Close 009: a sealed machine now pulls by digest

The resolution was the one the issue predicted -- a registry inside the scenario -- and it is the real path rather than a stand-in, since that is what every node after the first pulls from. The digests are the lab registry's own, which satisfies the pinning rule: what is required is a reference that is exact and cannot move, and one this registry assigned is both. That was the insight that unblocked it; I had assumed the upstream digest had to be preserved, which is what made it look impossible. The fault worth keeping is recorded in the issue: the read-back checked that the catalog endpoint answered by matching the substring 'repositories', which an empty catalog also contains. It passed on a registry holding nothing. This repository's own subject, arriving in the tooling built to catch it.
2026-08-29 00:05:20 +02:00
parent b4607dfc03
commit 087a8f4144
1 changed files with 27 additions and 1 deletions
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 ---
-status: open
+status: fixed
 opened: 2026-08-28
 located-in: [mesh-lab, mesh-host]
 fixed-by:
+  - "mesh-lab: a registry raised inside the scenario. Verified in a sealed machine — all four shapes applied with the image pinned by digest, idempotent, read back from the machine."
 amended-design:
 ---

@@ -63,6 +64,31 @@ a container ([`07-the-substrate.md`](../../03-DESIGN/01-to-be/07-the-substrate.m
 bootstrap cannot be tested end-to-end until this is resolved — which is the thing the lab exists
 for.

+## How it was fixed
+
+*2026-08-29.* A registry inside the scenario, as below — and it turned out to be the shape the
+resolution predicted rather than a compromise on it.
+
+A scenario declares `images:` by tag. The lab stocks a registry **on the workstation**, where
+there is a network, then raises one **inside the scenario** as scenery and serves them from it.
+What a declaration pins is reported when the scenario is raised, because the digest belongs to
+that registry and is not knowable before it exists.
+
+**The digests are the lab registry's own, and that is correct rather than a workaround.** What
+[ADR 0006](../../02-DECISIONS/0006-the-substrate-and-the-control-plane.md) requires is a
+reference that is exact and cannot move. A digest this registry assigned is both.
+
+Verified in a machine confirmed to have no route out: `package`, `service` including boot state,
+a `container` pinned by digest, and an `action` inside that container — applied, idempotent on
+re-apply, and read back from the machine rather than from the apply's own report.
+
+**One fault is worth keeping**, because it is this repository's own subject arriving in the
+tooling built to catch it. The read-back checked that the registry's catalog endpoint answered,
+by looking for the substring `repositories` — which `{"repositories":[]}` also contains. So it
+**passed on a registry holding nothing**, and the failure surfaced much later as a container that
+could not be pulled, a long way from its cause. It now asks for each image's manifest **by
+digest**, which is what a machine actually does.
+
 ## The shape of a resolution

 **A registry inside the scenario**, on its public segment, that machines pull from. That is not a