modules/nats/cmd/nats-tools/main.go

@@ -172,13 +172,18 @@ var ReadingVerbs = []string{"list", "show", "check", "orphans"}
 // and kept in full on the bus module's own stream broker-events (BROKER_EVENTS), which `history` reads (keep.go).
 var Events = []string{"created", "refused", "drifted", "drift-cleared", "full", "full-cleared", "orphaned", "recreated", "dropped"}
 
+// heldJsz is the monitoring read the broker's verbs and the keeper's health share: with the consumers, since the
+// keeper's health reads what waits on its own consumer from it (keeperPending); without them it read -1 and the keeper
+// was never healthy (2026-11-08, issue 1966).
+const heldJsz = "/jsz?accounts=1&streams=1&consumers=1&config=1"
+
 // allTools is every tool and seat verb this bundle serves.
 func allTools() []stdio.Tool {
 	monitor := LiveMonitor()
 	jsz := func() ([]byte, error) {
 		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 20*time.Second)
 		defer cancel()
-		return monitor(ctx, "/jsz?accounts=1&streams=1&config=1")
+		return monitor(ctx, heldJsz)
 	}
 	out := append(tools(monitor, ReadUsers, UsersWritten), removalTools(LiveBus(), SaidByTheRuntime, HeldInState)...)
 	out = append(out, expiryTools(LiveBus(), SaidByTheRuntime, RecordedBySeat)...)

modules/nats/cmd/nats-tools/tools_test.go

@@ -277,3 +277,15 @@ func TestTheRemovalToolsRefuseBeforeTheyReachTheBus(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// The keeper's health reads what waits on its own consumer from the shared monitoring read: that read asks for the
+// consumers, or the health answers "cannot be read" for ever (2026-11-08, issue 1966).
+func TestTheHeldReadAsksForTheConsumers(t *testing.T) {
+	if !strings.Contains(heldJsz, "consumers=1") {
+		t.Fatalf("the monitoring read %q asks for no consumers, so keeperPending never finds the keeper's", heldJsz)
+	}
+	doc := []byte(`{"account_details":[{"stream_detail":[{"name":"EVENTS","consumer_detail":[{"name":"novox_nats_keeper","num_pending":2}]}]}]}`)
+	if got := keeperPending(doc); got != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("keeperPending = %d on a read with the keeper's consumer, want 2", got)
+	}
+}