---
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.