# Orchestra audit — handoff first

Audited 2026-07-30 against the working tree, spec, deployed coordinator,
workpc worker, event log, and live herdr (read-only).

**Verdict:** one worker handoff completed, but the system is not safe to run
unattended. It can skip rotation, omit Git state, split ownership, strand a
released agent, or reject a valid completion.

## Evidence

- `go build ./...`, `go vet ./...`, `go test ./...`: pass.
  `go test -race ./...`: fails in orchestrator monitor tests.
- Live B17: release `seq=251`, re-lease `252`, completion `262`; the simple
  probe needed six approvals, logged a `409 lease version conflict`, and
  recorded `consumed:0`.
- Live now: Docker owns the coordinator; the old systemd unit is inactive.
  Workpc runs a dirty `1ca9d64` worker build. No task is active and live herdr
  reports no agents. This does not prove the current working tree.

## P0 — correctness

| ID | Current failure | Required fix |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | **Closed 2026-07-30.** The checkout-owning worker and coordinator turn path now use `RotationStateMachine`. Workers persist harness-native identity (Claude/Codex transcript, OpenCode SQLite session id), apply soft/milestone/thrash/hard-boundary decisions, and record unknown activity/occupancy/boundary as degraded health rather than zero usage. | Verified by `go test -race ./...`; the existing turn-policy coverage now exercises the shared state machine. |
| H2 | **Closed 2026-07-30.** `PrepareRelease` verifies immutable `TASK.md`, checkpoints all repository work except protocol markers, always pushes the per-task project's scratch anchor, verifies it with `ls-remote`, and only then seals the CAS handoff. | `TestScratchCommitCapturesAllGitStatesExceptProtocolMarkers` covers staged, deleted, renamed, untracked, and protocol-marker cases; release uses the configured project remote. |
| H3 | **Closed 2026-07-30.** Worker state persists idempotent release transactions through `prepared → anchor_pushed → event_committed → pickup_validated → predecessor_retired`. Release/pickup endpoints bind transaction, anchor, and lease version; a predecessor remains mapped and is retired only after matching pickup validation. | `TestReleaseTransactionSurvivesReLeaseUntilMatchingPickup` covers transaction propagation and pickup epoch binding; full race suite passes. |
| H4 | Lease loss can create split-brain work. Worker-offline releases after heartbeat TTL, while the old worker drops release/block mappings without stopping the pane (`cmd/orchestra/main.go:384`; `cmd/orchestra-worker/main.go:592`). Worker health may say herdr is unreachable but routing checks only heartbeat. | Give every lease a durable epoch/fencing token. Accept renew/release/complete only from that owner+epoch. Reassign only after explicit relinquish or lease expiry. On ownership loss, quarantine/stop the old pane before forgetting it. Admit workers only with fresh local-herdr health. |
| H5 | The event log can diverge from memory: `Store.Append` mutates the projection before the event write/fsync (`internal/store/store.go:328-345`). Legal lifecycle transitions are not enforced; the legacy completion endpoint is not lease-owner fenced (`cmd/orchestra/main.go:134-185`). | Validate transition+owner+epoch, append/fsync first, then project. Recover projections only from the log. Make CAS/state writes temp+fsync+rename and fail closed on corrupt worker state. Remove or fence the legacy harness endpoint. |

## P1 — autonomy and recovery

- **Recovery:** `TaskBlocked` destroys the worker session needed for late
  completion; aggregate-version changes also stale the lease. Use a separate
  lease epoch and a recoverable `needs_attention` state that retains ownership
  until explicit release, expiry, or reconciled completion.
- **Retries:** expiry bypasses `Router.HandleEvent`; attempts/backoff are
  in-memory and unsynchronised. Project durable `attempt`, `next_retry_at`,
  and failure class; route every reclaim through one transition.
- **Launch:** repeated start failures hold a lease for up to 30 minutes.
  Workers must ACK start or NACK with typed evidence; retry transient failures,
  block invalid handoffs, and immediately free unusable capacity.
- **Completion:** `.orchestra/done` is the only worker completion signal.
  Combine an explicit completion intent with native idle/exit identity, the
  worker-owned quality gate, verified commit, and verified push.
- **Quota:** worker sessions do not retain a usage source, so live receipts
  are zero and quota routing is ineffective. Record per-lease deltas and
  publish both 5-hour and weekly projections; unknown quota fails closed.
- **Approvals:** the continuity probe required six manual grants. Add audited
  per-project policy for safe worktree-local reads, edits, tests, and Git;
  keep destructive, secret, network, and out-of-worktree actions gated.
- **Observability:** replace release/rotation `continue` paths with durable
  phase, last error, retry time, lease epoch, pane state, and anchor fields.

## P2 — performance

- Cache/parallelise health probes; schedule from one task/worker snapshot.
  Current routing repeatedly scans tasks and probes candidates per queued task.
- Index active leases and quota windows. Do not scan the whole event log per
  availability check or rewrite the full task snapshot after every event.
- Add 1k/10k-task benchmarks with assignment and append p95 budgets.

## Delivery order

1. Durable event transitions + lease fencing.
2. Idempotent checkpoint/release/pickup transaction.
3. Worker-local rotation, completion, quota, and typed recovery.
4. Approval policy and performance indexes.
5. Only then: ingestion/UI expansion.

## Release gate

- All build/vet/test/race checks pass.
- Fault-inject every handoff phase, coordinator/worker restart, lost response,
  worker partition/rejoin, stale completion, and corrupt state file.
- Cross-machine tests cover staged/deleted/clean-committed work and prove the
  predecessor remains recoverable until successor pickup validation.
- Live controlled runs pass soft, hard, milestone, thrash, completion, and
  late-recovery paths on each harness without manual intervention for safe
  repository work.
- Coordinator and workers report the same immutable build revision; staged
  worker checksum and Go build revision match before restart.