feat(althing): four-surface deploy script + runbook

Deploying althing touches four independent surfaces on nh3-dev. Three
were known. The fourth -- the plugin -- had no step in any runbook and
drifted for five days before anyone noticed.

The plugin chain is repo plugin/ to the marketplace directory to Claude
Code's cache, and neither hop was automated. The marketplace directory
was a frozen copy from Aug 28 carrying only the UserPromptSubmit hook,
with no SessionStart, no SessionEnd and no pane-route.sh at all. So the
claim that CC seats re-declare their pane route automatically at session
start was never true on this box, which is why every seat had to be
hand-declared with a pid measured by hand.

The script backs up the marketplace directory before syncing, re-stamps
its marketplace.json from the repo's plugin.json, and uses `claude plugin
update` for the cache rather than hand-editing installed_plugins.json --
that is Claude Code's own bookkeeping and a subtle mistake there breaks
the plugin in a way that looks like an upstream bug.

The runbook also carries the two things most likely to waste someone's
afternoon: `uv tool install .` without --force is a silent no-op that
exits 0 having done nothing, and a live waiter reporting mode:pull is a
seat that will never be poked, with the audit loop for finding them.
This commit is contained in:
2026-09-02 01:04:32 -07:00
parent 87f74f1fee
commit d0882fb830
2 changed files with 209 additions and 0 deletions
+93
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
# althing deploy — four surfaces
**`scripts/deploy-althing.sh`** does all four. `--check` reports drift without
touching anything. This page is the why.
Deploying althing means updating **four independent surfaces on nh3-dev**. Three
were known; the fourth had no step in any runbook and drifted for five days
before anyone noticed, on 2026-09-01.
| # | surface | what it is | how it drifts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | **binaries** | `uv tool install --force .` — the 7 console scripts | silently, see below |
| 2 | **herald** | `systemctl --user restart althing-po-herald` | new guards live here; nothing takes effect until it restarts |
| 3 | **skill** | `scripts/sync_skill.sh``~/.agents/skills/althing/SKILL.md` | covered by its own `--check` |
| 4 | **plugin** | repo `plugin/` → marketplace dir → Claude Code cache | **two hops, neither was automated** |
## ⚠ `uv tool install .` without `--force` is a silent no-op
$ uv tool install .
`althing-core @ file:///home/lkraven/development/althing` is already installed
$ echo $?
0
uv matches on the source **spec**, not its **contents**. On a box that already
installed from that path it declines and reports success. An operator following
a runbook literally would restart the herald, see everything green, and wonder
why the new binary was missing — with every command exiting 0.
## ⚠ Surface 4 is the one that bites, and it ate a hook
The chain is:
repo plugin/ → ~/.local/share/althing-plugin/ → ~/.claude/plugins/cache/althing/althing/<ver>/
^^^ nothing synced this hop
On 2026-09-01 the marketplace directory was a frozen copy from **Aug 28**:
deployed 0.0.1 hooks: ['UserPromptSubmit']
repo 0.1.1 hooks: ['UserPromptSubmit', 'SessionStart', 'SessionEnd']
+ scripts/pane-route.sh (absent from the deployment entirely)
So **"CC seats re-declare their pane route automatically at next SessionStart"
was never true on this box.** The hook existed and worked upstream; it was never
deployed. That is why every seat — including infra-ops' own Claude Code seat —
had to be hand-declared with a pid someone measured by hand, and why the
`idle_cursor` pin from 3.2.1 would not have self-applied either.
**Use the supported CLI for the second hop.** `claude plugin update althing`
(also `install` / `uninstall` / `list` / `details` / `validate` / `marketplace`).
⚠ Do **not** hand-edit `~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json` or fabricate a
cache directory — that is Claude Code's own bookkeeping, and a subtle mistake
there breaks the plugin in a way that looks like an upstream bug.
**A Claude Code restart is required** for new plugin hooks. They are read at
session start; a running session keeps the old ones.
## Verifying a seat is actually reachable
`postbox status` reports `mode: push`, but until 3.2.4 a **failed** push
declaration was silent — `_declare_push` devnulled both streams with
`check=False`, so a missing binary, a non-zero exit and a server-side rejection
rendered identically as nothing. A seat could have been silently pull-only since
3.1.2.
Audit for "looks armed but is not", cross-referencing local waiter locks against
what the post office believes:
```bash
for f in ~/.althing/wake-listener-*.lock; do
h=$(basename "$f" .lock); h=${h#wake-listener-}
pid=$(cat "$f" 2>/dev/null)
if [ -n "$pid" ] && kill -0 "$pid" 2>/dev/null; then
printf " %-24s waiter %-8s mode: %s\n" "$h" "$pid" \
"$(postbox status --handle "$h" 2>/dev/null | grep -oP 'mode: \K\w+')"
fi
done
```
A live waiter reporting `mode: pull` is a seat that will never be poked. From
3.2.4 onward `$ALTHING_ROOT/listen.log` records failed declarations directly.
**A stale `wake-listener-*.lock` is NOT a fault.** The gate is `flock -n` on an
open fd, which the kernel releases when the holder dies, so a lock file left by a
reaped listener is inert and exit 3 only fires against a genuinely live holder.
The pid in the file is read by `--stop` alone. (Recorded because infra-ops
claimed the opposite, untested, on 2026-09-01; forseti measured it.)
## Rollback
uv tool install althing-core==3.1.2
Routes written by later versions stay parseable — the old reader ignores unknown
keys — so nothing is stranded.
+116
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Deploy althing on this box. FOUR surfaces, not three — the fourth is the one
# that had no step and drifted for five days without anyone noticing.
#
# scripts/deploy-althing.sh deploy
# scripts/deploy-althing.sh --check report drift, change nothing
#
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# WHY FOUR
#
# 1. uv tool install --force . the 7 binaries (postbox, althing-listen,
# althing-route, althing-po-herald, ...)
# 2. herald restart guards live in the herald; nothing new takes
# effect until it restarts
# 3. scripts/sync_skill.sh the machine-global participant skill
# 4. PLUGIN repo plugin/ -> marketplace dir -> CC cache
#
# Surface 4 is two hops and NEITHER was automated. The marketplace directory
# was a frozen copy from 2026-08-28 carrying plugin 0.0.1 with ONLY the
# UserPromptSubmit hook — no SessionStart, no SessionEnd, no pane-route.sh.
# Consequence: "CC seats re-declare their pane route automatically at next
# SessionStart" was never true on this box, which is why every seat had to be
# hand-declared with a pid someone measured by hand.
#
# ⚠ `uv tool install .` WITHOUT --force IS A SILENT NO-OP. uv matches the
# source SPEC, not its contents: on a box that already installed from this
# path it prints "already installed" and exits 0 having done nothing.
#
# ⚠ The plugin cache update needs a Claude Code RESTART to take effect. The
# hooks are read at session start; a running session keeps the old ones.
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
set -euo pipefail
REPO="${ALTHING_REPO:-$HOME/development/althing}"
MARKET="${ALTHING_MARKETPLACE_DIR:-$HOME/.local/share/althing-plugin}"
CHECK=0
[[ "${1:-}" == "--check" ]] && CHECK=1
say() { printf '%s\n' "$*"; }
step() { printf '\n── %s\n' "$*"; }
[[ -d "$REPO/.git" ]] || { say "✗ no althing checkout at $REPO"; exit 2; }
repo_plugin_version() {
python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$REPO/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json'))['version'])"
}
market_plugin_version() {
python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$MARKET/.claude-plugin/plugin.json'))['version'])" 2>/dev/null || echo "absent"
}
cache_versions() {
ls -1 "$HOME/.claude/plugins/cache/althing/althing/" 2>/dev/null | tr '\n' ' ' || echo "absent"
}
step "state"
say " repo $(git -C "$REPO" describe --tags --always) $(git -C "$REPO" diff --quiet && echo clean || echo DIRTY)"
say " installed tool $(uv tool list 2>/dev/null | awk '/^althing-core/{print $2}')"
say " repo plugin $(repo_plugin_version)"
say " marketplace $(market_plugin_version)"
say " CC cache $(cache_versions)"
if (( CHECK )); then
say ""
say "--check: nothing changed."
exit 0
fi
step "1/4 uv tool install --force (NEVER without --force: silent no-op)"
( cd "$REPO" && uv tool install --force . 2>&1 | tail -2 )
step "2/4 restart the herald"
systemctl --user restart althing-po-herald
sleep 2
say " herald: $(systemctl --user is-active althing-po-herald)"
step "3/4 sync the machine-global skill"
"$REPO/scripts/sync_skill.sh" >/dev/null
"$REPO/scripts/sync_skill.sh" --check | sed 's/^/ /'
step "4/4 plugin — repo -> marketplace -> Claude Code cache"
if [[ -d "$MARKET" ]]; then
cp -a "$MARKET" "$MARKET.bak-$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)"
say " backed up the marketplace dir"
fi
mkdir -p "$MARKET/.claude-plugin"
# marketplace.json lives ONLY in the deployed tree (the repo keeps its own at
# .claude-plugin/marketplace.json pointing at ./plugin). Preserve and re-stamp.
tmp=$(mktemp)
[[ -f "$MARKET/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json" ]] && cp -a "$MARKET/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json" "$tmp"
rsync -a --delete --exclude marketplace.json "$REPO/plugin/" "$MARKET/"
[[ -s "$tmp" ]] && cp -a "$tmp" "$MARKET/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json"
rm -f "$tmp"
python3 - "$REPO" "$MARKET" <<'PY'
import json, pathlib, sys
repo, market = sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2]
src = json.loads(pathlib.Path(f"{repo}/plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json").read_text())
p = pathlib.Path(f"{market}/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json")
d = json.loads(p.read_text())
d["plugins"][0]["version"] = src["version"]
d["plugins"][0]["description"] = src["description"]
p.write_text(json.dumps(d, indent=2) + "\n")
print(f" marketplace.json stamped {src['version']}")
PY
say " updating the Claude Code plugin cache ..."
# `claude plugin update` is the SUPPORTED path. Do NOT hand-edit
# ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json or fabricate a cache directory —
# that is Claude Code's own bookkeeping and a subtle mistake there breaks the
# plugin in a way that looks like an upstream bug.
claude plugin update althing 2>&1 | sed 's/^/ /' || say " (update reported nothing to do)"
step "verify"
say " installed tool $(uv tool list 2>/dev/null | awk '/^althing-core/{print $2}')"
say " marketplace $(market_plugin_version)"
say " CC cache $(cache_versions)"
say " herald $(systemctl --user is-active althing-po-herald)"
say ""
say "⚠ RESTART Claude Code to load the new plugin hooks. A running session keeps the old ones."