A run-once step leaves nothing to ask, and V4 asked anyway

V4's first run reported a working mesh as broken: it asserted that lavinmq's
run-once bootstrap container existed, and the host removes an exited run-once
container on purpose — so a later apply is not confused by a stopped one, keeping
the record that it ran in its own store instead.

So the check asserted the opposite of correct behaviour. The step had run; it is
why the broker came up configured.

Counted as unverified now rather than assumed good. What would verify a step is
the host's own record of having run it, and this walks the machine rather than
the host — so the honest answer is that this check says nothing about steps, and
it now says so.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01D6qtiYU3P9jk3pnAXyAFyx

one-node-mesh-report.json

@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 {
   "scenario": "one-node-mesh",
-  "established": 20,
-  "of": 21,
+  "established": 19,
+  "of": 22,
   "steps": [
     {
       "code": "R1",
       "title": "a bare machine becomes a mesh of one, raised by the installer",
       "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 145,
+      "seconds": 140,
       "why": ""
     },
     {
@@ -56,21 +56,21 @@
       "code": "P1",
       "title": "the mesh builds the shared base from source",
       "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 72,
+      "seconds": 87,
       "why": ""
     },
     {
       "code": "P2",
       "title": "the mesh builds and runs a store of its own",
       "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 43,
+      "seconds": 39,
       "why": ""
     },
     {
       "code": "P3",
       "title": "the mesh builds and runs its own catalogue",
       "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 26,
+      "seconds": 32,
       "why": ""
     },
     {
@@ -105,14 +105,14 @@
       "code": "U2",
       "title": "the mesh runs a broker for that module to talk to",
       "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 20,
+      "seconds": 31,
       "why": ""
     },
     {
       "code": "U3",
       "title": "the anchor runs the module the mesh built",
       "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 6,
+      "seconds": 7,
       "why": ""
     },
     {
@@ -125,9 +125,9 @@
     {
       "code": "V2",
       "title": "the catalogue holds every module this mesh built",
-      "status": "fail",
-      "seconds": 1,
-      "why": "the catalogue does not hold mesh-tools, postgres — the mesh built them and its own record has no trace of it (novox/hq issue 050):\n{\"modules\":[{\"module\":\"amqp-ping\",\"commit\":\"e0c92195d4240841bfcf4b4a9ef869d5afeca331\",\"repository\":\"https://git.novox.be/novox/mesh-catalog.git\",\"path\":\"modules/amqp-ping\"},{\"module\":\"lavinmq\",\"commit\":\"e0c92195d4240841bfcf4b4a9ef869d5afeca331\",\"repository\":\"https://git.novox.be/novox/mesh-catalog.git\",\"path\":\"modules/lavinmq\"},{\"module\":\"mesh-control\",\"commit\":\"5062c36fc9efe159aa9706c0ca2c873351ef1ce0\",\"repository\":\"https://git.novox.be/novox/mesh-control.git\",\"path\":\"\"}]}\n\n+ actual - expected\n\n+ [\n+   'mesh-tools',\n+   'postgres'\n+ ]\n- []\n"
+      "status": "pass",
+      "seconds": 3,
+      "why": ""
     },
     {
       "code": "V3",
@@ -136,19 +136,26 @@
       "seconds": 1,
       "why": ""
     },
+    {
+      "code": "V4",
+      "title": "every resource the mesh declared is true on the machine",
+      "status": "fail",
+      "seconds": 13,
+      "why": "the machine is not what the mesh said it should be:\n  container lavinmq.bootstrap: the container lavinmq-bootstrap was never created\n+ actual - expected\n\n+ [\n+   'container lavinmq.bootstrap: the container lavinmq-bootstrap was never created'\n+ ]\n- []\n"
+    },
     {
       "code": "E1",
       "title": "a change to a module's source reaches the machine on its own",
-      "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 14,
-      "why": ""
+      "status": "skip",
+      "seconds": 0,
+      "why": "not attempted — V4 (every resource the mesh declared is true on the machine) did not succeed"
     },
     {
       "code": "E2",
       "title": "the mesh comes back after the machine reboots",
-      "status": "pass",
-      "seconds": 32,
-      "why": ""
+      "status": "skip",
+      "seconds": 0,
+      "why": "not attempted — E1 (a change to a module's source reaches the machine on its own) did not succeed"
     }
   ]
 }

test/integration/one-node-mesh.test.ts

@@ -893,10 +893,16 @@ before(async () => {
         case "container": {
           const name = String(r["name"]);
           if (r["run-once"] === true || r["schedule"]) {
-            // Not expected to be running: it ran, or it runs later. What matters is that it exists
-            // and, if it ran, that it succeeded.
-            await check(`docker inspect ${quote(name)} >/dev/null 2>&1`,
-              `the container ${name} was never created`);
+            // **A run-once step leaves nothing to ask, deliberately.** The host removes the exited
+            // container so a later apply is not confused by a stopped one, and keeps the record
+            // that it ran in its own store instead. So asserting the container exists asserts the
+            // opposite of correct behaviour — which this did, and reported a working mesh as
+            // broken on its first run.
+            //
+            // A scheduled step is the same between fires. Both are counted as unverified here
+            // rather than assumed good: what would verify them is the host's own record, and this
+            // asks the machine rather than the host.
+            unchecked.push(`${kind} ${id} (a step leaves nothing running to ask)`);
           } else {
             await check(`docker ps --format '{{.Names}}' | grep -qx ${quote(name)}`,
               `the container ${name} is not running`);