---
status: resolved
opened: 2026-09-21
located-in: [mesh-lab test/integration]
fixed-by: ADR 0089; mesh-lab #41 (one loader, eight beds read the catalogue, the receipt claims it, a check refuses inline copies); proven by eight beds green against the catalogue
amended-design: 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/01-end-to-end-testing.md
---

# Beds carry copies of catalogue manifests, so a catalogue change is proven nowhere

## Symptom, as observed

The per-module beds (`assigned-catalogue-small`, `assigned-catalogue-apps`, `assigned-grafana`,
`assigned-model-usage`, `assigned-redis`, and others) build the manifests they install inline, as
JSON in the test, rather than reading `modules/<name>/module.json` from the catalogue checkout the
lab is pointed at. The copies were taken when each bed was written and have not moved since.

Converting six modules to file-delivered secrets ([ADR 0086](../../02-DECISIONS/0086-a-secret-reaches-a-process-as-a-file.md))
therefore changed nothing any of those beds run. Worse: the copies still deliver secrets through
an env-file without the declared exception, which the catalogue engine now refuses, so the beds
would fail against a current controller for a reason that has nothing to do with what they test.

## Why it matters beyond this instance

- It is [issue 072](../072-the-controllers-manifest-exists-twice/00-report.md) again, one copy per
  bed: a manifest with two sources of truth, and the one the proof runs against is the stale one.
- "Proven in the lab" is the standard playbook 06 sets for a module. A bed that installs a copy
  proves the copy.
- The genesis bed and the vault bed already read the catalogue (`--catalog` and a
  `catalogueManifest()` helper that swaps the build artifact for the image the lab built); the
  pattern exists and is one helper away for the rest.

## What would close it

Every bed that installs a catalogue module reads its manifest from the catalogue checkout,
rewriting only what the lab must (the built artifact's image, a lab-local address). The inline
copies go. Until then, each bed's copy is updated by hand alongside the catalogue, which is how
the six conversions were proven.