	Used for selfCancelIfRequested
ADO_PROJECT / ADO_REPO_ID / ADO_PR_ID	compiler-injected	PR-derived facts
ADO_* (fact-specific)	Fact::ado_exports() in Rust	Per-fact pipeline-variable readers (e.g. ADO_PR_TITLE, ADO_SOURCE_BRANCH)
ADO_API_TIMEOUT_MS	optional override	Per-attempt timeout for every ADO REST call. Default 30 000. On timeout, the call is retried once; if the retry also times out, the gate falls back to the per-fact FailurePolicy.

The exact contract for pipeline-variable facts (which env var maps to which FactKind) lives in two places that must stay in lockstep:

• Rust: Fact::ado_exports() in src/compile/filter_ir.rs
• TS: ENV_BY_FACT plus the FactKind union in scripts/ado-script/src/shared/env-facts.ts

The codegen drift check only mirrors the GateSpec shape, not the env-var mapping, so when adding a new pipeline-variable fact you must update both sides by hand. Fact::ado_exports() carries a docstring pointing at the TS mirror as a reminder.

Workspace layout

scripts/ado-script/
├── package.json                 # type:module; dep: azure-devops-node-api (lazy-imported)
├── tsconfig.json                # strict; noUncheckedIndexedAccess; NodeNext
├── src/
│   ├── shared/                  # Reusable across all bundles
│   │   ├── types.gen.ts         # AUTO-GENERATED from Rust IR — do not edit
│   │   ├── auth.ts              # WebApi factory; SDK is dynamic-imported here
│   │   ├── ado-client.ts        # azure-devops-node-api wrapper + retry + timeout + pagination
│   │   ├── env-facts.ts         # Pipeline-variable readers + ENV_BY_FACT + BRANCH_FACTS + ref-prefix stripping
│   │   ├── policy.ts            # PolicyTracker state machine
│   │   └── vso-logger.ts        # ##vso[…] emitters with property/message escaping; complete() is idempotent
│   ├── gate/                    # gate.js entry point + per-concern modules
│   │   ├── index.ts             # main(): decode → preflight → bypass → facts → eval → emit
│   │   ├── bypass.ts            # build-reason auto-pass
│   │   ├── facts.ts             # fact acquisition (env + REST)
│   │   ├── predicates.ts        # 11 predicate evaluators + validatePredicateTree + glob ReDoS hardening
│   │   └── selfcancel.ts        # best-effort build cancellation
│   ├── import/                  # import.js entry point + runtime prompt resolver
│   │   ├── index.ts             # main(): expand runtime-import markers in place
│   │   └── __tests__/           # marker, path-resolution, and single-pass coverage
│   └── exec-context-pr/         # exec-context-pr.js entry point + PR context modules
│       ├── index.ts             # main(): validate IDs → merge-base → stage artefacts → append prompt fragment
│       ├── validate.ts          # strict allowlist regexes for all 4 PR identifier env vars
│       ├── merge-base.ts        # synthetic-merge + progressive-deepening resolution
│       ├── git.ts               # git runner helpers + bearerEnv() for token isolation
│       └── prompt.ts            # successFragment() / failureFragment() for agent-prompt.md
├── test/                        # End-to-end smoke tests
├── gate.js                      # ncc bundle output (gitignored)
├── import.js                    # ncc bundle output (gitignored)
└── exec-context-pr.js           # ncc bundle output (gitignored)

The release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) runs npm ci && npm run build, then zips scripts/ado-script/gate.js, scripts/ado-script/import.js, and scripts/ado-script/exec-context-pr.js into the ado-script.zip release asset. Pipelines download that asset at runtime by URL pinned to the compiler’s CARGO_PKG_VERSION, verify its SHA-256 against the checksums.txt asset, then extract.

Schema codegen

types.gen.ts is derived from the Rust IR via schemars → json-schema-to-typescript:

┌──────────────────────────┐   schemars   ┌──────────────────────────┐
│ src/compile/filter_ir.rs │ ───────────► │ schema/gate-spec.schema  │
│ #[derive(JsonSchema)]    │              │     .json                │
└──────────────────────────┘              └────────────┬─────────────┘
                                                       │ json2ts
                                                       ▼
                                       ┌──────────────────────────────┐
                                       │ src/shared/types.gen.ts      │
                                       │ (consumed by gate/*.ts)      │
                                       └──────────────────────────────┘

npm run codegen runs both stages. The CI workflow (.github/workflows/ado-script.yml) regenerates the file and runs git diff --exit-code to fail on drift, on both PRs and pushes to main. If you change the IR shape in Rust, run cd scripts/ado-script && npm run codegen and commit the regenerated types.gen.ts.

The Rust subcommand that emits the schema is intentionally hidden:

cargo run -- export-gate-schema --output schema/gate-spec.schema.json

How the bundles are wired into emitted pipelines

AdoScriptExtension (src/compile/extensions/ado_script.rs) is the always-on single extension that owns all ado-script wiring. It has three independent features, each emitted into the job that actually consumes the bundle:

Setup job (gate evaluator)

When filters: lowers to non-empty checks, AdoScriptExtension::declarations() returns three typed Declarations::setup_steps entries for the Setup job:

1. UseNode@1 — installs Node 22.x LTS, capped at timeoutInMinutes: 5.
2. curl download + verify + extract — fetches checksums.txt and ado-script.zip from the githubnext/ado-aw release matching CARGO_PKG_VERSION, verifies the zip’s SHA-256, then unzip -o /tmp/ado-aw-scripts/ado-script.zip -d /tmp/ado-aw-scripts/. Also capped at timeoutInMinutes: 5.
3. bash: node '/tmp/ado-aw-scripts/ado-script/gate.js' — runs the gate with GATE_SPEC and the env-var contract documented above.

Agent job (runtime-import resolver and PR context)

AdoScriptExtension::declarations() contributes Agent-job prepare steps when either import.js or exec-context-pr.js is active. It returns install + download first, then appends the relevant invocation steps.

import.js invocation — active when inlined-imports: false (the default):

1. UseNode@1 — installs Node 22.x LTS, capped at timeoutInMinutes: 5.
2. curl download + verify + extract — same artefact and verification as the Setup job.
3. bash: node '/tmp/ado-aw-scripts/ado-script/import.js' — expands {{#runtime-import …}} markers in /tmp/awf-tools/agent-prompt.md in place. See Runtime Imports for marker syntax.

exec-context-pr.js invocation — emitted by ExecContextExtension (src/compile/extensions/exec_context/pr.rs, Tool phase) when on.pr is configured and execution-context.pr.enabled is not false:

4. bash: node '/tmp/ado-aw-scripts/ado-script/exec-context-pr.js' — resolves the merge-base and stages aw-context/pr/{base,head}.sha, then appends a prompt fragment. Gated by condition: eq(variables['Build.Reason'], 'PullRequest') so it is a no-op on non-PR builds.

Per-job download (NOT a duplication bug)

ADO jobs use isolated VMs — /tmp is not shared between jobs. The ado-script.zip bundle therefore has to be downloaded once per job that consumes it. When both the Setup gate and Agent resolver/PR-context are active, install + download steps appear in both Setup and Agent. That’s correct architecture given ADO’s topology, not waste.

What gets emitted, by case

filters:	inlined-imports	on.pr w/ exec-context	Setup-job steps	Agent-job extra steps
inactive	true	no	(none)	(none)
inactive	true	yes	(none)	install + download + exec-context-pr
inactive	false	no	(no Setup job)	install + download + resolver
inactive	false	yes	(no Setup job)	install + download + resolver + exec-context-pr
active	true	no	install + download + gate	(none)
active	true	yes	install + download + gate	install + download + exec-context-pr
active	false	no	install + download + gate	install + download + resolver
active	false	yes	install + download + gate	install + download + resolver + exec-context-pr

The IR-to-bash codegen that produces the gate step is compile_gate_step_external in src/compile/filter_ir.rs.

Modifying ado-script

Add a new predicate

1. Add a Predicate + PredicateSpec variant in src/compile/filter_ir.rs. Run cargo test and update spec tests.
2. In scripts/ado-script/, run npm run codegen so types.gen.ts picks up the new variant.
3. Add a case to the switch in src/gate/predicates.ts::evaluatePredicate.
4. Add the new type name to KNOWN_PREDICATE_TYPES (right above the validatePredicateTree function). Both updates are required — the drift test KNOWN_PREDICATE_TYPES stays in sync with evaluatePredicate switch in predicates.test.ts will fail if you forget either.
5. Add a vitest case under src/gate/__tests__/ports/<new-predicate>.test.ts.

Add a new pipeline-variable fact

1. Add a Fact variant in src/compile/filter_ir.rs and update Fact::ado_exports(). (Its docstring reminds you about step 3.)
2. npm run codegen to regenerate types.
3. Add an entry to ENV_BY_FACT and extend the FactKind union in scripts/ado-script/src/shared/env-facts.ts. Without this step the gate silently treats the fact as missing.
4. If the fact value is ref-shaped (e.g. a branch name), add it to the exported BRANCH_FACTS set so the read-time strip is applied.

Add a new bundle (e.g. poll.js)

The existing exec-context-pr.js bundle is a working example of this pattern — see scripts/ado-script/src/exec-context-pr/ and src/compile/extensions/exec_context/pr.rs.

1. Create src/poll/index.ts and supporting modules under scripts/ado-script/src/poll/. Reuse anything in src/shared/.
2. Add a build script to package.json:

   "build:poll": "ncc build src/poll/index.ts -o .ado-build/poll -m -t && node -e \"const fs=require('node:fs'); fs.copyFileSync('.ado-build/poll/index.js','poll.js'); fs.rmSync('.ado-build/poll',{recursive:true,force:true});\""

   and extend build to also run it.
3. Add vitest tests under src/poll/__tests__/.
4. Wire from a new CompilerExtension (or extend an existing one) that downloads ado-script.zip (already a release asset) and invokes node /tmp/ado-aw-scripts/ado-script/poll.js as a runtime step.
5. Update release packaging to include scripts/ado-script/poll.js in ado-script.zip alongside other bundles.

Local development loop

From scripts/ado-script/:

npm ci                 # one-time
npm run codegen        # regenerate types.gen.ts (compiles ado-aw first)
npm test               # vitest unit tests
npm run typecheck      # strict tsc --noEmit
npm run build          # ncc-bundle to gate.js
npm run test:smoke     # build + smoke test the bundle end-to-end

The Rust-side E2E gate test compiles a real agent, extracts the emitted GATE_SPEC, and shells out to the bundled gate.js:

cargo test --test gate_e2e -- --ignored --nocapture

Bundle-size budget

Each bundled artifact must stay under 5 MB. The entry-point chunk for gate.js is ~78 KB; the lazy-imported azure-devops-node-api SDK lives in a separate ~2.7 MB chunk loaded only when an ADO REST call is needed. Pipelines that bypass or rely only on pipeline-variable facts never load the SDK.

If a future bundle blows the budget:

• First, check ncc’s --minify and --target flags.
• If still too large, weigh dropping azure-devops-node-api in favor of hand-rolled fetch for the hot endpoints. The retry / timeout / pagination helpers in src/shared/ado-client.ts are written so they could wrap either approach.

Out of scope (explicitly)

• A user-facing ado-script: front-matter block. Letting authors run arbitrary TypeScript at pipeline runtime would bypass the safe-output trust boundary and require sandboxing the project does not have.
• Migrating the safe-output executors (src/safeoutputs/*.rs) to Node. Stage 3 keeps a Rust-only execution path.
• Migrating the agent-stats parser. It runs in-pipeline as part of Stage 1 wrap-up and has no TypeScript dependency need.
• Bundling Node itself. Pipelines install Node via UseNode@1.

See also

• Filter IR — the IR consumed by gate.js.
• Runtime Imports — author-facing marker syntax for import.js.
• Execution Context — user-facing configuration for exec-context-pr.js.
• Extending the Compiler — generic compiler-extension guide.