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+---
+status: resolved
+opened: 2026-09-30
+located-in: [mesh-host cmd/mesh-host/main.go (the successor check after an apply)]
+fixed-by: mesh-host PR 58 — the check asks with the running version, read from the binary's path, not the link-time stamp
+amended-design:
+---
+
+# 163 — A delivered host stood aside on every push, and reported nothing
+
+## What was observed
+
+*2026-09-30, rolling the mesh-built host onto the last two machines.*
+
+Every push to a machine running a delivered host produced, in order:
+
+```
+host 093231796eb0 is delivered; standing aside so the launcher runs it
+applied 333 resource(s)
+applied, and could not tell the mesh: reporting: context canceled
+nox-mesh-host-launch: the host exited cleanly; starting it again
+nox-mesh-host-launch: running /usr/lib/nox-mesh-host/versions/093231796eb0/nox-mesh-host
+```
+
+— for the version it was **already running**. It restarted itself on every push, for ever, and the mesh
+never received a single report from it: `node show` kept the version from before the crossover, and
+the operator's push waited its full three minutes for an answer that was never coming.
+
+Read as healthy throughout: unit active, bus link up, "hearing what this node should be".
+
+## Why
+
+After an apply the host asks whether a newer host has been delivered than the one running, and the
+question was asked with the **link-time version stamp**. Since
+[issue 161](../161-a-delivered-host-carries-none-of-its-link-time-facts/01-resolution.md) a delivered
+host's version comes from where it sits and its stamp is `development build` — so the comparison never
+matched the newest delivered version, and "a newer host is waiting" was always true.
+
+Standing aside cancels the context the report is published with, so the report was lost on every one
+of those applies. Two faults from one wrong argument.
+
+The change that moved the version to the path was applied to the report and to the known-good record,
+and not here. Half a change, and the half left behind was the one that decides whether to exit.
+
+## Why the three-minute wait made it invisible
+
+The push's `--wait` timing out read as *slow*. It was not slow: **the report was never going to arrive.**
+The operator put it exactly: *if you don't get a response in five seconds, something is wrong.* A wait
+long enough to absorb a machine's whole apply is a wait long enough to hide that the machine never
+answered.
+
+## How it is checked
+
+A machine running a delivered host is pushed a declaration that delivers nothing new; it applies,
+reports, and does not stand aside. A machine running a delivered host is pushed a genuinely newer
+version; it stands aside once, and the next push it does not.