plat 577

← relays / execution

PLAT-577: Remove variable groups from Relay execution and authoring

Field	Value
State	fixed on main
Priority	P2
Product	relays
Area	execution
Summary	Remove variable groups from Relay UI, Builder authoring and execution; keep flat configuration and per-call INPUT.

What happened

Relays reused Goals' variable-group selection and batch wrapper, including a synthetic default group. An API product needs one invocation with its own INPUT and run identity, while reusable values remain useful as flat configuration.

Fix

• New Relays and function triggers contain no groups. Group fields are rejected by Relay trigger/configuration writes and Builder execution tools.
• The graph shows Inputs & configuration, including sample INPUT. Group controls and group labels are omitted; values persist as variables[].value.
• A Relay invocation skips group batching and iteration-0 rotation. It shares the existing execution manager, session lifecycle, step executor, routing, sandbox, output collection and durable capacity-resume machinery. Runs own their MCP and browser sessions, folders, metadata and webhook progress.
• Node testing/debugging uses a run-folder ID. Cached Builder sessions refresh flat values, clear group state and discard stale VAR_* values.
• The product manifest, system prompt, skill and command prompts explain the group-free contract. No separate migration ladder is introduced.
• A sole legacy group, or a frozen trigger's explicit legacy binding, is read as configuration. Reads leave release bytes/hashes untouched. Explicit draft configuration saves flatten values (including undeclared legacy keys) and remove old trigger bindings. Ambiguous legacy configurations require explicit consolidation; no arbitrary group is chosen.
• Both old nested run artifacts and new group-free artifacts remain readable.

Verification

• Real isolated workspace HTTP handlers and sandboxed Python: a two-step chain failed at step 2, resumed from that step without changing/replaying step 1, then a separate INPUT invocation returned an independent greeting. Builder execute_step also ran without a group. No synthetic default folder was created. Reproduce in agent_go: RUN_RELAY_GROUPLESS_E2E=1 go test ./pkg/orchestrator/agents/workflow/step_based_workflow -run TestRelayGrouplessChainAndResumeRealWorkspace -count=1.
• Focused server regressions passed: flat configuration HTTP read/save, immutable legacy releases, trigger creation, direct invocation, outputs and capacity resume.
• Frontend TypeScript build passed; seven mounted sidebar/function tests passed.
• Full step-workflow suite has one unrelated stale AGY alpha-gate assertion, tracked in PLAT-578.

Left

Not deployed. No new live model call or external browser run was performed for this change; the execution check used real saved Python steps. General process-crash recovery remains the existing deferred feature; this change tests explicit step resume and preserves the shared capacity-checkpoint path.