---
status: located
opened: 2026-10-03
located-in:
  - mesh-controller
fixed-by:
  - mesh-controller#246
amended-design:
---

# 215 — A module built once at a commit stops following its branch, and merges leave it out

## What was observed

2026-10-03, a catalogue merge changed seven modules. Its plan built six; `unifi` was not in it,
though its change was in the same commit. A second merge the same evening left it out again. Its
build records name a commit where every other module names a branch:

```
unifi   built 9c97a8a1 …   http://…/mesh-catalog.git at 9c97a8a
```

Built by hand from `main` it was registered again and the change reached its machine.

## Why it matters beyond this instance

A module that was once built at a commit — to pin it during a fix, or by a build asked with a `ref`
— silently stops following its branch: merges plan without it, `status` does not say it is behind its
branch, and nothing says it is pinned. The operator learns it when a change does not arrive.

## Diagnosis

Owner mesh-controller. **Fix direction:** a build asked at a commit does not change the branch a
module follows; or, if pinning is meant, the pin is said — in `module list`, in `status`, and by a
merge's plan naming the module it leaves out and why. A test: building a module at a commit and then
merging a change to it plans it.