Fake Provider

The Fake provider is a deterministic, in-process test harness that implements the full Sidemesh provider contract. It is used for contract testing, CI, and reproducing specific UI states without a real agent.

Usage

Run with the environment variable:

SIDEMESH_PROVIDER=fake npm run daemon

Or select it during setup with the --dev flag:

npm run setup -- --dev

Prompt keywords

Type these keywords into the chat to trigger specific behaviors:

Keyword	Behavior
`tools`	Command output, terminal input, file change, turn diff, and web search
`approval:command`	Pending command approval
`approval:file`	Pending file-change approval
`approval:permissions`	Pending permissions approval
`image`	Image generation activity
`slow`	Delayed streaming
`fail`	Failed turn completion

Capability profiles

Set SIDEMESH_FAKE_CAPABILITY_PROFILE to narrow advertised capabilities:

Profile	Capabilities
`full`	Everything
`chat-only`	No tools, no files
`no-files`	No filesystem
`no-model-controls`	No model/profile/skill lists
`no-approvals`	No approval gating
`minimal`	Bare minimum

Use cases

Automated UI tests in CI
Screenshot generation for marketing
Reproducing bug reports with exact steps
Dogfooding non-Codex behavior before a real adapter exists