| name | shimmy-escalation |
| description | Request narrow AI-agent approvals for Shimmy wrappers that invoke Podman. Use when a wrapper is blocked by sandboxing or when Podman works directly but an exact outer wrapper command needs approval. |
Shimmy Escalation
Principle
Approvals apply to the outer command. Approval for podman info does not
approve a wrapper that invokes Podman internally. Request the smallest
non-mutating wrapper prefix, for example ['rg', '--version'] or
['./commands/run-tool.sh', 'jq', '--version'].
Workflow
- Identify the selected profile with
shimmy status --format manifest.
- For an installed shim, invoke its normal command name, such as
rg or
jq; do not use its resolved installation path.
- For source validation, use
./commands/run-tool.sh <kind> ... or the
concrete tools/<kind>/versions/<version>/run.sh runtime.
- Confirm direct engine availability with
podman info only when needed.
- If direct Podman works but the wrapper fails, request approval for the
exact harmless wrapper smoke command. Do not broaden approval to arbitrary
Podman or shell commands.
./commands/agent-preflight.sh reports repository and activated-wrapper
approval prefixes. It can inspect Podman state; use --smoke only after the
corresponding wrapper prefixes are approved.
Safety
- Prefer
--version, version, or --help smokes.
- Do not install Podman or initialize a machine.
- If the engine itself is unavailable, use the initialization workflow and
request user remediation before starting or creating anything.
- Preserve
SHIMMY_PROFILE_ACTIVE=upstream when testing an upstream profile.
