Enable load nested hint files #4002

lifeizhou-ap · 2025-08-11T11:01:16Z

Implement the feature for #3724

What

Added the configuration for users to choose whether to load the nested goose hint file
When configuration is enabled, it will load the hints file up to the directory with .git dir or current directory if no .git found

Next (not in this PR)
It would be good to show loaded hints in CLI and Desktop.

lifeizhou-ap · 2025-08-11T11:05:09Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/mod.rs

        let hints_filenames: Vec<String> = std::env::var("CONTEXT_FILE_NAMES")
            .ok()
            .and_then(|s| serde_json::from_str(&s).ok())
-            .unwrap_or_else(|| vec![".goosehints".to_string()]);


Extracted the hints logic to goose_hints.rs

* main: feat: add @-mention file reference expansion to .goosehints (#3873) feat(cli): Add --name/-n to session remove and --id/-i alias for session export (#3941) Docs: provider and model run options (#4013) To-Do Tools (#3902) ci: correctly match doc only changes (#4009) Remove PR trigger for Linux build workflow (#4008) docs: update release docs with an additional step needed + adjust list formatting (#4005) chore(release): release version 1.3.0 (#3921) docs: MCP-ui blog content (#3996) feat: Add `GOOSE_TERMINAL` env variable to spawned terminals (#3911) add missing dependencies for developer setup (#3930)

alexhancock · 2025-08-21T00:49:49Z

crates/goose-cli/src/commands/configure_settings.rs

+        let _ = cliclack::log::info("Notice: GOOSE_NESTED_HINTS environment variable is set and will override the configuration here.");
+    }
+
+    let current_enabled: bool = config.get_param("NESTED_GOOSE_HINTS").unwrap_or(false);


I actually think enabled could be a better default here, and people would only need to seek out the config option if they didn't want it for some reason.

alexhancock · 2025-08-21T00:51:25Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/goose_hints/import_files.rs

+        .expect("Invalid file reference regex pattern")
+});
+
+const MAX_DEPTH: usize = 3;


Why three? I'd think there would be realistic repo scenarios of wanting four or five perhaps

This is copied from existing behaviour during refactoring.

This max depth is more about reference depth. For example,

file 1
@file2.md

file2
@file3.md

file3
@file4.md

We can increase if we would like to have more chain of references

alexhancock · 2025-08-21T00:54:34Z

crates/goose/src/agents/extension_manager.rs

+                    if name == "developer" {
+                        let config = crate::config::Config::global();
+                        if let Ok(nested_enabled) = config.get_param::<bool>("NESTED_GOOSE_HINTS") {
+                            command.env("NESTED_GOOSE_HINTS", nested_enabled.to_string());


do we not already forward env vars to mcp server subprocesses?

Here we get the NESTED_GOOSE_HINTS value from config, and pass it to the mcp as environment variable as it is not good for mcp server to know the config.

We could simplify this without make this behaviour configuration as suggested in the comments below

alexhancock · 2025-08-21T01:15:29Z

crates/goose-mcp/src/developer/mod.rs

 };
 use rmcp::object;

+use crate::developer::goose_hints::load_hints::{load_hint_files, GOOSE_HINTS_FILENAME};


Good to see developer get smaller and this to be moved out!

I do wonder if we will need tighter integration again soon though. It could be nice to have it discover .goosehints in subdirs when working with files in those subdirs. And feels like the depth limit could be more relaxed for this case...

I feel this is a slightly different requirements

In the implementation of this PR, while working on the current directly, it inherits all the .goosehints from the parent directory up to the project root.

It could be nice to have it discover .goosehints in subdirs when working with files in those subdirs. And feels like the depth limit could be more relaxed for this case...

This would be also useful. This also aligns the glob features in cursor, and Claude code has something similar. We can work on this separately

alexhancock · 2025-08-21T01:24:14Z

Tried it locally and asked:

"What .goosehints do you already know about?" from cwd of goose/ui/desktop

it picked up the one from goose/ui/desktop/.goosehints but not goose/.goosehints

I wonder if this should work, or indicates an issue with the upward traversal

michaelneale · 2025-08-21T02:22:09Z

I think consider default on for this, if it isn't ready for that, then it needs more work IMO. This would use the nearest hints - is that right? or does it keep loading them all the way up?

alexhancock · 2025-08-21T13:29:08Z

Yeah I agree with @michaelneale above! I think this would be good just "default to on" behavior.

I also don't know that it needs to be configureable tbh. The more options we add to settings the more conceptual overhead there is for the user. People could configure it by modifying/adjusting/removing the content of the goosehints files it finds and uses.

* main: (108 commits) Remove unused game (#4226) fix issue where app redirects to home after initialization but user has already started a chat (#4260) Feat: Let providers configure a fast model for summarization (#4228) docs: update tool selection strategy (#4258) feat: upgrade `@mcp-ui/client` package and improve UI message handling (#4164) stop replacing chat window when changing working directory (#4200) Only fetch session tokens when chat state is idle to avoid resetting during streaming (#4104) bump timeouts for e2e tests (#4251) docs: custom context files improvements (#4096) chore: upgrade rmcp to 0.6.0 (#4243) doc: uvx not npx (#4240) Add PKCE support for Tetrate Agent Router Service (#4165) Read AGENTS.md by default (#4232) docs: configure provider and model (#4235) docs: add figma tutorial (#4231) Add Nix flake for reproducible builds (#4213) Enhanced onboarding page visual design (#4156) feat: adds mtls to all providers (#2794) (#2799) Don't show a confirm dialog for quitting (#4225) Fix: Missing smart_approve in CLI /mode help text and error message (#4132) ...

lifeizhou-ap · 2025-08-22T01:12:59Z

I think consider default on for this, if it isn't ready for that, then it needs more work IMO.

👍

This would use the nearest hints - is that right? or does it keep loading them all the way up?

It will keep loading them all the way up until they see the directory with .git (eg project root). Otherwise, it uses the .goosehints in the current directory

lifeizhou-ap · 2025-08-22T01:13:35Z

Yeah I agree with @michaelneale above! I think this would be good just "default to on" behavior.

I also don't know that it needs to be configureable tbh. The more options we add to settings the more conceptual overhead there is for the user. People could configure it by modifying/adjusting/removing the content of the goosehints files it finds and uses.

👍 This totally makes sense!

lifeizhou-ap · 2025-08-22T02:23:16Z

Tried it locally and asked:

"What .goosehints do you already know about?" from cwd of goose/ui/desktop

it picked up the one from goose/ui/desktop/.goosehints but not goose/.goosehints

I wonder if this should work, or indicates an issue with the upward traversal

Hi @alexhancock Thank you so much for testing this! Really appreciate it!

I tried on local, it seems Goose picked up the goose/.goosehints. I guess it might need to run the developer mcp to load the hints. (this is the existing behaviour).

This reverts commit 3b7f6b6.

lifeizhou-ap · 2025-08-22T02:56:44Z

Hi @alexhancock @michaelneale,

Thank you so much for your time to review this PR. I've replied to your comments and removed the NESTED_GOOSE_HINTS configuration as suggested.

I added a bit clarification on MAX_DEPTH, happy to increase if you think 4/5 depth will be helpful.

Thank you!

alexhancock

So much simpler without the config options. This makes sense as default behavior to me. Nice!

Signed-off-by: Alex Rosenzweig <arosenzweig@squareup.com>

* main: no streaming for ollama and re-arrange cards (#4335) Enable load nested hint files (#4002)

Signed-off-by: Dorien Koelemeijer <dkoelemeijer@squareup.com>

lifeizhou-ap added 3 commits August 11, 2025 16:58

refactor to extract load goosehints to a separate file

91c528d

traverse upwards to get all the hints

2b164e3

add the configuration for nested hints

6bedbeb

lifeizhou-ap commented Aug 11, 2025

View reviewed changes

lifeizhou-ap requested review from DOsinga and michaelneale and removed request for DOsinga August 11, 2025 11:05

lifeizhou-ap added 5 commits August 12, 2025 10:42

resolved merge conflicts and refactor

5c31ea8

moved tests

31be8dd

changed the logic that only traverse to project git root

51ace7d

fixed the lint

3af6ba6

alexhancock reviewed Aug 21, 2025

View reviewed changes

lifeizhou-ap added 2 commits August 22, 2025 10:50

added agent.md back

db64e9e

lifeizhou-ap added 2 commits August 22, 2025 11:18

fixed compilation error

533913d

fixed lint check

b2b4a3f

lifeizhou-ap added 3 commits August 22, 2025 12:27

increased max depth to 6 to fit mono repo use case

3b7f6b6

Revert "increased max depth to 6 to fit mono repo use case"

3129deb

This reverts commit 3b7f6b6.

removed configuration for nested hints. use it directly

04ef6df

alexhancock approved these changes Aug 26, 2025

View reviewed changes

lifeizhou-ap merged commit 298fb90 into main Aug 26, 2025
11 checks passed

lifeizhou-ap deleted the lifei/read-upper-goosehints branch August 26, 2025 00:51

lifeizhou-ap mentioned this pull request Aug 26, 2025

Feature request: Discover .goosehints in subdirs when working with files in those subdirs #4336

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1 task

shellz-n-stuff pushed a commit to shellz-n-stuff/goose that referenced this pull request Aug 27, 2025

Enable load nested hint files (block#4002)

35691ff

Signed-off-by: Alex Rosenzweig <arosenzweig@squareup.com>

This was referenced Aug 27, 2025

chore(release): release version 1.7.0 #4372

Closed

chore(release): release version 1.7.0 #4391

Merged

lifeizhou-ap added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 29, 2025

Merge branch 'main' into lifei/more-recipe-tracking

0e1f9ef

* main: no streaming for ollama and re-arrange cards (#4335) Enable load nested hint files (#4002)

dorien-koelemeijer pushed a commit to dorien-koelemeijer/goose that referenced this pull request Sep 2, 2025

Enable load nested hint files (block#4002)

10317f4

Signed-off-by: Dorien Koelemeijer <dkoelemeijer@squareup.com>

alexhancock mentioned this pull request Nov 25, 2025

Dynamically load hints in subdirectories #5840

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Enable load nested hint files #4002

Enable load nested hint files #4002

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