46 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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status: open
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opened: 2026-10-02
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located-in:
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- mesh-controller
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fixed-by:
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amended-design:
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---
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# 203 — A fresh assignment is pushed before its credential exists, and the runtime crash-loops
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## What was observed
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2026-10-02, the first live assignment of the node tools runtime (to-be 38 WP3). `assign` put the
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module on a machine and `push` sent the declaration. The host applied everything: the bundle unpacked,
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the unit written and started, the module's `broker` secret file written and owned by the operator
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account. The runtime then restarted thirteen times in a minute:
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```
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mesh-tools: cannot read the broker credential at …/broker: SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'O',
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"Oj6j2Ssa-v"... is not valid JSON
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```
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The file held a 40-byte random secret, not a bus credential. The push's own output had said why,
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one line among forty: *the bus's user list leaves out … `<node>.node-tools`. Each is a user that cannot
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connect until one is issued.* The credential exists only after `module issue <module> --node <node>`,
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a separate act; a second push then carried the real credential and the runtime came up. The same
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sequence repeated on the next two machines, by hand, in the right order.
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## Why it matters beyond this instance
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Every module that speaks on the bus declares an `own-secrets.broker`; the mesh seals *something*
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there on assignment and the real credential only on issue. So the first push of any fresh assignment
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delivers a process that cannot authenticate and will crash-loop until a person runs a second verb and
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a second push. Nothing refuses the first push, and the warning is a line in a long list that is
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printed on every push regardless. The design says the mesh issues an assignment's subjects and the
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runtime serves what it is issued ([ADR 0160](../../02-DECISIONS/0160-the-mesh-issues-an-assignments-subjects-and-a-runtime-serves-what-it-is-issued.md));
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an assignment whose credential is not issued is half an assignment, and the mesh lets it through.
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## Questions HQ must answer
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- Is issuing the credential part of assigning, so `assign` mints it, or must a push refuse a module
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whose bus user is unminted, naming the verb?
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- Is a placeholder sealed where a credential belongs ever right, or should the resource be absent
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until the credential exists, so the host never writes a file the process cannot read?
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