Clear a condition whose check no longer exists, so a removed row or probe leaves no alarm open for good (issue 774)

About 35 conditions from 10-20 to 10-27 still showed as current. Read on the bus at 18:06: S23's three
failed plans (last observed 10-24) and D14's four stalled deliveries (last observed 10-24) come from a
signals row and a probe this controller no longer has; nothing reconciles their source, so nothing clears
them. The other old ones are observed every tick and are not stale by the controller: S9's dead letters
are still held, S15's hand acts are still kept, and DM's 26 stuck keys are the watchman's (it never writes
a key whose watched key aged out as moved) — routed to mesh-delivery.

Each watchdogs tick now clears every open condition whose source has a row's or a probe's form (S12, D4,
DW, D-root) and is in neither the signals table nor the probe registry, saying the check was removed.
Sources of other forms are left to their own word.

Quick fix: clear the seven by hand. Thorough fix: the controller judges its own retired checks on every
tick, so the next removed row or probe clears what it raised. Chose thorough: rows and probes are being
moved out of the controller one by one (ADR 0564), each removal would leave this again.

Research 072 piece: milestone 3 (health leaves the controller): the conditions keeper drops what no check
of its own observes, so the move to mesh-conditions starts from a bucket of live conditions.

cmd/mesh-controller/retired_sources.go

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"regexp"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/conditions"
+)
+
+// **A condition whose check no longer exists is cleared** (sweep 2026-10-30, issue 774). A signals row or a self-check
+// probe raises and clears its conditions by reconciling what it sees; one removed from the controller reconciles
+// nothing again, so what it raised stayed open for good and read as current: S23's failed plans (the plans went with
+// ADR 0539) and D14's stalled deliveries, from 2026-10-20 on. Each watchdogs tick clears every open condition whose
+// source is a row's or a probe's name that neither the signals table nor the probe registry holds any more, saying so.
+// A source of another form (an event, a module's health, a verb) is never judged here: its own word clears it.
+
+// checkSource is the form of a row's (S1) or a probe's (D4, DW, D-root) name.
+var checkSource = regexp.MustCompile(`^(S[0-9]+|D[0-9]+|D[A-Z]+|D-[a-z]+)$`)
+
+// liveChecks are the sources this controller still reconciles: its signals rows and its self-check's probes.
+func liveChecks() map[string]bool {
+	out := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, r := range signalsTable {
+		out[r.Row] = true
+	}
+	for _, p := range probeRegistry {
+		out[p.ID] = true
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// retiredCheckConditions are the open conditions raised by a row or a probe the controller no longer has.
+func retiredCheckConditions(open []conditions.Condition, live map[string]bool) []conditions.Condition {
+	var out []conditions.Condition
+	for _, c := range open {
+		if checkSource.MatchString(c.Source) && !live[c.Source] {
+			out = append(out, c)
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+// clearRetiredChecks clears each of them, saying why.
+func clearRetiredChecks(ctx context.Context, k *conditions.Keeper, retired []conditions.Condition) []string {
+	var problems []string
+	for _, c := range retired {
+		why := fmt.Sprintf("%s, which raised it, is no longer a check of the controller", c.Source)
+		if _, err := k.ClearSaying(ctx, c.Key, why, "No longer checked: the check that raised this was removed"); err != nil {
+			problems = append(problems, c.Key+": "+err.Error())
+		}
+	}
+	return problems
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/retired_sources_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/novox/mesh-controller/internal/conditions"
+)
+
+// Sweep 2026-10-30 (issue 774): an open condition raised by a row or a probe the controller no longer has is cleared;
+// one raised by a check it still has, or by a source of another form, is left to its own word.
+func TestAConditionWhoseCheckIsGoneIsCleared(t *testing.T) {
+	live := liveChecks()
+	for source, gone := range map[string]bool{
+		"S23":                 true,
+		"D14":                 true,
+		"S21":                 false,
+		"S9":                  false,
+		"D-root":              false,
+		"DM":                  false,
+		"DB":                  false,
+		"D4":                  false,
+		"health":              false,
+		"provisioner.failing": false,
+		"done keys":           false,
+	} {
+		got := retiredCheckConditions([]conditions.Condition{{Key: "k." + source, Source: source}}, live)
+		if (len(got) == 1) != gone {
+			t.Errorf("%s: judged retired %v, want %v", source, len(got) == 1, gone)
+		}
+	}
+}

cmd/mesh-controller/watchdogs.go

@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ type signalFacts struct {
 	// applyFailingOpen are the machines whose S21 condition is open: kept raised while any failure stands, whatever
 	// the newest report's time (sweep 2026-10-30).
 	applyFailingOpen map[string]bool
+	// retiredChecks are the open conditions raised by a row or a probe the controller no longer has (sweep 2026-10-30).
+	retiredChecks []conditions.Condition
 
 	loop    loopFacts
 	loopErr error
@@ -257,6 +259,7 @@ func (w *watchdogs) see(running context.Context, f *signalFacts) {
 			problems = append(problems, "S8: "+err.Error())
 		}
 	}
+	problems = append(problems, clearRetiredChecks(running, w.keeper, f.retiredChecks)...)
 	if err := w.keeper.EndSilences(running); err != nil {
 		problems = append(problems, err.Error())
 	}
@@ -321,6 +324,7 @@ func (w *watchdogs) gather(ctx context.Context) *signalFacts {
 		f.standings = providerStandings(open)
 		f.providerWords = providerConditions(open)
 		f.applyFailingOpen = applyFailingOpen(open)
+		f.retiredChecks = retiredCheckConditions(open, liveChecks())
 	}
 	f.advisories = link.Advisories.Since(now.Add(-advisoryQuiet))
 	f.lostConsumers, f.advisoriesErr = w.lostConsumers(ctx, f.advisories)