The lab comes first, and its first scenario has no pipeline #4

Merged
jschoubben merged 3 commits from design/lab-bootstrap-scenario into main 2026-08-23 20:24:16 +00:00
Showing only changes of commit 4a628bf3fe - Show all commits
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
---
status: open
status: diagnosing
opened: 2026-08-23
located-in: [hal]
fixed-by:
- "the instance only: PR #962 — incus hook. Merged, ran on one node in 6s of a 60s budget; pipeline #6832 green in 48s. The class remains open."
amended-design:
---
@@ -68,3 +69,49 @@ hooks, and hooks have their own recorded failure mode: thirteen were found that
that shape.
- How many other declared packages are in this state? Nothing currently reports it, which means
the answer is unknown rather than zero.
## The instance is fixed; the class is what this issue is now about
*Updated 2026-08-23.* A hook now does the post-install work — group membership, subordinate id
ranges, enabling both units, creating the storage pool, the bridge, and the default profile.
Verified independently afterwards: the group exists with the operator in it, both id files
carry the range, the service is active, and the storage pool reports `CREATED`.
**So the mechanism was never missing.** Hooks are exactly the right place for this, and used
properly they work. The gap is narrower and worse than "there is no way to do it":
> The hook did six things. **Six checks were then performed by a human, by hand.** Nothing in
> the pipeline asserted any of them, and a pipeline that dispatched a hook which silently never
> fired would have been green in the same 48 seconds.
That is not hypothetical — a hook named for a feature its module does not carry is skipped
without complaint, and thirteen such hooks were found at once in the past. The distance between
*the hook ran and did six things* and *the hook was dispatched* is invisible from the outside,
and it is the whole of this issue.
### The verification that was done by hand is the assertion set
The six checks performed after the merge are, almost word for word, what the module's own
verification should assert — outcomes, not steps, exactly as the lab design requires:
| Asserted by hand | As a module assertion |
|---|---|
| operator in the admin group | the group exists and contains the operator |
| subordinate id range in both files | both files carry the range |
| both units enabled, service active | the service is active, and still active shortly after |
| storage pool present | the pool exists and reports created |
| bridge present with an address | the bridge exists and holds its address |
| default profile wired to both | the profile references the bridge and the pool |
They currently live in a chat message. Moved into the module, they would run on every delivery
to every node, and the difference between a hook that worked and a hook that was merely
dispatched would stop being something a person has to notice.
### What this issue now asks
- Does a module gain a way to declare a **capability** — the outcome — separately from the
package that provides it, or is "write assertions" the whole answer?
- The verify stage exists and asserts almost nothing. Is this simply the first module that
should use it properly, making the issue a coverage problem rather than a design gap?
- **How many other declared packages are in the state this one was in?** Still unknown, still
unreported by anything, and now demonstrably worth asking.