preset-skill-op-activation-session-refresh

name	preset-skill-op-activation-session-refresh
description	How a saved preset becomes the running default, first-run/setup choice semantics, propagation, and what /refresh actually switches.
version	1.0.0
last_changed_at	2026-07-19T00:00:00Z
related_files	["tui/internal/tui/firstrun.go","tui/internal/tui/app.go","tui/internal/preset/preset_skill_router_test.go"]
maintenance	If you find stale or incorrect information here, use the lingtai-issue-report skill to assemble evidence and obtain per-issue human consent before filing an issue. Never include secrets, credentials, tokens, or private paths.

Activation / session refresh

Evidence: tui/internal/tui/firstrun.go:4022-4205, tui/internal/tui/app.go:857-906.

The agent-preset page is saved-only

enterAgentPresets() (firstrun.go:4032-4133) lists only saved presets (Source == SourceSaved via preset.IsTemplate), never raw templates. A built-in template isn't "endorsed" onto this surface until the user has edited and saved it — which materializes a saved preset. See reference/operations/saved-presets/SKILL.md for the save mechanics that put a preset here in the first place.

Selected becomes default; default is always allowed and first

The wizard defaults to "nothing allowed except the one the user's cursor was on when they entered this step" — the schema invariant is that default must be a member of allowed, and the default row is always forced into presetAllowed. allowedPresetRefs() (firstrun.go:4175-4190) writes the default preset first, then the rest of the user-checked rows in row order, into manifest.preset.{default,allowed}.

Setup re-edit preserves existing configuration

Re-running /setup on an agent that already has an init.json hydrates presetAllowed/presetDefaultIdx from the existing manifest.preset.{default,allowed} (firstrun.go:4078-4116) rather than resetting to "nothing allowed" — so re-running setup only changes what the user explicitly changes. Path comparison is normalized (~/... vs absolute) via presetRefMatches (firstrun.go:4143-4168) so the same file referenced two different ways still matches. A preset the wizard's cursor now points at, but which isn't in the existing allowed list (e.g. just created in the editor), is auto-checked so it doesn't silently stay unauthorized — the user can still uncheck it.

Propagation is best-effort, network-wide

propagatePresetPolicyToNetwork() (firstrun.go:4192-4206) treats /setup as a network-wide preset-policy reset: the wizard's chosen {default, allowed} surface is pushed to every other agent in the project, not just the one being edited. This is best-effort — failures are not surfaced as a user-visible error because the primary agent's save already succeeded.

/refresh — three forms, one thing they don't do

app.go:857-906 handles three /refresh invocations:

• /refresh all — hard-refreshes every non-human agent in the project at its current preset; failures per-agent are collected and reported, the operation doesn't stop on the first failure.
• /refresh <preset> — resolves <preset> against the target agent's manifest.preset.allowed list first (resolvePresetInAllowed); an unresolvable name surfaces a clear status-bar error and does nothing destructive. On success, hard-refreshes the target agent switched to that preset.
• bare /refresh — hard-refreshes the target agent at its current preset (no switch).

Saving a preset alone does not switch a running session. A saved or even newly-activated (default) preset only takes effect on the next launch/refresh of a given agent — an explicit /refresh [preset], relaunch, or new service construction is required to pick it up. This mirrors the codex-pool selection-at-construction rule in reference/codex-pool/SKILL.md — that pool selection is one more thing an in-place preset/pool-file edit does not retroactively touch on an already-running session.

Operations

For why Save no longer requires a live-probe pass before a preset becomes eligible here (structural validation only), see reference/operations/availability-save-gate/SKILL.md. For the Load/Save/Delete contract, see reference/operations/saved-presets/SKILL.md.