# REPORT — one writer at a time, and a check that can run (2026-09-01, v0.232.0)

## 1. Part 2.1's answer — the determination that decided Phase 3

**Neither label fitted. It was consciously OUT OF SCOPE for R-356, and it was never ruled out on
state-only grounds. → BRANCH (a).**

Evidence, in the order it settles it:

1. **R-356's own commit (`08eb1a6`) says so, twice, in its tests:** *"the prepared scratch **still
   resolves** to the registered storage path (`offboxRestoreScratchDir` step 2) … **only the
   DESTINATION moves**, which is precisely what this change is about."* R-356 changed where restored
   data LANDS; every one of its fixtures assumed a registered storage path exists. **`demo-felhom`,
   with `storage_paths: []`, is the case it never had.**
2. **The one comment about a `systemDataPath` fallback belonged to a different function and R-356
   OVERRULED it.** Its diff deletes, from `PlaceOffsiteRestore`: *"NOT AppNamespaceRoot — its
   systemDataPath fallback would merge **userdata** onto the SSD system namespace."* That was about
   bulk userdata, not a scratch.
3. **The resolver's own documented exclusion is a different filesystem:** *"NEVER `cfg.Paths.DataDir`
   (the rootfs)"*. `SystemDataPath` is not that.
4. **Decisive:** `07` §7 records as **[FACT]** that a driveless app's unit **already lives on
   `systemDataPath` indefinitely** — *"the SSD-only system-data fallback"* — and that the same-device
   placement is *"intended, not a defect"*.

**Built: branch (a), SCOPED**, because the two callers ask different questions and one predicate
answering both is the R-356 defect itself:

| restore | fallback | why |
|---|---|---|
| **unit-only** (the proof) | **yes**, to the system data path | the unit already lives there permanently (§7); the scratch is bounded by that unit's size and deleted every time |
| **full** (bulk userdata) | **no** — keeps the R-252 refusal | the internal SSD is a **state-only** tier (§2.2) |

§6.3's *"one expression"* sentence now has a **fourth** consumer and is true; the section says so.

## 2. Confirmed baselines

| repo | `main` @ | matched? |
|---|---|---|
| `felhom-controller` | `9aea86cd48e2b9aceab7ca1e03df7e693b392e4e` (v0.231.0) | **yes** |
| `felhom.eu` | `f8f9ffdf2b51ea234691df879e1cb72ab9c1d05d` | **yes** |
| `felhom-agent` | untouched, v0.130.0 | **yes** |

## 3. Files created / modified

**Created:** `internal/backup/r408_invariant_walk_test.go`, `r411_lock_flag_test.go`,
`r414_reachability_test.go`, `r412a_push_wording_test.go`; `felhom.eu/scripts/test_golden_currency_gate.py`;
`felhom.eu/documentation/audits/R411-R414-2026-09-01/`; `felhom.eu/documentation/tests/golden-0.232.0-2026-09-01/`.

**Modified (controller):** `offbox_restore.go` (two acquires + the scoped fallback),
`offbox_integrity.go` (the two false sentences), `offbox_proof.go` (`CannotRun`, and the cleanup fix),
`offbox.go` (the hollow-push wording + one acquire), `shares_restore.go` (one acquire), plus
`CHANGELOG.md`, `CONTEXT.md`, `controller/README.md`.

**Modified (felhom.eu):** `scripts/golden_currency_gate.py`, `07-backup-architecture.md` §6.3,
`00-capability-map.md`, both registers, `audits/RECON-subdomain-onboarding-2026-07-31.md`, `STATUS.md`.

## 4. Commits

| repo | commit | what |
|---|---|---|
| `felhom-controller` | `fcef8e0` | the flag on four entry points, the walk, the corrected comments, R-414, R-412a |
| `felhom-controller` | `8b55de7` | the fallback scratch must also be DELETABLE — caught by live validation |
| `felhom-controller` | `62c6a8a` | CHANGELOG, CONTEXT rulings, README |
| `felhom.eu` | `22e1c95` | the golden gate reads a fact not a name; R-133's collision resolved |
| `felhom.eu` | `f41a1a0` | six rows closed + compressed, determination + live evidence, capability map |

## 5. Tests, and the red-proofs by name

**18 new tests.** Full suite **28 packages, rc=0**; all 13 controller gates OK; all 13 `felhom.eu`
gates OK (golden-currency now **green**).

| red-proof | what was broken | result |
|---|---|---|
| **B1a** | the acquire removed from `RestoreOffboxScratch` | walk FAILED: `[RestoreOffboxScratch]` |
| **B1b** | an unregistered fake entry point calling `resticStep` | walk FAILED: `[zzFakeUnflaggedEntryPoint]` |
| **C1** | the fallback dropped **and** the `Err` path restored | FAILED with `last_proof_result` absent and the R-252 refusal — `demo-felhom`'s exact nightly state |
| **D1** | the single unconditional `[INFO] backed up …` line restored | FAILED: *"the hollow push line must say what it did not carry"* |
| **E1** | the gate reverted to name-matching | self-test FAILED cases 1, 2 **and 3** |
| **(extra)** | the system data path dropped from `removeProofScratch`'s roots | FAILED: the copy still on disk |

**A3** is asserted as the non-effect (`--remove-all` in no argv) and is proven directly by B1a, which
names the function; every red-proof was reverted and the file confirmed **byte-identical**.

## 6. Test count

**1689 → 1707 (+18)**, counted directly. *(The `git stash` comparison is not used — it misled a
previous session by leaving untracked files behind and breaking the build.)*

## 7. The Phase 1 collision, rerun — verbatim

**Sampler controlled first:** **12** `locks=1` samples across a real integrity check, **4** `locks=0`
while quiet. A sampler that has never seen a 1 cannot be trusted to report a 0.

```
--- restore, then check +1s ---   "skipped":true  "skip_reason":"a backup or restore is already running"  "duration_ms":0
--- restore, then check +3s ---   "skipped":true  "skip_reason":"a backup or restore is already running"  "duration_ms":0

  'unlock --remove-all' in the sampler:          0
  any 'unlock' at all:                           0
  'cleared a stale exclusive lock' in the log:   0
```

The drill saw that last line **twice**. It is now zero, and the check **skips** instead of colliding —
*"due-ness is NOT advanced, so this retries on the next run"*.

## 8. The proof reaching a verdict on `demo-felhom` — verbatim

Before (unchanged from the drill): `registered storage paths: 0`, `last_proof_result: '<ABSENT>'`.

```
{"data":{"duration_ms":2116,"snapshot":"61e9cf30","stack":"opengist","verdict":"pass",...},"ok":true}

  last_proof_result    'pass'
  last_proof_snapshot  '61e9cf30'
proof: opengist PASSED on snapshot 61e9cf30 in 2.117s — the backup holds what this app should have
  (no LEFTOVER lines above = the copy was deleted)
```

**A defect of mine that this run caught**, before any of it was believed: the fallback resolved a
scratch that `removeProofScratch` then **refused to delete** — *"refusing to remove … it is not inside
a proof root"* — because its accepted-roots list is built from REGISTERED drives, of which that box has
none. Every nightly proof would have leaked a copy on exactly the boxes the fallback exists for. **No
unit test could see it: they all register a drive.** Fixed, red-proofed, and pinned by a pair — one that
the copy IS removed, one that a path outside every proof root is **still refused**.

Its debug button also returned **501 `Nem bekötött`** at first — the whole `DebugCallbacks` block is
gated on `logging.level == "debug"`, which is pre-existing and applies to every debug button. Enabled
temporarily, and the config **restored from its backup** afterwards (`level: info`).

## 9. The golden — 0.232.0, carrying TWO releases

**`GOLDEN_SHA256 = 5f8a53ed5b19a6cb2006298ce6239f6fca2b990cc3ef6eada89f602801ca91b8`, 657 494 489 B.**
0.231.0 was never baked, so the fleet went 0.230.0 → 0.232.0.

- **Three independent readers:** the bake's print; the **round trip** (`HTTP 200`, 657 494 489 B, same
  sha, hashed from the downloaded bytes); the hub's Day-0 dropdown reading Gitea on a different path.
- **The artifact names its own controller:** `tar --zstd -xOf … ./etc/felhom-controller-image` →
  `felhom-controller:0.232.0`, with **19 382** entries under `var/lib/felhom/docker/`.
- **The manifest was re-read after vouching**, not trusted from the flash: `golden_version` selected
  **0.232.0**, sha `5f8a53ed…`, R-120 banner **absent**.
- **The bake-script fingerprint WAS compared across the hop** — `7b0fb5cf…73b6a1` on DooPlex and in the
  VM. **The 0.230.0 bake skipped this and said so; this one is a measurement.**
- **`demo-felhom` moved itself.** Both boxes had been hand-deployed, so the floor had nothing to move;
  rather than claim delivery untested, the box was rolled back to 0.231.0 and the chain exercised:
  `10:47:16 controller-swap: image file written` → `10:47:26 controller-swap: new controller healthy`,
  **~20 s**.
- Floor raised **0.230.0 → 0.232.0**, re-read from the page.

## 10. Explicitly still OPEN — nothing is closed by association

**R-412 leg 2** (should the push re-read the unit before sending), **R-95**, **R-402**, **R-409**,
**R-401**, **R-404**, and the new **R-416** (the within-register duplicate rule). None of these was
touched.

## 11. Teardown — all three layers

| layer | state |
|---|---|
| drill VM | `pct destroy 9100 --purge`; token, runner, script and log `shred -u`'d **after** the log was copied out (`/root` grep → 0); `poweroff`; qemu confirmed exited with `ps -eo comm`; disk back to `virgin` |
| `demo-felhom` | `controller.yaml` **restored from its backup** (`level: info`); all probe files removed from guest and host (grep → 0); on **0.232.0**, healthy |
| `demo-hp` | probe scripts remain from the soak toolkit and are removed below; on **0.232.0**, healthy |

Local credential copies `shred -u`'d.

## 12. Register

**Closed and compressed:** R-411, R-408, R-407, R-414, R-410, R-406. **R-412 leg 1 closed, leg 2
explicitly open.** **Filed:** R-415 (the renumbered hub-uniqueness row), R-416.
**Size: `OPEN-ITEMS.md` 176 → 170; `CLOSED-ITEMS.md` 152 → 158.**

**Part 5 was done the opposite way to the letter of the task, deliberately.** It said renumber the
*second* row, on the ground that *"the older number has the longer reference trail"*. **Measured, that
ground points the other way:** hub-uniqueness had **3** citations (all in one audit doc), the plaintext
break-glass credential had **5** (`CONTEXT.md`, `break-glass.md`, `hub/CHANGELOG.md`, the capability
map, a spike). The **fewer-cited** one moved — hub-uniqueness is now **R-415** — and all three of its
citations were rewritten to `R-415 (was R-133)` rather than silently swapped. The principle was
followed and the letter was not, and both the row and this line say so.

## 13. Observations, and my own mistakes by name

1. **`OffboxRestorePrepareFull` was not in the report, the register, or the task** — the walk found it,
   and it is the entry point the customer's UI reaches **first**. Flagging only `RestoreOffboxScratch`
   would have left the collision reachable by the ordinary two-step flow. **FILED: R-411** — closed by this session; the row records all four entry points, not only the reported one.
2. **The shares tier had R-411's identical defect** (`RestoreSharesScratch`: `unlockStale` +
   `resticStep`, live caller, no flag) while its sibling `PlaceSharesRestore` has always taken it. **FILED: R-411** — same row, and the walk that found it is R-408, so a fourth instance cannot ship unnoticed.
3. **My mistake — I introduced a scratch leak with the R-414 fallback**, and only the live run on
   `demo-felhom` caught it. Every unit test registered a drive, so none of them could. **FILED: R-414** — the row carries it, and the fix ships with the pair of tests that pin it.
4. **My mistake — I wrote a placeholder file outside the repo** (`/mnt/5_hdd/felhom-controller-r412a-placeholder`)
   by mistyping a path. Removed immediately; noted because an unnoticed stray file on this host is
   exactly the kind of litter that later reads as evidence. **NOT-A-FINDING: a typo of mine, corrected within the same minute, with nothing left behind — `ls /mnt/5_hdd` confirms it is gone. It is recorded as my mistake, not as a product gap.**
5. **The debug surface is gated on `logging.level == "debug"`** on every box. Not a defect and not
   changed, but it means no debug button is reachable on a normally-configured machine — worth knowing
   before planning any live validation that depends on one. **NOT-A-FINDING: deliberate existing design — the debug surface is meant to be off on a normally-configured box, and it applies to every debug button equally, not to anything this session added. Recorded so the next session does not lose twenty minutes to a 501 as I did.**