mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
The node-engine's own since starts again at every restart, so an agent that
restarted the engine in a loop kept agent-can-become-root quiet for ever (the
review of 2026-10-09). The controller now keeps when it first saw the verdict
waiting for the setuid search (migration 0085), forgets it at the next
complete verdict, and raises once the engine's own bound has passed since;
the bound and the pending reason are read from mesh-host's rootsearch.
After every node-engine restart the account verdict says not judged yet until
the engine's first search for setuid programs ends, and DA raised the urgent
condition each time. The account stays unconfined and node show still says
not judged; the condition is raised once the search fails, runs out its bound,
finds a way to root, or the statement goes stale.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
mesh/delivery covered: a later merge that contains it was delivered: novox/mesh-controller@eca6390d6fe4 (merged as 33dc85d8 into main, walk plan-17915444…
A source repository's name is not its identity, and a trunk anyone may push
to makes the trunk rule mean nothing (the review of 2026-10-09). Through any
verb a module now registers only from a repository on the mesh's forge whose
trunk refuses direct pushes, requires a status and lets no administrator
merge past one, asked of the forge's own tools; and only from the repository
by the forge's id, recorded at registration (migration 0084), so one deleted
and made again under the name is refused. The serving controller marks its
environment, so nothing it runs or starts reads as the terminal, and a
terminal request covers only the repository and path it asked.
A build refused for its repository is still recorded, and a fork carries the
commit the module was registered at: the rollback's search for the previous
build would have found it and registered it by the back door.
An agent could make a repository of its own, or fork one the mesh builds
from, commit a module.json naming sudo or mesh-host, and ask the build verb
for it: the outcome was registered under that name, and the next push made
whoever wrote it root on every node (novox/hq ADR 0266 §7, the review of
2026-10-09). The trunk rule checked the trunk of the repository built, which
was the agent's.
The take-in, which every outcome reaches whichever verb asked it, now
registers a module only from its registered repository, and a new module only
from a repository the catalogue already builds from (a merge adding one);
anything else only when the build request was kept as asked at the
controller's terminal (migration 0084). Through a verb, a build of a
repository the catalogue builds nothing from is not asked at all.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
node agent-account <node> <account> [home] stored a home that nothing used: the
account was created at /home/<account> while its files went to the named home
(hq ADR 0266). The engine reads a user's home only when it creates the account,
so an existing one is never moved.
Review found a chain through the command verb: set the operator's key to one
the caller holds, rotate secrets so they are sealed to it too, read the sealed
copies, open them. Whoever may call a verb includes agents (hq ADR 0266), so
command now runs an allow list of reading forms, and operator, identity,
token, broker, api, licence and every secret command but rotate are refused
through any verb.
The generic command verb ran node account and node agent-account, so an agent
could name itself the operator account and have the next send grant it root
(hq ADR 0266 review). Refuse every node subcommand but list and show through
any verb; refuse the operator account as the agent account in both
directions and well-known service accounts as an agent account; and count a
verdict heard more than 15 minutes ago as not judged, so stopping the
node-engine cannot freeze a healthy one. Re-pin mesh-host to its review head.
On the control node every agent ran as the operator's account, which has
passwordless sudo, so an agent could become root without a person (hq ADR
0266). A node now names an agent account at the controller's terminal only;
the agent's module declares it never to become root, the node-engine judges
that, and the self-check (DA) raises agent-can-become-root while it does not
hold, so ADR 0259's router can rest on it.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
A mergeable file takes any key, not only those its content names, so an
empty runtime configuration a provider reads took a url of the caller's
through the settings verb (hq issue 340 review).
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
The claude-code module keeps the managed settings and tool servers every
Claude Code session on a node runs in a mergeable file, and TerminalKeys
only counted ${setting:} placeholders, so any caller of the settings verb,
an agent included, could plant a hook in the operator's sessions on every
node (hq issue 340).
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
Third review of mesh-catalog #147. A setting anywhere else in a unit's name could make the unit another
unit or another kind; it is now refused where the manifest is read. A value beginning with '-' would be
read by systemctl as an option, and a long one is no pool's name.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
The fourth review (hq issue 339): the safe reading of a file that asks for a
setting and does not say is that root or a consumer trusts it, so its
settings are the terminal's; `"trusted": false` is the opt-out. With that,
nothing unsafe is left to refuse: `module check` lists and counts the
unmarked files and never refuses them.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
A module that holds the distribution's scrub timer for the pool the operator names
(zfs-scrub-weekly@<pool>.timer) cannot write the pool into its definition (hq ADR 0112). Settings were
substituted only into file content, so the unit reached the machine as
"zfs-scrub-weekly@${setting:scrub-pool}.timer", a unit no machine has, and the apply failed far from its
cause (second review of mesh-catalog #147).
A service's unit now takes ${setting:} from the same layers a file does, and is refused by key when
nothing sets it. A value is also refused unless it is only letters, digits, ':', '_', '.' and '-': the
name ends up in unit files and systemctl arguments, and a space, a slash or a newline must never reach
them. A key a unit asks for is not called stray.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
The keeper keeps each transition from its own goroutine, which reads the memory
store's Fail field under the store's lock; tests assigned the exported field
bare, so TestAnUnreadableStoreClearsNothing failed under -race whenever the
goroutine appended in that window. The field is now set only through SetFail
(and Told's likewise), and a test makes the race certain rather than rare.
Test-only: the controller runs the bus store, never InMemory.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
The third review of #170 (hq issue 339): a setting overrides any key a
provider serves, so any caller of the settings verb could move a database's
port, a registry's port or an issuer to a listener of its own and collect
what consumers present. TerminalKeys now derives from the manifest: places,
accesses, every served key and every setting a served value asks for, and
every setting a file marked `trusted` asks for. `trusted` is the catalogue's
word, taken out before the declaration; `module check` warns of a file that
asks for a setting without saying, and refuses it from 2026-10-30. The hand
list is gone. A directory used as found is now its own condition kind, the
operator's, never urgent, and the gate exempts it where it exempts a relogin.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
The review of #170: step-ca's root, roots and path and the identity
provider's issuer are what every consumer trusts, and any caller of the
settings verb could replace them; they are now terminal keys like places and
accesses (hq issue 339). /var/lib/containerd joins the runtimes' data. And a
directory the node-engine uses as found failed its module's gate and rolled
its builds back; found before the send, it is now a wait for a person the
gate passes with, as a relogin is (ADR 0254), and only one the send itself
found holds the module.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
TestAnUnreadableStoreClearsNothing wrote InMemory.Fail and its values unguarded
while the keeper's teller appended to the same store, and the race detector
failed mesh/repo-check on #170 (a test race on main, not the change).
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
The review of hq issue 339 found the PEM exception too wide (any module, any
key, any label, anything base64), \v, \f, NEL and the Unicode separators
still let a value end a line in some readers, and the spool, /opt, the
container runtimes' data and an account's .ssh still placeable. Lines are now
taken only in step-ca's root setting, as certificates encoding/pem decodes and
x509 parses; every line end is refused; and those paths are the machine's own.
The test certificate is a real one, made for the tests with its key thrown away.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
execute runs any command as the operator account, which can become root
without a person. The operator withholds it on the control-node until a
call needs a person's approval (hq ADR 0268); the holder withholds it per
machine through its own setting. With execute required, that holder could
not hold the seat there and would be judged silent. ADR 0246's optional
mark lets it hold the seat without serving the verb.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
Through the settings verb, or a settings line run by the generic command
verb, any caller of the mesh's console could place a module's directory at
/etc with an owner of its own and have the node-engine, as root, hand it
over at the next push, or mount any of the machine's paths into a container
(hq issue 339). A change to either key is now refused in every process a
verb runs, the generic verb refuses settings writes outright, and neither key
may name the machine's own trees from anywhere, the terminal included. A
line break, carriage return or NUL in any setting, which a file it is
written into reads as a line of the caller's own, is refused where a layer
is kept and where it is composed; PEM blocks alone may hold lines.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
Each verb ran as a process that dialled the bus, so hundreds of short
connections an hour, all named mesh-controller, hid any client reconnecting
in a loop (hq issue 327). D15 now says a user whose connections keep dropping.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
A dead letter was let go as delivered even when its consumer did not filter
its again subject; seat asks needed a grant over every seat's queue and left
the original stuck; a notices bind failure stopped the controller (review).
Design 25 promised a dead-letter stream that did not exist: a message a
consumer gave up on stayed only in its source, which drops it after a week,
and its condition cleared when the advisories stopped (hq issue 330, ADR 0264).
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
An unplaceable line of a left-out module, such as an access nobody placed, failed the whole machine's
declaration. Say it among what could not be placed instead, never copy the definition's path past a
placement that does not read, and accept a removal only when the decoder is past it.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
A machine sharing folders and a machine mounting them each need one holder
per machine, with verbs an agent calls instead of exportfs, fstab edits or
zfs set. Both seats deliver nothing: nfs-share is provided at the mesh's
scope. The two adopt verbs are dry runs unless confirmed.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
A module left out for an unknown key inside an entry lost its whole manifest, so every consumer of what
it provides was refused and its data stopped being copied. Read past only the unknown key, keep its
backup lines, and say in the condition what stops.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
disable cannot remove an enable link whose unit file is gone, so a
leftover unit stays wanted at every login with no verb to end it. Optional
until the systemd module serves it (ADR 0246 step 1).
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
A key dropped silently ran a module without what its manifest says, and a key inside a block still
failed the whole catalogue. Judge a key by what it is about, and narrow the listing to one machine.
One verb is the interface to every preference, so no module builds a settings tool of its own: each
key, its default and why, and every assigned machine's value with its source.
A strict read of the stored catalogue fails every plan and send once a manifest uses a field an older
controller lacks; registration stays strict. A node named default lost its layer to the name check.
Judge the operator's keys by whole words, and scan a default under any key.
Without a default, a running module could never gain a setting: the file asking for it
failed to compose until set, and the key was refused as stray until a file asked for it.
Defaults sit under the mesh's and the node's settings, never merge into a JSON file, are
refused for the operator's own values, and settings shows each value's source.
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
A failed unit whose file is gone stays raised until its record is reset,
and nothing could say which unit or enable link still asks for it. Both
verbs are optional until the systemd module serves them (ADR 0246 step 1).
mesh/merge-gate pass: builds build-agent, mesh-controller, route-proxy → ace, g14, novox, shanks; no bus step; every machine composes with the change as it…
Second review of #150: one key per machine and module let a newer failure
be cleared in the tick that raised it, pruning could orphan an open
condition, and a build no longer waited for read as never asked although it
may still run.
Review of #150: a withdrawal could land between the look and the act, a
failed ask read as a build in flight, a request kept the wrong asker, a
build being registered read as not built, build "true" could ask a build
nothing waited on, and a status read changed state. Claim a row under the
machine's hold before making it, keep a request only once asked, settle on
the controller's own tick, raise an assignment not made as a condition
until it is answered, and tie each row to its machine.
A merge asks for a new module's build, and assign answered "no module of that
name" until the build registered it, which read as a module nobody registered
(hq issue 325). Keep every build request, tell a build in flight, a module
known and not built, and an unknown name apart, and make an assignment made
while the build runs when the build registers the module.
jochen
mesh-admin