[ctawiah]

Context

LaunchDarkly can return one attached tool in two forms. The response has a top-level tools reference and an expanded model.parameters.tools value.

ldcli treated the expanded copy as a model setting. The plan reported a model change and a pull wrote the expanded tool into the local file.

What changes

• Normalize response models before planning or applying changes.
• Reuse the same model canonicalization for fingerprints and rendered diffs.
• Keep real model parameter changes visible.
• Add API, fingerprint, plan, output, and apply regression coverage.

The review output now changes as follows:

Before: pull production/support/default  instructions, model changed in LaunchDarkly
After:  pull production/support/default  instructions changed in LaunchDarkly

Design notes

• Top-level tool and skill references own attachment links and versions.
• CanonicalModel removes only the API-expanded model.parameters.tools value, and only when the variation has tool references. A legitimate model.parameters.skills value remains.
• A tools model parameter remains unchanged when the variation has no tool attachment.
• API decoding normalizes before apply. Fingerprints and diffs call the same helper as a safety measure.

Review focus

• Can canonicalization hide a real model parameter change?
• Does a pull keep attachment references and never write expanded tool definitions?

Verification

• go test ./...
• go run github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@v2.9.0 run
• make build
• TestPromptDiffExcludesExpandedToolsFromModelParameters failed on main and passes with this change.
• TestCatalogClientConfigRemovesExpandedToolsFromModelParameters and TestFingerprintVariationExcludesExpandedToolParameters make sure that a model.parameters.skills value stays in the decoded model and changes the fingerprint.

Related changes

This stack builds on #937 to #941, which are merged.

1. This PR: exclude expanded tools from prompt diffs (ctawiah/fix-prompt-tool-diff-5b1c)
2. fix: plan a tool or skill row when a variation newly references it #945: Plan a tool or skill row when a variation newly references it (ctawiah/plan-referenced-attachments-1e8a)
3. feat: keep unused tools and skills, and detach any resource kind #946: Keep unused tools and skills, and detach any resource kind (ctawiah/keep-unused-attachments-1e8a)
4. feat: add tools and skills from LaunchDarkly #947: Add tools and skills from LaunchDarkly (ctawiah/add-attachments-1e8a)
5. feat: route sync, add, and detach by scope #948: Route sync, add, and detach by scope (ctawiah/route-scopes-1e8a)
6. feat: add the sync all, sync tools, and sync skills commands #949: Add the sync all, sync tools, and sync skills commands (ctawiah/scope-commands-1e8a)
7. feat: create a tool or a skill from the content of an add #950: Create a tool or a skill from the content of an add (ctawiah/create-attachments-1e8a)
8. feat: add the create flags of sync tools add and sync skills add #951: Add the create flags of sync tools add and sync skills add (ctawiah/create-attachment-flags-1e8a)
9. refactor: share the selection of a new variation, and check any kind before an add #952: Share the selection of a new variation, and check any kind before an add (ctawiah/share-variation-selection-1e8a)
10. feat: create a prompt variation from the content of an add #953: Create a prompt variation from the content of an add (ctawiah/create-variations-1e8a)
11. feat: add the create flags of sync prompts add #954: Add the create flags of sync prompts add (ctawiah/create-variation-flags-1e8a)

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Note

Overview
LaunchDarkly can echo attached tools both as top-level tools refs and as expanded model.parameters.tools. ldcli was treating that duplicate as a real model change, so sync plans, diffs, fingerprints, and pulls could show or persist bogus model updates.

This PR introduces shared CanonicalModel normalization that drops API-expanded parameters.tools when the variation has tool references (while keeping other parameters, including parameters.skills, and still stripping empty custom / parameters maps). It runs when decoding catalog config responses, when computing variation fingerprints, and when building prompt diff JSON—so planning, review output, and apply paths agree.

User-visible effect: a pull/diff that only differs in instructions no longer reports “model changed” just because the server returned expanded tool definitions; real parameter changes (e.g. temperature) still surface. Regression tests cover API decode, fingerprints, plan diffs, and end-to-end prompt sync/apply.

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