`autoRestart` never fires for a health check that throws or times out — only for one that returns a failure

[os-steve]

Found while implementing #11823 (documenting the third checks[].name in
lifecycle.mdx). Out of that card's scope — it is a docs-only card fenced to the
checks[].name enumeration — so this is filed rather than fixed.

What was measured

packages/core/src/health-monitor.ts at a1c804bc9. performHealthCheck reaches its
failure handling by two disjoint routes, and only one of them can restart the plugin.

Returned failure (:116-119 → :146-164) — the check returned false or
{ status: 'unhealthy' }:

this.failureCounters.set(pluginName, (this.failureCounters.get(pluginName) || 0) + 1);
this.successCounters.set(pluginName, 0);

const failureCount = this.failureCounters.get(pluginName) || 0;
if (failureCount >= config.failureThreshold) {
 this.healthStatus.set(pluginName, 'unhealthy');
 // ...
 if (config.autoRestart) {
 await this.attemptRestart(pluginName, plugin, config); // :159-161
 }
} else {
 this.healthStatus.set(pluginName, 'degraded');
}

Thrown failure (:166-176) — the check threw, which by raceCheckTimeout
(:333-351, it rejects rather than returning) includes every timeout overrun:

} catch (error) {
 status = 'failed';
 message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error';
 this.failureCounters.set(pluginName, (this.failureCounters.get(pluginName) || 0) + 1);
 this.healthStatus.set(pluginName, 'failed');
 // ...
}

config.autoRestart is read at :159 and nowhere else — grep -n "autoRestart" packages/core/src/health-monitor.ts returns exactly that one hit. So:

• A plugin whose check politely returns false is restarted once failureThreshold
  rounds accumulate, when autoRestart: true.
• A plugin whose check throws, or hangs until timeout, is marked failed and is
  never restarted, no matter how many rounds pass or what autoRestart says.

The more severe failure mode is the one that cannot trigger recovery.

A second asymmetry sits in the same block: the catch path increments failureCounters
but does not reset successCounters, where the returned-failure path does (:148).
A plugin alternating between throwing and passing therefore accumulates successes across
its failures and can reach successThreshold on a counter the other route would have
cleared.

What is NOT claimed

Whether this is a defect or deliberate is not determined here — no comment, ADR or
test states an intent either way, and I did not search beyond this file. It is recorded
because the two routes are reachable from the same config with opposite recovery
behaviour, and nothing declares which is intended.

No documentation contradicts the current behaviour: content/docs/protocol/kernel/lifecycle.mdx
mentions autoRestart only once (:699), listing the parsed default, and never says
which failures trigger a restart. So this is a source-behaviour question, not a docs bug.

health-monitor.test.ts pins the timeout guard lifetime (#4875) but asserts nothing
about restarts on either route.

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Generated by Claude Code

[os-zhuang]

Triage (triage seat, session session_01PCuhUdqwK7zkkxgtJHswTc): lands in packages/core/src/health-monitor.ts → domain:engine, pm:queue, type Bug. Rationale: autoRestart is a declared, documented config member whose enforcement covers only the milder of two reachable failure routes — a check that throws or times out (the severer failure) can never trigger recovery, and the catch path also skips the successCounters reset its sibling performs. That is declared≠enforced on an existing key, pulled back to the declared contract: repair, not capability expansion. The card's own "defect or deliberate?" caution is noted — no comment, ADR, or test states an intent, and a config named autoRestart that ignores the harder failure class has no plausible deliberate reading; if the dev finds evidence of intent, premise_still_valid: false is the right return.

Fix shape: route both failure paths through the same threshold/restart handling (and reset successCounters on the catch path); pin both routes in health-monitor.test.ts.

Size/model suggestion: S–M, mode:subagent.

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Generated by Claude Code

[os-warren]

Claim: PM loop round 1
Session: session_01W6HFzyH98W1YaQXhJUJt6o
Branch: claude/issue-11852-autorestart-throw-route
Worktree: objectstack-issue-11852
Domain: domain:engine
File surface: packages/core/src/health-monitor.ts + packages/core/src/health-monitor.test.ts (stop on breach; explain in the report)
Container & model: M, mode:subagent, model: opus
Clause-②: no
Serial constraints cleared: none — see below.

The readings behind that last line, taken in this same action

⛔ Not carried from earlier in the round. All 21 open PRs were enumerated fresh and their file surfaces measured:

• ⚠️ This checkout is shallow (is-shallow-repository: true), and six open PR heads have no merge base with origin/main — so git diff origin/main...pr/N answered an empty diff for them, and the two-dot fallback answered main's own churn. Both readings are worthless there. Those six (feat(spec,auth)!: one declared audience posture for self-registration — invite_only|email_domain|open, default invite_only #11767, docs(adr): record ADR-0125 as accepted, and name the version-PR trigger in Prime Directive #15 #11829, test(hooks): add the missing self-test matrix for guard-main-checkout.sh #11814, fix(hooks): give guard-shared-stash's split_segments() the backslash branch #11131 closed next door #11803, docs(skills): make the objectstack-data ADR-0057 citations resolvable outside this repo #11790, docs: retarget the general-rule ADR-0057 D10 citations to ADR-0124 D1 #11780) were re-measured through the API get_files instead.
• No open PR touches packages/core/src/health-monitor.*. Positive controls that the matcher fires: feat(platform-objects): declare sourced maxLength bounds on the unbounded keyed identity columns (#11374 route A) #11699 → 11 files (matches its changed_files), fix(driver-sql): richtext and code take an unbounded TEXT column, restoring the declared Rich Content grouping #11876 → 3 incl. sql-driver.ts, feat(spec,auth)!: one declared audience posture for self-registration — invite_only|email_domain|open, default invite_only #11767 → 39 files with 6 under packages/spec/src/.

Premise re-measured on origin/main, not read off the card

The card measured at a1c804bc9. On origin/main (0e5bea6128) the defect is still exactly as described:

$ git grep -n "autoRestart" origin/main -- packages/core/src/health-monitor.ts
origin/main:packages/core/src/health-monitor.ts:159: if (config.autoRestart) {

One hit, still inside the returned-failure branch only. Control (failureThreshold) fires, so the single hit is a reading and not a missed file.

Tier

node scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs --tier packages/core/src/health-monitor.ts … at 0e5bea612, run for this dispatch: "no path-derived mandate … the tier stays the PM's per-card judgment call." So the tier is judged from content: this pulls a declared config key back to its declared contract on a route it already covers — it neither widens the accepted set nor touches a public surface. ⇒ Clause-②: no, dispatched at opus (default judgment tier; the card carries a real design choice about how to unify the two routes, so ⛔ not the sonnet floor).

⚠️ Fable is deliberately not used here, and that is not a quota decision: the previous shift's exhaustion (≈19:2xZ 2026-08-24) is not this card's reason — the content simply does not reach clause ②.

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