mesh-lab's asks proof runs the router, the Telegram channel and an asker on a real bus. Its accounts,
streams, workers, buckets and memberships come from this test at the controller's commit, so the lab
proves the composition and not a copy of it. Skipped unless the lab asks.
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 PR 179 found four paths no test held: which of two earlier
plans NewestMergeOf takes, a tie between them, gaps kept across a second
reopening in one keeper, and a merge time's fraction of a second.
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 reopened fault keeps its gaps: it was there at a send unless the send
fell in one, so a send that breaks a machine recovered before it still
fails its gate (A2).
- An undecided part holds only the conditions that name it (A4).
- D2 holds a silent resolver for the next run again, refused or not: a
burst of refusals is also a restart (A3).
- A late merge is planned at the newest planned merge of its branch in any
state, not only an open one (A1); merge times to the nanosecond (A5).
The test reads the catalogue beside it, which the build seat checks out at
main; mesh-catalog PR 161 changes the binding, so the two land in either
order.
A merge acted on late by the catch-up made its plan after the plan of the
merge that followed it, superseded it by creation time, and folded its
unbuilt modules into a plan at the older commit: on 2026-10-09 the
forge's security fix (a082615b) was superseded by 8ff8197a. A plan now
keeps its merge time (migration 0086), supersession follows it, and a
merge older than an open plan of its branch is planned at that plan's
commit, which contains it.
On 2026-10-09 the control node's resolver refused from 10:57:57 UTC. A
node-engine restarted by the 10:59:34 send said its names undecided, that
statement cleared the network condition, the next look raised it again
after the send, and the gate put back two builds for a fault older than
them.
- A condition keeps First across a reopening; the gate reads Began.
- An undecided network statement (unknown, starting) clears nothing.
- D10 counts what a release's tier names as rolling, so a walked
node-engine is not core-behind on its own first machine.
- D2 raises a resolver that refuses every try at once: a refusal is an
answer, not a loaded resolver (issue 277).
A private kind is where the router shows a link's code, and the code makes an account the operator's.
Registration refused a verified-sender holder on the machine's runtime and let a private one stand;
it now refuses both (the confirmation review of 2026-10-09, low).
The confirmation review asked who may answer root-free on the bus. Composed from the controller's own
manifest, the module principal of the machine running the controller and that machine's runtime were
granted the controller seat's tool subjects too: either could answer root-free, and the runtime's
credential is one an agent on that machine may hold. The controller's seat is now served by the
controller principal alone, in grants and memberships; TestOnlyTheServingControllerMayAnswerRootFree
failed before (3 answerers) and passes. And a machine waiting for its first setuid search is not
root-free, whatever ADR 0266's quiet window does to the self-check.
The router's contract names the machines as a JSON array. A verb's argument declared a list now takes
an array of names (or one text separated by commas), and refuses anything else in it.
The agent-root probe read the sudo module's answer, given in the machine's runtime as the very account
an agent could become, and took a missing account, a missing answer or no accounts as a pass. One
judgement now decides: the machine names an agent account its node-engine judged unable to become
root within 15 minutes (agentConfined, mesh-controller #164), and the login shell's execute is not
served there; anything not read is not free. The probe raises agent-root on it, the new root-free
verb answers it live for the router, and a push composes verified-sender for a kind only while its
machine and the router's pass 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…
- commandEnvironment takes the terminal as a bool instead of reading an
empty verb as one; every non-terminal line names its verb and is stripped
of MESH_CLI_TERMINAL, and a test with the mark set in the serving
environment fails when that strip is taken out.
- On the control-node the operator's account is the terminal only from a
login session, as the node-engine reads it from the kernel's cgroup; the
tool runner and the account's user units run as the operator too, and are
ordinary calls. The request carries `session` (field-name tests on both
sides).
- A pull request the forge never announced is named with its number in
the condition's headline (hq issue 347), from the stalled line's
`number`, which mesh-delivery sends.
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@14ab2ddd9b49 (merged as 63e85b25 into main, walk plan-17915459…
- The generic command verb only reads now (commandReads) and terminal-only
commands are refused through any verb (terminalOnly). mesh-cli's
ordinary line made neither check: `node account`, `token issue` and
`secret export` from another node would have run. It now meets both, in
the one function the command verb shares.
- The serving controller marks itself and its children never the terminal
(ADR 0266); a line mesh-cli runs as the terminal drops that mark and
carries MESH_CLI_TERMINAL, so it reads as the terminal it is.
- Two withholding tests searched the answer's text while JSON writes bytes
as base64, so they held nothing. They search both now, each proved by
disabling what it guards (Shown, the bus withholding, `calls` via Get).
- The control-node refusal is tested through the assign and unassign acts.
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 forge applies the rule named for a branch, else the first glob covering
it; the judge passed a branch whose applied rule let pushes when a later rule
happened to guard it. And a registration whose id the forge could not give
cleared the id already recorded (the confirmation review of 2026-10-09).
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 line ran past the bus's one-minute window for an answer and its answer
was refused; mesh-cli then said nothing ran of a line that had. Every
line is now a call (calls.go): answered within AnswerWithin that it is
running, with its call, and followed by the same account on the same
node until it ends. Its record keeps the command word only, and its
answer stays in the memory of the controller that ran it — never on the
bus, never in `calls`, which answers anyone who may call the seat. Each
line is said in the journal with its call, who asked where, and how.
- Lines running at once are bounded (8); one over is answered busy.
- An ordinary `settings` line is composed as the settings verb composes
its own and meets that verb's refusals, the terminal-only keys among
them, instead of the generic command's blanket refusal.
- The controller's module is assigned and unassigned at the terminal only:
where it runs is the control-node, whose operator is the terminal.
- mesh.control.*.cli is in the writers table as the machine's own.
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…
The records send the operator to "the controller's terminal", and nothing
reached it (hq issue 343). The serving controller now answers each node's
mesh.control.<node>.cli, where only that node's engine may publish, with the
account the engine read from the kernel. A line from the control-node's
operator account runs as the terminal: a fresh process of this binary with
no MESH_VERB, whatever the serving process carries. The same account on any
other node, where agents may run as it, is an ordinary call: the generic
command verb's refusals (one function now, so the two routes cannot drift)
and MESH_VERB=mesh-cli, so a terminal-only change is refused with its
reason. Any other account, root included, runs nothing. Servers are never
run, and an answer over one bus message is cut and says so.
The terminal-only refusals and the usage now name mesh-cli on the
control-node as the way to the terminal.
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.
jschoubben
jochen
mesh-admin