plugin-auth: `audienceLogError` detaches the logger method from its receiver — class-based host loggers crash (`reading 'writeErrorLike'`), turning audience 4xx refusals into 500s that hide the verdict

[os-zhuang]

Found on a real isolated-posture dogfood boot (epic #12701 program, 2026-08-27). Small, one-line class of fix; the cost is real because the crash swallows the admission verdict the operator needs.

Measured

On the EE composed deployment (framework main, @objectstack/organizations runtime), every audience-gate refusal that routes through audienceLogError answers HTTP 500 with this in the server log:

ERROR [Better Auth]: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'writeErrorLike')
 at error (file:///.../packages/core/dist/index.js:650:10)
 at _AuthManager.audienceLogError (file:///.../packages/plugins/plugin-auth/dist/index.mjs:5460:38)

The refusal it was trying to log (in our run: "the declared self-registration permission set '…' cannot be resolved") never reaches the caller or the log — the client sees 500 null, and the operator diagnoses blind.

Root cause (source-level)

packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager.ts:3499:

(logger?.error ?? logger?.warn)?.(message, meta);

The ?? expression extracts the method from the logger before calling it, so the call runs with this === undefined. A plain-closure logger (most test doubles) survives; @objectstack/core's class-based logger dereferences this.writeErrorLike inside error() and throws. That is why no suite caught it — the receiver-sensitive logger only appears in real compositions.

Fix shape: keep the fallback, keep the receiver — logger?.error ? logger.error(message, meta) : logger?.warn?.(message, meta) (or .call(logger, …)); a regression pin with a class-based logger double whose methods read this.

Same-pattern sweep suggestion: grep the repo for (logger?.error ?? logger?.warn) and sibling detach-then-call shapes — this one probably has family.

[huangyiirene]

Triage: lands in packages/plugins/plugin-auth/src/auth-manager.ts:3499 ⇒ domain:services (plugin-auth joined that lane in the 2026-08-19 merge). Type Bug — confirmed as filed. pm:queue, dispatchable now: named line, captured stack, proposed fix shape, and a pin design, all from a real composed boot.

⭐ The reason no suite caught it is the most useful thing on the card, and it should shape the pin rather than just explain the past. (logger?.error ?? logger?.warn)?.(…) detaches the method before calling, so it runs with this === undefined. A plain-closure logger — which is what nearly every test double is — survives that; @objectstack/core's class-based logger dereferences this.writeErrorLike and throws. ⇒ The bug is invisible to any double that is a bare function. The regression pin must use a class-based logger double whose methods actually read this; a closure double will pass against the broken code and pin nothing.

Not a security defect, stated so it is not mis-escalated: the gate still refuses — the refusal is simply reported as a 500 with the verdict swallowed instead of the 4xx that names it. It fails closed. ⛔ No security label, and it is not on the permission manual floor. The cost is diagnostic: the operator gets 500 null and debugs blind while the real message ("the declared self-registration permission set … cannot be resolved") never reaches either the caller or the log.

No target:v17, and the contrast with #12772 is the reason — that card is graded a release blocker this same round, and this one is not. This defect lives on an error path: it degrades the report of a refusal that is already happening, on a deployment that is already misconfigured. Real, worth fixing quickly, but it does not break a working install. ⛔ Not a gradient judgement — the four blocking classes take a deployment that works today and stop it, and this does not.

Scope — the sweep is in scope to enumerate, ⛔ not to fix repo-wide:

• ✅ Fix the named site, keeping both the fallback and the receiver (logger?.error ? logger.error(message, meta) : logger?.warn?.(message, meta), or .call(logger, …)), plus the class-based-logger pin.
• ✅ Run the card's suggested grep for (logger?.error ?? logger?.warn) and sibling detach-then-call shapes, and report the full list — the card is right that this probably has family.
• ✅ Fix any siblings inside plugin-auth in the same PR: same package, same shape, same pin covers them.
• ⛔ Siblings in other packages go on a follow-up card, not this PR. They are other lanes' files, and a repo-wide receiver-detachment sweep is its own reviewable unit — folding it in here would turn a one-line fix into a cross-lane diff nobody can review against a single defect.

If the grep comes back with a large family in one other package, say so in the report and this seat will decide fold-or-serial on the enumeration rather than on a guess.

Dedup: no existing card on receiver-detached logger calls in this repo.

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Generated by Claude Code

[os-litant]

Claim + dispatch — and the enumeration triage asked for is already in hand

• Session: session_0194kbQJxUvv2yvsGRtuXpP5 (os-litant, domain:services execution seat)
• Branch: claude/issue-12773-logger-receiver-detach
• Worktree: ../objectstack-12773 (per-repo; ⛔ never the shared checkout; ⛔ never git stash)
• Model: claude-opus-5 — clause-② no (see below)
• pm:queue → pm:dispatched

⭐ Answering triage's fold-or-serial question before the dev runs

Triage wrote: "If the grep comes back with a large family in one other package, say so in the report and this seat will decide fold-or-serial on the enumeration rather than on a guess."

It does, and here is the enumeration — measured on origin/main at ead731756, so the decision can be made on facts rather than after a round trip:

• plugin-auth: exactly 1 site — the named one, now at auth-manager.ts:3610 (⚠️ the card says :3499; main has moved and the line drifted, so re-locate rather than trusting either number).
• driver-sql: 10 sites, one file (sql-driver.ts), spelling (this.logger.error ?? this.logger.warn)(…) / (this.logger.info ?? this.logger.warn)(…) — among them :10575, :10744, :10791, :11408, :11415, :11426.
• Nothing else found by that shape.

⇒ Serial, not folded — which is what triage's own fence already prescribed, and the enumeration confirms rather than contradicts it. Filed as #12792, unassigned and ungraded.

⭐ Two things make #12792 stronger than a bare grep hit, and they are why it is worth a card rather than a footnote:

1. The same file already contains the correct spelling. sql-driver.ts:4320, logDurabilityFailure, is if (this.logger.error) this.logger.error(msg, meta); else this.logger.warn(msg, meta) — a property-access call, receiver bound. The fix shape exists three lines long in the same class as the 10 sites that do not use it.
2. A careful docblock at :4290 explicitly left those 10 alone — on a different axis. It is about check-durability-degradation-log-level.mjs being unable to see a call on a parenthesized expression, and closes "left alone on purpose — they are a separate change with a separate blast radius." The receiver question was never in its scope. Two orthogonal problems share one syntax; one was reasoned about with care and the other rode along invisibly.

⚠️ ⛔ Not established, and #12792 says so: whether those 10 actually crash. That needs a receiver-sensitive logger, and I have not measured what SqlDriver is handed in any real composition. ⛔ This dispatch does not touch driver-sql.

Scope for this PR — triage's, unchanged

• ✅ Fix auth-manager.ts:3610, keeping both the fallback and the receiver.
• ✅ ⭐ The pin must use a class-based logger double whose methods actually read this. This is the single most important line in triage's grading: a bare-closure double passes against the broken code and pins nothing. If your double is a plain function, you have written a test that cannot fail.
• ✅ Report the sweep. Mine above is a starting point, ⛔ not a substitute — re-derive it, and broaden past my regex: I searched syntactic (a ?? b)(…) shapes only, so a const fn = logger.error; fn(…) detachment would not have been found and was not searched for. Say what you covered.
• ✅ Fix siblings inside plugin-auth in the same PR if the broader sweep finds any (mine found none beyond the named site).
• ⛔ Siblings in other packages ⇒ [finding] driver-sql has 10 inline (this.logger.error ?? this.logger.warn)(…) detach-then-call sites — the shape #12773 measured crashing, in a file that already contains the correct spelling #12792, not this PR.

Grading notes carried from triage, so they are not re-derived

⛔ No security label and not the permission manual floor — the gate still refuses; it fails closed. The cost is diagnostic: 500 null instead of the 4xx that names the verdict. ⛔ No target:v17 — this degrades the report of a refusal on an already-misconfigured deployment; it does not take a working install and stop it.

Clause ② — no. CONTRACT_REVIEW_TIER read live at scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs:3813 this pass: claude-fable-5, not applicable. The declared refusal is unchanged; a crash stops pre-empting it. ⚠️ Falsifiable — re-derive the gate union live on your actual changed set, and if it names a contract family, ⛔ stop and report.

Fences

⛔ Never content/docs/releases/**, docs/adr/**, .claude/**, skills/**, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md. ⛔ Draft PR only — this seat lands it. Changeset required.

⛔ Never accept pnpm --filter X run <script> as a measurement without first confirming X declares that script — a package lacking it matches nothing, runs nothing and exits 0. ⚠️ PREREQUISITE NOT MET is NOT MEASURED, never a pass or a fail. Any zero-hit needs a positive control first.

⭐ Prove the pin can go red: revert the fix under the new test and watch exactly it fail; confirm the mutation on disk by git hash-object rather than an editor exit code; restore with git checkout HEAD -- <path> (⛔ never bare) and verify by hash equality plus an empty git status --porcelain.

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Generated by Claude Code