Refactor Ansible pi_agent/plannotator vars to shared base + host-local combine

[boga]

Why

MCP servers, settings overrides, subagent overrides, and plannotator thinking
levels were duplicated (or partially duplicated) across group_vars/all.yml
and host_vars/{home,work}/vars.yml. One entry (pi_agent_mcp_servers) even
carried an explicit comment warning that work redefines the whole dict in
full and must be kept manually in sync — a drift risk on every future edit.

Approach

Reused the existing combine(recursive=True) pattern already used elsewhere
in this repo: a *_base dict in group_vars/all.yml holding values shared
across hosts, and an optional *_local dict per host_vars file holding only
the deltas. The final var is computed once in group_vars/all.yml via
hostvars[inventory_hostname].get('..._local', {}), so hosts that don't
override anything just omit the _local var.

Considered leaving per-host vars fully duplicated (status quo) but rejected it
since it's exactly the kind of drift the MCP servers comment already flagged.

How it works

• pi_agent_mcp_servers_base (context-mode, context7, intellij-idea) +
  per-host pi_agent_mcp_servers_local (work adds notion/new-relic/linear/n8n).
• pi_agent_settings_overrides_base (collapseChangelog,
  enableInstallTelemetry) + per-host pi_agent_settings_overrides_local
  (enabledModels), rendered back to a JSON string via to_json since
  roles/pi_agent/tasks/settings.yml still expects a JSON string it can
  from_json at apply time.
• pi_agent_subagent_overrides_base (thinking levels identical on both hosts
  today) + per-host pi_agent_subagent_overrides_local (model assignments and
  extra per-agent fields like maxExecutionTimeMs/defaultContext), merged
  recursively so per-agent dicts combine field-by-field rather than replace.
• pi_plannotator_thinking_base (planning/executing/reviewing levels,
  identical on both hosts today) + a pi_plannotator_thinking_local hook for
  future per-host deviation; pi_plannotator_*_model stay host-specific since
  they differ entirely per host (openai-codex vs anthropic).

Verified the merged output for both hosts matches the pre-refactor values
exactly (simulated the combine + to_json logic), and confirmed yamllint /
ansible-lint report no new violations. Also restored
ansible_python_interpreter in host_vars/home/vars.yml, which had been
accidentally commented out.

Consumer-facing variable names (pi_agent_mcp_servers,
pi_agent_settings_overrides, pi_agent_subagent_overrides,
pi_plannotator_*_thinking) are unchanged, so site.yml, the pi_agent/git/
config_files/cp roles, and templates/pi/plannotator.json all resolve the
same final values with no code changes needed.

Links

• N/A

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features
  • Added flexible host-specific configuration overrides for MCP servers, agent settings, subagents, and planning workflows.
  • Added shared defaults for subagent and planning “thinking” levels, with convenient planning, execution, and review settings.
  • Added IntelliJ IDEA MCP project-path header support.
  • Updated host configurations to support per-subagent models and execution settings.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 48808ccf-c08a-4266-9515-ea41841ffca5

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between e527f08 and 48d6d4b.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• group_vars/all.yml
• host_vars/home/vars.yml
• host_vars/work/vars.yml

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Ansible Pi agent configuration now combines shared base values with host-local overrides for MCP servers, agent settings, subagent behavior, and Plannotator thinking levels. Home and work hosts provide their configurations through the new local override variables.

Changes

Pi agent configuration

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Shared configuration composition group_vars/all.yml	MCP servers, agent settings, subagent defaults, and Plannotator thinking values now derive from base maps merged with optional host-local overrides.
Home host overrides host_vars/home/vars.yml	Home defines local Codex subagent and enabled-model overrides, plus explicit Plannotator model provider and ID values.
Work host overrides host_vars/work/vars.yml	Work defines local subagent, MCP, and enabled-model overrides, including per-subagent resource and context settings.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• boga/dotfiles#97: Modifies work-host oracle and reviewer subagent model settings.
• boga/dotfiles#101: Updates per-host enabled models and Plannotator or subagent model IDs.
• boga/dotfiles#105: Updates the IntelliJ IDEA MCP project-path header.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main refactor: moving pi_agent/plannotator vars to shared base values with host-local combines.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch refactor-vars

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