Merge pull request 'Issue 364: the merge gate refuses a module that uses a seat another module declares' (#269) from issues/364-the-gate-refuses-a-module-that-uses-a-seat-another-declares into main

2026-10-10 02:05:20 +00:00
parent d457921486 7b096f2471
commit 7c866e7356
1 changed files with 48 additions and 0 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+---
+status: located
+opened: 2026-10-10
+located-in: [mesh-controller cmd/mesh-controller (check.go moduleCheckFor), mesh-controller internal/builder (check.go gateLayer)]
+fixed-by:
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 364. The merge gate refuses a module that uses a seat another module declares
+
+## Symptom
+
+On 2026-10-10 the catalogue's pull request for the agent module's proposed instructions
+(ADR 0274, still on its own pull request, hq 268, so not linked here)
+added `uses: [operator-channel]` to the module's manifest, so the module could ask the operator. Its
+`mesh/merge-gate` failed: "a manifest the change touches fails the module check: claude-code uses the seat
+"operator-channel", which no module declares and the mesh does not define". Its `mesh/repo-check`, which runs the
+same module check over every manifest of the catalogue, passed. The router's module declares that seat.
+
+## Why it is an issue
+
+The gate's first step runs the controller's `module check` over **the manifests the change touches** and nothing
+else. The rules between manifests then run over that set, so a seat another module declares is "declared by no
+module". The command's own documentation says the opposite: "A seat another module declares is unknown unless that
+module's manifest is passed too. Both are printed as a note, not as a problem — a check that refused what it could
+not see would teach people to ignore it." The code refuses it.
+
+So **no module can start using a seat a module declares**, the operator channel's above all (ADR 0259 says any module
+asks through it), and no channel can claim a kind of the channel bench, unless the pull request also touches the
+declaring module's manifest. The searched literal text was in no record.
+
+## Impact
+
+Every module that becomes an asker is blocked at the gate. The first is the agent module's proposals (ADR 0274).
+
+## Cause
+
+`moduleCheckFor` counts every problem `CatalogueProblems` gives as a failure, and the gate gives it only the touched
+manifests.
+
+## Fix
+
+The gate says it gives only some of a repository's manifests (an environment variable the judge reads); the module
+check then says a seat none of them declares as a note. Given every manifest, as the catalogue's own check and
+registration do, it stays a refusal. A judge that predates the variable ignores it and refuses as before, so the fix
+takes effect once the controller that carries it is the one the mesh runs. In the controller's pull request for this
+issue, with its tests: the module check over one manifest that uses a module's seat refuses it, and notes it when told
+it was given only some.