feat(devx): gate the "startup registry verdict" class — read the registry all you like, never record the "no" (#4777)

One showcase cold start on 2026-08-03 produced three instances of one shape in
three unrelated subsystems, written by three people at three times: ask a
registry "is X there?" while the boot is still filling it, treat the "no" as
final, and RECORD it — cached on the instance (#4772 plugin-auth), asserted in
a warn (#4771 service-automation), or written to the database (#4769 objectql).
The provider registers a moment later; nothing undoes the record.

All three are fixed. This is what stops the class from coming back, built on
the #4632 machinery (declared vocabulary + AST + shrink-only baseline +
--self-test) rather than a parallel one.

The gate matches the three-part shape, and part 3 is what makes it a rule and
not noise:

  1. a read of a registry still filling — the service registry during
     init()/constructor, or an ADR-0018 open capability registry before its
     seal;
  2. a terminal conclusion drawn from "absent";
  3. that conclusion recorded — cached in an instance field / module binding,
     asserted in a warn, or persisted.

A read-only probe stays completely legal, and every cure passes untouched: a
probe deferred into a lazy accessor or a kernel:ready hook (nested bodies are
not descended into), a probe whose ordering an ADR-0116 declaration already
made final (dependencies / optionalDependencies / requiresServices — tolerance
lives in the plugin, never in a checker ledger), and a verdict drawn at a
declared seal (sealNodeTypeVocabulary). Rule B counts only registry
ENUMERATION, so a keyed has()/get() on a runtime path is not mistaken for a
boot-time membership verdict.

Proven in both directions, because a gate that has only ever been green cannot
be told apart from one that matches nothing (#4690):

  f2eb850^ (both defects live)  → 2 violations (auth-plugin, engine.ts)
  25784cf^ (#4772 fixed only)   → 1 violation (engine.ts)
  main                            → clean, 47 seams seen, 41 read-only

Coverage is stated, not implied: it under-matches on purpose. #4769 is a
fixture, not a catch — its "registry" is the sys_migration table.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018iARDqtrhQgz6fVHDeDkbQ

Author: claude

.changeset/startup-registry-verdict-guard.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+---
+
+Tooling-only: `pnpm check:startup-registry-verdict` — startup registry reads may not record a verdict the boot can still contradict (#4777). Adds `scripts/check-startup-registry-verdict.mjs` + the shrink-only `scripts/startup-registry-verdict.baseline.json` (empty on landing), a `Lint & Type Check` step, and an AGENTS.md section. Releases nothing — no package changes.
+
+One showcase cold start on 2026-08-03 produced three instances of one shape in three unrelated subsystems written by three people at three times: ask a registry "is X there?" while the boot is still filling it, treat the "no" as final, and **record** it — cached on the instance (#4772 plugin-auth), asserted in a `warn` (#4771 service-automation), or written to the database (#4769 objectql). The provider registers a moment later and nothing undoes the record. All three are fixed; this is what stops the class from coming back.
+
+The gate matches the three-part shape, and part 3 is what makes it a rule rather than noise — a read-only probe stays completely legal, and the cures are never flagged: a probe deferred into a lazy accessor or a `kernel:ready` hook, a probe whose ordering an ADR-0116 declaration (`dependencies` / `optionalDependencies` / `requiresServices`) has already made final, and a verdict drawn at a declared seal (`sealNodeTypeVocabulary()`) all pass.
+
+Its reach is stated rather than implied: it under-matches on purpose. `getService('cache')` is visible, a `resolveCacheOrFallback()` three layers down another package is not, and #4769 is invisible to it entirely — that "registry" is the `sys_migration` table in a database. This stops the bleeding; it does not cure. Whether the kernel contract should be tightened further is #4776.

.github/workflows/lint.yml

@@ -204,6 +204,24 @@ jobs:
       - name: Durability-degradation log-level guard
         run: pnpm check:durability-log-level
 
+      # Startup registry-verdict guard (#4777). One showcase cold start produced
+      # three instances of one shape in three unrelated subsystems: ask a
+      # registry "is X there?" while the boot is still filling it, treat the
+      # "no" as final, and RECORD it — cached on the instance (#4772
+      # plugin-auth), asserted in a warn (#4771 service-automation), or written
+      # to the database (#4769 objectql). The provider registers a moment later
+      # and nothing undoes the record. This gate walks the AST for that
+      # three-part shape: a pre-ready registry read (init()/constructor, or an
+      # ADR-0018 open capability registry before its seal) whose absent verdict
+      # is recorded. Reading is legal and must stay legal — a probe licensed by
+      # an ADR-0116 declaration, or one deferred into a closure/kernel:ready
+      # hook, is exactly the fix and is never flagged. Deliberately narrow: it
+      # cannot see a probe behind an indirection in another package, and it
+      # cannot see #4769 at all (that "registry" is a database table). Runs its
+      # own --self-test first.
+      - name: Startup registry-verdict guard
+        run: pnpm check:startup-registry-verdict
+
       # Release-notes drift guard: the platform is one version-locked train, so
       # every released @objectstack/spec major must have a curated, navigable
       # release page at content/docs/releases/v<major>.mdx. Catches the gap that

AGENTS.md

@@ -601,6 +601,72 @@ shrink-only.
 
 ---
 
+## Startup registry reads — never record a verdict the boot can still contradict
+
+A boot fills its registries incrementally. Asking a registry "is X there?" while
+it is still filling is fine — the answer is simply not final yet. Turning that
+not-yet into a **verdict and recording the verdict** is the defect, because the
+provider registers a moment later and nothing goes back to undo the record.
+
+Decide with **one question**, the counterpart of the degradation-log-level one:
+
+> **At the moment this code concludes "X is not registered", can a provider
+> still register X during this same boot? And is that conclusion RECORDED
+> anywhere that outlives the moment?**
+> **Yes and yes → defect.**
+
+Three parts, all three or it is not a finding:
+
+1. a read of a registry that is still filling — the service registry during
+   `init()`, or a plugin-extensible capability registry before it is sealed;
+2. a terminal conclusion drawn from "absent";
+3. that conclusion **recorded** — cached in an instance field or module binding,
+   asserted in a `warn`, or persisted.
+
+Part 3 is what makes this a rule and not noise. **A read-only probe is
+completely legal**: `AutomationEngine.getUnknownNodeTypeAudit()` reads the
+executor registry on every call, records nothing, and is correct.
+
+**Why this is a rule and not a preference.** One showcase cold start on
+2026-08-03 produced three instances, in three unrelated subsystems, written by
+three people at three times: plugin-auth froze an `undefined` cache handle into
+its config for the life of the process, so rate-limit counters never reached the
+shared store and the printed warning sent operators to provision Redis for a
+problem they did not have (#4772); service-automation asserted that eight
+approval flows "will fail at execution time" 0.8s before the executor that runs
+them was registered, and a deployment that genuinely lacked the plugin emitted
+the identical eight, so the signal could not tell the two apart (#4771); objectql
+wrote an ADR-0104 attestation into `sys_migration` during the same boot that was
+still seeding rows contradicting it, so the next restart rejected its
+predecessor's data (#4769). Whether the kernel contract itself should be
+tightened further is #4776.
+
+**The three cures, in preference order:**
+
+1. **Resolve where it is used, not where you start.** A lazy accessor or a
+   `kernel:ready` hook sees a provider that registered later —
+   `createLazyCacheRateLimitStorage()` in plugin-auth is the reference.
+2. **Declare the ordering (ADR-0116).** `dependencies` / `optionalDependencies`
+   / `requiresServices` make the kernel hoist the provider ahead or assert it
+   registered, which makes "absent" a *fact*. Tolerance belongs in the plugin's
+   own declaration, where the kernel enforces it — not in a checker's ledger.
+3. **Seal the vocabulary, then judge.** For a registry that is open by contract
+   (ADR-0018 flow node types), the host declares the moment it can no longer
+   grow — `AutomationEngine.sealNodeTypeVocabulary()`, called at
+   `kernel:bootstrapped` — and only then is an absence worth reporting.
+
+**It has teeth**: `pnpm check:startup-registry-verdict` walks the AST for that
+three-part shape and fails on it; accepted exceptions live in the shrink-only,
+hand-edited `scripts/startup-registry-verdict.baseline.json`. Like
+`check:durability-log-level` it is deliberately narrow — it cannot *discover* a
+new seam, only stop known ones from regressing, and it under-matches on purpose
+rather than risk a false positive: `getService('cache')` is visible, a
+`resolveCacheOrFallback()` three layers down another package is not, and #4769's
+"registry" is a database table it can never see. Found a new open registry? Add
+it to `OPEN_CAPABILITY_REGISTRIES` in the same PR that fixes it.
+
+---
+
 ## Post-Task Checklist
 
 1. `pnpm test` — verify nothing broke. Touched a type-check-covered package? `pnpm typecheck` too.

package.json

@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
     "check:wildcard-fallthrough": "node scripts/check-wildcard-fallthrough.mjs --self-test && node scripts/check-wildcard-fallthrough.mjs",
     "check:init-service-contract": "node scripts/check-init-service-contract.mjs --self-test && node scripts/check-init-service-contract.mjs",
     "check:durability-log-level": "node scripts/check-durability-degradation-log-level.mjs --self-test && node scripts/check-durability-degradation-log-level.mjs",
+    "check:startup-registry-verdict": "node scripts/check-startup-registry-verdict.mjs --self-test && node scripts/check-startup-registry-verdict.mjs",
     "check:console-sha": "node scripts/check-console-sha.mjs",
     "check:release-notes": "node scripts/check-release-notes.mjs",
     "check:node-version": "node scripts/check-node-version.mjs",