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ops: harden varlock startup and broker status detection#106

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benvinegar merged 3 commits into
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bentlegen/fix-varlock-and-broker-status
Feb 21, 2026
Merged

ops: harden varlock startup and broker status detection#106
benvinegar merged 3 commits into
mainfrom
bentlegen/fix-varlock-and-broker-status

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@benvinegar benvinegar commented Feb 21, 2026 •
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Summary

  • set VARLOCK_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1 in start.sh before varlock load/run to avoid telemetry-related varlock runtime instability
  • keep baudbot doctor warning when ~/.varlock/config.json includes anonymousId, with guidance to use env opt-out or remove the field
  • update baudbot status broker detection to rely on broker-bridge.mjs process presence + broker-health.json, instead of tmux session existence

Why

  • we observed broker bridge startup issues attributed to varlock telemetry config behavior; using the documented telemetry opt-out env var is a safer runtime hardening strategy than mutating user config files
  • tmux-based broker connection checks produced false "disconnected" reports even when broker bridge process + health telemetry were active

Validation

  • bash -n start.sh
  • bash -n bin/baudbot
  • bash -n bin/doctor.sh
  • local runtime verification in tmux/root shell:
    • confirmed broker-bridge.mjs process running and port 127.0.0.1:7890 listening
    • confirmed broker health file updates (poll.last_ok_at, consecutive_failures: 0)
    • verified varlock runs with and without VARLOCK_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1 in current environment (both exit 0)

Notes

@greptile-apps
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greptile-apps Bot commented Feb 21, 2026

Greptile Summary

This PR improves baudbot reliability by addressing two operational issues: unsupported varlock config fields and inaccurate broker status reporting.

Changes:

  • Added automatic sanitization of anonymousId from ~/.varlock/config.json at startup to prevent varlock crashes
  • Updated broker status detection to check for the actual broker-bridge.mjs process instead of tmux session, avoiding false disconnection reports
  • Added doctor warning when anonymousId is present in varlock config

Impact:

  • Prevents broker bridge startup failures caused by varlock config issues
  • Eliminates false broker disconnection alerts when tmux session checks fail but the bridge is healthy

Confidence Score: 5/5

  • This PR is safe to merge with no risk
  • All changes are defensive reliability improvements with no breaking changes. The varlock sanitization prevents startup failures, and the broker status detection is more accurate than the previous tmux-based approach. All changes follow established patterns in the codebase.
  • No files require special attention

Important Files Changed

Filename Overview
start.sh Added sanitize_varlock_config() to remove unsupported anonymousId from varlock config before startup
bin/doctor.sh Added warning when anonymousId is detected in varlock config to alert users of potential crash risk
bin/baudbot Changed broker connection detection from tmux session check to pgrep for broker-bridge process

Last reviewed commit: 564a9d2

@benvinegar benvinegar merged commit 925c71d into main Feb 21, 2026
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