Issue 073: beds carry copies of catalogue manifests

04-ISSUES/073-beds-carry-copies-of-catalogue-manifests/00-report.md

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+---
+status: located
+opened: 2026-09-21
+located-in: [mesh-lab test/integration]
+fixed-by:
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# Beds carry copies of catalogue manifests, so a catalogue change is proven nowhere
+
+## Symptom, as observed
+
+The per-module beds (`assigned-catalogue-small`, `assigned-catalogue-apps`, `assigned-grafana`,
+`assigned-model-usage`, `assigned-redis`, and others) build the manifests they install inline, as
+JSON in the test, rather than reading `modules/<name>/module.json` from the catalogue checkout the
+lab is pointed at. The copies were taken when each bed was written and have not moved since.
+
+Converting six modules to file-delivered secrets ([ADR 0086](../../02-DECISIONS/0086-a-secret-reaches-a-process-as-a-file.md))
+therefore changed nothing any of those beds run. Worse: the copies still deliver secrets through
+an env-file without the declared exception, which the catalogue engine now refuses, so the beds
+would fail against a current controller for a reason that has nothing to do with what they test.
+
+## Why it matters beyond this instance
+
+- It is [issue 072](../072-the-controllers-manifest-exists-twice/00-report.md) again, one copy per
+  bed: a manifest with two sources of truth, and the one the proof runs against is the stale one.
+- "Proven in the lab" is the standard playbook 06 sets for a module. A bed that installs a copy
+  proves the copy.
+- The genesis bed and the vault bed already read the catalogue (`--catalog` and a
+  `catalogueManifest()` helper that swaps the build artifact for the image the lab built); the
+  pattern exists and is one helper away for the rest.
+
+## What would close it
+
+Every bed that installs a catalogue module reads its manifest from the catalogue checkout,
+rewriting only what the lab must (the built artifact's image, a lab-local address). The inline
+copies go. Until then, each bed's copy is updated by hand alongside the catalogue, which is how
+the six conversions were proven.