---
status: resolved
opened: 2026-09-17
located-in:
  - mesh-catalog
  - mesh-controller
fixed-by: mesh-catalog feat/the-mesh-builds-its-catalogue (965c58f); proven by the built-store-cross-node bed and direct builds
amended-design:
---

# 060 — The mesh cannot build most of its own catalogue

## Symptom

Only 8 of the catalogue's 70 modules carry a `build` section; 62 do not. A module without one
cannot be built by the mesh's own builder: its runtime container pins a placeholder digest
(`mesh-runtime-<m>@sha256:0000…`) that only an out-of-band script ever resolves — the lab builds
the image on a workstation and rewrites the manifest before registering it. Asked to `build` such
a module, the mesh has nothing to produce, and asked to run one unbuilt, it refuses the
placeholder digest.

Found by the no-fake lab bed, which registers committed manifests verbatim and lets the builder
fill every placeholder — the first consumer chosen to prove the store cross-node turned out to be
unbuildable, and the census followed.

## Why it matters

The delivery design says a module is built by the mesh and pulled from the mesh's registry by
digest. For 62 of 70 modules that path has never run: every proof of them so far went through the
workstation shortcut, which the no-fake principle retires. Production migration assumes the same
path ("publish every module runtime, the builder pins at publish"), so each unbuildable module is
a module the migration cannot deliver. The gap is invisible in single-module review — the module
compiles, installs, and passes its bed — and appears only when the mesh itself must produce the
image, which is the property nothing was checking.

## Open questions

- Is the fix purely mechanical — a `Dockerfile` + `build` block per module, mirroring the eight
  that have one (`amqp-ping` the smallest example) — or do the tool-serving modules need a shared
  runtime entrypoint convention settled first?
- Should a manifest that names a `mesh-runtime-*` placeholder without a `build` section be
  refused at `module add`, so the gap cannot re-open silently?
- In what order do the 62 get their build sections — migration-critical modules first (the novox
  and ace sets), or alongside each module's lab proof?