fix(kiloclaw): preserve Brave config when provider is unset

[joshavant]

Summary

Preserves user-configured Brave search on image upgrades when the web search provider field is unset.

The controller config patcher no longer auto-assigns kilo-exa when KILO_EXA_SEARCH_MODE is unset if BRAVE_API_KEY is already configured. This keeps existing Brave configurations from being implicitly overridden during bootstrap/doctor/restore patching.

Added regression coverage for both normal config generation and restore-path config generation.

Verification

• No manual verification performed.

Visual Changes

N/A

Reviewer Notes

Primary risk area is generateBaseConfig() web-search steering logic in controller boot patching.
Behavior for explicit providers and explicit Exa mode values is unchanged.

[kilo-code-bot]

WARNING: Leaving the provider unset still allows Kilo Exa to win auto-detection

createKiloExaWebSearchProvider() is always registered and advertises envVars: ['KILOCODE_API_KEY'] with autoDetectOrder, and every KiloClaw machine has KILOCODE_API_KEY. In the Brave-configured case this branch now stops writing tools.web.search.provider, but it never explicitly selects brave or disables the customizer provider, so the runtime can still auto-select kilo-exa when the provider is missing. That means the restore/doctor path here does not reliably preserve Brave search despite the new regression tests passing.

[joshavant]

Good catch, this was valid.

I changed the unset-mode + Brave-configured path to explicitly prefer Brave (instead of leaving provider unset):

• tools.web.search.provider = 'brave'
• plugins.entries.kiloclaw-customizer.config.webSearch.enabled = false

Also updated regression tests for both normal and restore paths and re-ran:

• pnpm -C services/kiloclaw test -- controller/src/config-writer.test.ts
• pnpm typecheck
• pnpm format

[kilo-code-bot]

Code Review Summary

Status: No Issues Found | Recommendation: Merge

Files Reviewed (2 files)

• services/kiloclaw/controller/src/config-writer.ts
• services/kiloclaw/controller/src/config-writer.test.ts

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_{Reviewed by gpt-5.4-20260305 · 527,726 tokens}

[joshavant]

Added the requested PR1 tightening:

• Added controller test coverage for mode=unset + BRAVE_API_KEY + provider=custom-provider to verify explicit custom providers are preserved.
• Added a clarifying comment in the controller defaulting block that defaults are only assigned when provider is unset.

Invariant remains: explicit provider strings are not clobbered by upgrade defaulting logic.