feat(agents): redirect the Assistant editor to the Designer, one noun in the nav

backend/src/apis/shared/feature_flags.py

@@ -110,6 +110,14 @@ def agents_enabled() -> bool:
     admins until the marketplace went GA, and that condition came off with D14 (the nav
     entry is gated on this flag alone). See ``agent_marketplace_enabled`` for why there
     is no RBAC capability on this axis.
+
+    ⚠️ **The kill switch's meaning changed in Designer Phase 5.** While the SPA shipped
+    both nouns, turning this off degraded gracefully: the Agents nav disappeared and the
+    Assistants editor was still there. Phase 5 retired that editor and redirected
+    ``/assistants*`` onto the Agent surface, so there is nothing left to fall back to —
+    off now means *no authoring surface at all*, not *the previous one*. Treat it as an
+    outage switch, not a feature toggle. (The records are untouched either way; the
+    routes and the SPA pages are what disappear.)
     """
     return os.environ.get("AGENTS_API_ENABLED", "").strip().lower() != "false"
 

docs/specs/agent-designer.md

@@ -182,24 +182,41 @@ definition.
 
 ## Migration / Assistant deprecation
 
-1. Evolve the store (D2) + ship the Agent contract with the compat mapping.
-2. Build the Designer to parity, then past it (tools/skills/memory binding old Assistants never had).
-3. Render legacy Assistants as Agents; redirect the Assistants editor to the Designer.
-4. Deprecate the "Assistant" term across UI + docs; retire the old editor.
+1. ✅ Evolve the store (D2) + ship the Agent contract with the compat mapping.
+2. ✅ Build the Designer to parity, then past it (tools/skills/memory binding old Assistants never had).
+3. ✅ Render legacy Assistants as Agents; redirect the Assistants editor to the Designer.
+4. 🔄 Deprecate the "Assistant" term across UI + docs; retire the old editor.
 
 No big-bang: legacy ids and the compat mapping keep everything running throughout.
 
+**Step 3, as shipped.** `/assistants`, `/assistants/new` and `/assistants/:id/edit` are
+`redirectTo` entries onto their `/agents` equivalents rather than deletions. Those paths are in
+bookmarks, in the "edit" link of every old chat session, and in links people shared with each
+other; because the ids are the same record on both sides, the redirect lands on exactly what the
+old URL opened. The sidenav ships one entry, and the Agents "Preview" badge came off with the
+second noun it existed to disambiguate.
+
+⚠️ **This changed what the `AGENTS_API_ENABLED` kill switch means.** While both nouns shipped,
+turning it off degraded to the Assistants editor. There is no longer anything to fall back to, so
+off now means no authoring surface at all. It is an outage switch, not a feature toggle — records
+are untouched either way.
+
+**The term pass is deliberately not a find-and-replace.** `"You are a helpful assistant that…"`
+stays as the instructions placeholder: that is the conventional system-prompt idiom, and rewriting
+it to "agent" would be worse prompt guidance, not better terminology. What changed is the words
+naming *our product concept* — nav, the session indicator, the share dialog, settings copy.
+
 ---
 
 ## Phasing
 
 ```
 Phase 0  This spec — contracts, term map, AWS-federation decision            ✅ done (#590)
 Phase 1  Agent record + uniform binding model + compat mapping (back-compat)  ✅ done (#591, #592, + flag plumbing)
-Phase 2  Bindable-primitives catalog API (Registry-lite, RBAC-composed)       ← the palette (next)
-Phase 3  Harness resolution: memory index injection + memory_* tools + model   ← Workstream B payoff (thin slice, D6)
-Phase 4  Agent Designer page (Agent Harness Editor)                            ← the headline UI, on P1–P2 contracts
-Phase 5  Assistant deprecation + migration
+Phase 2  Bindable-primitives catalog API (Registry-lite, RBAC-composed)       ✅ done
+Phase 3  Harness resolution: memory index injection + memory_* tools + model  ✅ done
+Phase 4  Agent Designer page (Agent Harness Editor)                           ✅ done
+Phase 5  Assistant deprecation + migration                                    🔄 in progress (#746)
 Later    Federate AgentCore Registry / managed Harness as catalog+run backends (D1)
 ```
 

frontend/ai.client/src/app/agents/agent-form/agent-form.page.html

@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ <h2 class="text-sm/6 font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-white">Persona</h2>
         <!-- Name -->
         <div class="flex-1">
           <label for="name" class="block text-sm/6 font-medium text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-300">Name</label>
-          <input id="name" type="text" formControlName="name" placeholder="e.g. Research Assistant" class="mt-1 block w-full rounded-lg border border-gray-300 bg-white px-3 py-2 text-sm text-gray-900 placeholder:text-gray-400 focus:border-primary-500 focus:outline-none focus:ring-1 focus:ring-primary-500 dark:border-gray-600 dark:bg-gray-800 dark:text-white" />
+          <input id="name" type="text" formControlName="name" placeholder="e.g. Research Agent" class="mt-1 block w-full rounded-lg border border-gray-300 bg-white px-3 py-2 text-sm text-gray-900 placeholder:text-gray-400 focus:border-primary-500 focus:outline-none focus:ring-1 focus:ring-primary-500 dark:border-gray-600 dark:bg-gray-800 dark:text-white" />
           @if (getFieldError('name'); as e) { <p class="mt-1 text-xs/5 text-red-600 dark:text-red-400">{{ e }}</p> }
         </div>
       </div>
@@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ <h2 class="text-sm/6 font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-white">Memory spaces<
       </section>
     }
 
-    <!-- Knowledge base (shared component — also used by the assistant editor) -->
+    <!-- Knowledge base -->
     <app-knowledge-base-section
       [entityId]="agentId()"
       [userPermission]="userPermission()"

frontend/ai.client/src/app/app.routes.spec.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach } from 'vitest';
+import { TestBed } from '@angular/core/testing';
+import { Component } from '@angular/core';
+import { provideRouter, Router, Routes } from '@angular/router';
+import { provideLocationMocks } from '@angular/common/testing';
+import { routes } from './app.routes';
+
+/**
+ * Assistant-deprecation redirects (Designer Phase 5, #746).
+ *
+ * `/assistants*` no longer renders anything — it redirects onto the Agent surface. These
+ * paths are in people's bookmarks, in the "edit" link of every old chat session, and in
+ * links colleagues shared with each other, so the redirect is the compatibility promise:
+ * the ids are the same record on both sides (the compat mapping renders a legacy
+ * Assistant *as* an Agent — nothing was migrated), so the redirect lands on the same
+ * thing the old URL opened.
+ *
+ * Asserted against the real route table rather than a hand-built one: the bug this guards
+ * against is someone deleting the redirect entries, and a fixture table would not notice.
+ */
+describe('app routes — assistant deprecation redirects', () => {
+  @Component({ template: '' })
+  class BlankComponent {}
+
+  /**
+   * The real table, with every lazy `loadComponent` swapped for a blank component.
+   *
+   * Navigation must actually resolve for the router to report a final URL, and resolving
+   * the real pages would drag in their whole dependency graphs. The **paths** and
+   * `redirectTo` entries — the only thing under test — are preserved exactly.
+   */
+  function stubbedRoutes(source: Routes): Routes {
+    return source.map((route) => {
+      const { loadComponent, loadChildren, children, canActivate, ...rest } = route;
+      const stubbed: Routes[number] = { ...rest };
+      if (children) stubbed.children = stubbedRoutes(children);
+      if ((loadComponent || loadChildren) && !rest.redirectTo) stubbed.component = BlankComponent;
+      return stubbed;
+    });
+  }
+
+  let router: Router;
+
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    TestBed.resetTestingModule();
+    TestBed.configureTestingModule({
+      providers: [provideRouter(stubbedRoutes(routes)), provideLocationMocks()],
+    });
+    router = TestBed.inject(Router);
+  });
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    TestBed.resetTestingModule();
+  });
+
+  it('sends the assistants list to the agents hub', async () => {
+    await router.navigateByUrl('/assistants');
+    expect(router.url).toBe('/agents');
+  });
+
+  it('sends the new-assistant form to the Designer', async () => {
+    await router.navigateByUrl('/assistants/new');
+    expect(router.url).toBe('/agents/new');
+  });
+
+  it('sends a bookmarked assistant editor to the same record in the Designer', async () => {
+    // The id must survive the redirect — that is the whole compatibility promise.
+    await router.navigateByUrl('/assistants/ast-001/edit');
+    expect(router.url).toBe('/agents/ast-001/edit');
+  });
+
+  it('does not swallow the agents routes it redirects onto', async () => {
+    await router.navigateByUrl('/agents/discover');
+    expect(router.url).toBe('/agents/discover');
+
+    await router.navigateByUrl('/agents/ast-001');
+    expect(router.url).toBe('/agents/ast-001');
+  });
+});

frontend/ai.client/src/app/app.routes.ts

@@ -34,20 +34,32 @@ export const routes: Routes = [
         canActivate: [adminGuard],
         loadChildren: () => import('./admin/admin.routes').then(m => m.adminRoutes),
     },
+    // ── Assistant deprecation (Designer Phase 5) ────────────────────────────────────
+    // There is one noun, and it is Agent (Marketplace D1). The Designer reached parity
+    // and then passed it — bindings, icons, listings, pins, `@`-mention and reports all
+    // exist only on the Agent surface — so the old editor had strictly less to offer for
+    // the same record.
+    //
+    // These stay as **redirects rather than deletions**: `/assistants/:id/edit` is in
+    // people's bookmarks, in old chat sessions' "edit" links and in links colleagues have
+    // shared with each other. The ids are identical on both sides (the compat mapping
+    // renders a legacy Assistant *as* an Agent — there was no data migration), so the
+    // redirect lands on the same record. Removing them would turn every one of those into
+    // a 404 for no gain.
     {
         path: 'assistants/new',
-        loadComponent: () => import('./assistants/assistant-form/assistant-form.page').then(m => m.AssistantFormPage),
-        canActivate: [authGuard],
+        redirectTo: 'agents/new',
+        pathMatch: 'full',
     },
     {
         path: 'assistants/:id/edit',
-        loadComponent: () => import('./assistants/assistant-form/assistant-form.page').then(m => m.AssistantFormPage),
-        canActivate: [authGuard],
+        redirectTo: 'agents/:id/edit',
+        pathMatch: 'full',
     },
     {
         path: 'assistants',
-        loadComponent: () => import('./assistants/assistants.page').then(m => m.AssistantsPage),
-        canActivate: [authGuard],
+        redirectTo: 'agents',
+        pathMatch: 'full',
     },
     {
         path: 'agents/new',

frontend/ai.client/src/app/assistants/components/share-assistant-dialog.component.ts

@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ export type ShareAssistantDialogResult = {
               id="dialog-title"
               class="text-base/7 font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-white"
             >
-              Share assistant
+              Share agent
             </h3>
             <p
               id="dialog-description"
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ export type ShareAssistantDialogResult = {
             <!-- Public Assistant: Show shareable URL -->
             <section class="space-y-3">
               <p class="text-sm/6 text-gray-600 dark:text-gray-400">
-                This assistant is public and discoverable by everyone. Share this URL to let
+                This agent is public and discoverable by everyone. Share this URL to let
                 others start a conversation with it.
               </p>
               <div class="flex gap-2">

frontend/ai.client/src/app/components/sidenav/sidenav.html

@@ -32,22 +32,14 @@
             <span class="text-sm font-medium text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-300">New Session</span>
         </button>
 
-        <!-- Assistants -->
-        <a
-            routerLink="/assistants"
-            routerLinkActive="bg-gray-200/80 dark:bg-white/10"
-            (click)="sidenavService.close()"
-            class="group flex w-full cursor-pointer items-center gap-3 rounded-md px-2 py-1.5 text-left transition-colors hover:bg-gray-200/60 focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:outline-secondary-500 dark:hover:bg-white/5">
-            <div class="flex size-7 shrink-0 items-center justify-center text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">
-                <svg class="size-5" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="currentColor">
-                    <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M20.25 14.15v4.25c0 1.094-.787 2.036-1.872 2.18-2.087.277-4.216.42-6.378.42s-4.291-.143-6.378-.42c-1.085-.144-1.872-1.086-1.872-2.18v-4.25m16.5 0a2.18 2.18 0 0 0 .75-1.661V8.706c0-1.081-.768-2.015-1.837-2.175a48.114 48.114 0 0 0-3.413-.387m4.5 8.006c-.194.165-.42.295-.673.38A23.978 23.978 0 0 1 12 15.75c-2.648 0-5.195-.429-7.577-1.22a2.016 2.016 0 0 1-.673-.38m0 0A2.18 2.18 0 0 1 3 12.489V8.706c0-1.081.768-2.015 1.837-2.175a48.111 48.111 0 0 1 3.413-.387m7.5 0V5.25A2.25 2.25 0 0 0 13.5 3h-3a2.25 2.25 0 0 0-2.25 2.25v.894m7.5 0a48.667 48.667 0 0 0-7.5 0" />
-                </svg>
-            </div>
-            <span class="text-sm font-medium text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-300">Assistants</span>
-        </a>
-
         <!--
-            Agents (Agent Designer + Marketplace).
+            Agents (Agent Designer + Marketplace) — the ONE noun (Marketplace D1).
+
+            The "Assistants" entry that used to sit above this was removed in Designer
+            Phase 5. `/assistants*` now redirects here; the ids are the same record, so
+            nothing was migrated and no link broke. The Preview badge came off with it —
+            it existed only to say which of two competing nouns was still moving, and
+            there is no longer a second one.
 
             Gated on the API surface alone (D14): `showAgents()` is "the /agents list call did
             not 404", i.e. the AGENTS_API_ENABLED / AGENT_MARKETPLACE_ENABLED kill switches.
@@ -59,8 +51,10 @@
             roles UI (see `AppRoleService.resolve_user_permissions`), which is what made the
             `skills` and `scheduled-runs` gates inoperable.
 
-            The Preview badge stays until Assistant deprecation (#746) lands — until then the
-            sidenav ships both nouns, and the badge is what says which one is still moving.
+            ⚠️ This is now the only authoring entry point, so `AGENTS_API_ENABLED=false` no
+            longer degrades to an older surface — it removes agent authoring outright. The
+            flag's semantics changed from "fall back to Assistants" to "there is nothing
+            here"; see `agents_enabled()` in the backend for the same note.
         -->
         @if (showAgents()) {
             <a
@@ -74,7 +68,6 @@
                     </svg>
                 </div>
                 <span class="text-sm font-medium text-gray-700 dark:text-gray-300">Agents</span>
-                <span class="ml-auto rounded-full bg-amber-100 px-1.5 py-px text-[10px] font-semibold uppercase leading-4 tracking-wide text-amber-700 dark:bg-amber-400/15 dark:text-amber-300">Preview</span>
             </a>
         }
 

frontend/ai.client/src/app/components/sidenav/sidenav.spec.ts

@@ -257,4 +257,19 @@ describe('Sidenav — Agents nav entry gating (D14)', () => {
     const fixture = await renderSidenav();
     expect(agentsNavLink(fixture)).toBeUndefined();
   });
+
+  // ── Assistant deprecation (Designer Phase 5, #746) ────────────────────────────────
+  it('ships one noun: there is no Assistants entry beside Agents', async () => {
+    const fixture = await renderSidenav();
+    const html = fixture.nativeElement as HTMLElement;
+
+    expect(html.querySelector('a[href="/assistants"]')).toBeNull();
+    expect(html.textContent).not.toContain('Assistants');
+    expect(agentsNavLink(fixture)).toBeDefined();
+  });
+
+  it('drops the Preview badge, which only existed to disambiguate two nouns', async () => {
+    const fixture = await renderSidenav();
+    expect(agentsNavLink(fixture)!.textContent).not.toContain('Preview');
+  });
 });

frontend/ai.client/src/app/components/sidenav/sidenav.ts

@@ -75,9 +75,9 @@ export class Sidenav {
     this.router.navigate(['']);
   }
 
-  navigateToAssistants() {
+  navigateToAgents() {
     this.sidenavService.close();
-    this.router.navigate(['/assistants']);
+    this.router.navigate(['/agents']);
   }
 
   toggleCollapse() {

frontend/ai.client/src/app/session/components/assistant-indicator/assistant-indicator.component.ts

@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ import {
           (click)="toggleMenu()"
           class="assistant-pill"
           [class.open]="menuOpen()"
-          [attr.aria-label]="'Assistant: ' + name() + '. Click for options.'"
+          [attr.aria-label]="'Agent: ' + name() + '. Click for options.'"
           [attr.aria-expanded]="menuOpen()"
           aria-haspopup="menu"
         >
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ import {
           type="button"
           (click)="toggleMenu()"
           class="assistant-indicator"
-          [attr.aria-label]="'Assistant: ' + name() + '. Click for options.'"
+          [attr.aria-label]="'Agent: ' + name() + '. Click for options.'"
           [attr.aria-expanded]="menuOpen()"
           aria-haspopup="menu"
         >
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ import {
           class="indicator-menu"
           [class.placement-down]="menuPlacement() === 'down'"
           role="menu"
-          aria-label="Assistant actions"
+          aria-label="Agent actions"
         >
           <button
             type="button"
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ import {
               (click)="onEdit()"
             >
               <ng-icon name="heroPencilSquare" class="menu-icon" />
-              <span>Edit assistant</span>
+              <span>Edit agent</span>
             </button>
 
             <button

frontend/ai.client/src/app/session/session.page.ts

@@ -857,12 +857,17 @@ export class ConversationPage implements OnDestroy {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Navigate to the assistant edit page.
+   * Navigate to the Designer for the Agent driving this session.
+   *
+   * The id is the same record either way — the compat mapping renders a legacy Assistant
+   * *as* an Agent, so `/agents/:id/edit` opens what `/assistants/:id/edit` used to. Routed
+   * directly rather than through the redirect so the address bar never shows the retired
+   * path.
    */
   editAssistant(): void {
     const assistantId = this.assistant()?.assistantId;
     if (assistantId) {
-      this.router.navigate(['/assistants', assistantId, 'edit']);
+      this.router.navigate(['/agents', assistantId, 'edit']);
     }
   }
 

frontend/ai.client/src/app/settings/pages/chat-preferences/chat-preferences-settings.page.ts

@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ import { LocalSettingsService } from '../../../services/local-settings.service';
             <div>
               <span class="text-sm/6 font-medium text-gray-900 dark:text-white">Memories</span>
               <p class="text-sm/6 text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">
-                View and manage what the assistant remembers about you.
+                View and manage what the agent remembers about you.
               </p>
             </div>
           </div>