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The two boot paths have drifted

Last verified: 06-08-2026 @ 69d0f5e

V-639. Reads with docs/operations.md.

What landed

cmd/mavend/boot.go. newDaemonAPI(deps) builds the CoreAPI with every field set, and startBackground(ctx, &wg, deps) starts the voice server and every worker through goWorker. backgroundWorkers(deps) is the pure list behind it, so a test can compare the set without standing a daemon up. Both paths in run() now read coreAPI = newDaemonAPI(depsNow()) and one startBackground(...), where depsNow reads whatever the current path wired.

The shadowed wg is gone. Four tests in cmd/mavend/boot_test.go. Every daemonAPI field is set on a fully wired deployment. The handler gets the API it was built with. The worker set is asserted by name, at the full set and at the floor.

Still by hand: unlock a locked box by passkey, ask something that needs Nexus, and check /tools lists the MCP servers.

What is wrong

run() in cmd/mavend/main.go brings the daemon up two ways. A box with a key in the environment starts unlocked and wires everything at lines 280 to 621. A box without one starts locked. It wires the same things again inside the unlock closure, at lines 500 to 579, after a passkey assertion.

The two lists have drifted apart. Three ways.

Seven workers start untracked. The unlocked path puts every one through goWorker(&wg, ...), so waitWorkers at line 637 can wait for them. The unlock path starts tl.run, factWorker, evalWorker, feedWkr, crawlWkr, mcp.run and home.run as bare go func(). Nothing waits for any of them.

That is the shutdown bug the code already documents at lines 631 to 636, reintroduced on the other path. The comment there records what it cost the first time. run() never returned, so defer st.Close() never sealed the database. The deployed ciphertext was eleven days stale before anyone noticed.

A shadowed WaitGroup hides it. Line 529 declares var wg sync.WaitGroup inside the if voiceW != nil block, shadowing the one from line 359. It is Added and Doned and never waited. Reading the block, the voice server looks tracked. It is not.

Two daemonAPI fields are never set. The unlocked path fills nexus at line 295 and getMCPServers at line 305. The unlock path fills neither. So after a passkey unlock, ResolveEntity answers ErrNotImplemented with a nexus block configured, and MCPServers answers empty with an mcp block configured.

The second is the worse one. Empty is not a degraded answer, it is a wrong answer, and /tools renders it as "not configured".

Why it drifted

wireTelegramIntake was added to both paths on 06-08-2026 (V-637) and it does use the outer wg, at line 519. So the newest line on that path is correct and the older ones around it are not. The path gets touched one line at a time and is never read whole.

The shape of cmd/mavend is what allows that. It is 155 files and 9,551 lines of code. Six things live in it with no seam between them:

  • the handler
  • the action dispatch
  • the 19 query sources
  • the wiring functions
  • the six background workers
  • these two boot paths

Nothing in the package makes the divergence visible.

The fix

Make the two paths call one function instead of listing the same wiring twice.

One startBackground(ctx, &wg, deps) that takes what it needs and starts every worker through goWorker. One newDaemonAPI(deps) that fills every field, including nexus and getMCPServers, so a field added later cannot reach one path and miss the other. Both call sites then read as one call each, and a future addition has one place to go.

Delete the shadowed wg at line 529 as part of it.

How it is judged

make test stays green.

The regression that matters is a test asserting the two paths wire the same set. Compare the constructed daemonAPI field by field, and assert the worker count started under the outer wg matches. Without that, this drifts again the next time a wiring line is added.

Then confirm on a locked box: unlock by passkey, ask something that needs Nexus, and check /tools lists the MCP servers. Both answer wrongly today.

Priority

Latent, not live. deploy/mavend.json sets db_key_env, so homesrv boots unlocked and takes the correct path. This bites the locked deployment that docs/operations.md describes, and it bites silently.