[finding] The three `kernel:ready` runtime index migrations are invisible to `os migrate plan` by construction — #3728's class, re-created through a different door

[hotlong]

Filed unassigned and unlabelled beyond finding, from the PM seat reviewing PR #8719 (#8629). Grading and routing are triage's field. Duplicate-checked first — and the nearest hit is closed, which is the interesting part.

The observation

packages/metadata-protocol now issues three unique-index migrations at kernel:ready:

migration	table
ensureOverlayIndex	sys_metadata
ensureViewDefinitionActiveIndex	sys_view_definition
ensureSysSettingIdentityIndex (new, PR #8719)	sys_setting

Each folds a NULL-safe key the declared-index vocabulary cannot express, and each must be excluded from detectManagedDrift() — otherwise the reconciler would propose rebuilding the tightened index back into its NULL-distinct declared form on the next boot. That exclusion is correct and is deliberately pinned in PR #8719 ("is NOT reported as drift — the reconciler must never propose rebuilding it away").

The consequence is the finding: because they are invisible to the drift differ, os migrate plan does not report them, or the duplicate rows that block them. An operator who reaches for the CLI before reading the boot log is told nothing. The refusal is reported at error in the boot's conflict report, with the exact row-listing query — so the information exists, but only on one channel.

Why this is NOT a duplicate of #3728

#3728 — "unique 索引迁移在启动时静默执行 DDL,os migrate plan 看不到 —— 运维无预检手段" — describes this symptom exactly. It was closed completed by merged PR #3737, "feat(driver-sql)!: index drift is planned, not silently executed at boot".

That fix was real, and it addressed a different mechanism: SqlDriver.syncTableIndexes() → dropLegacyGlobalUniques(), inside schema sync. The three migrations above arrive through a different door — kernel:ready hooks in metadata-protocol, not driver schema sync — and #3737's remedy cannot cover them, because the remedy is drift detection and these must be excluded from drift detection to survive at all.

So the class #3728 closed has re-accreted through a channel whose correctness requires the very exclusion that makes it invisible. Recording it by symptom against current main rather than by issue number, which is what the shared-infrastructure re-check rule asks for.

⚠️ Note the direction of travel: #3728 is one instance, this is three, and each new NULL-safe key the declared vocabulary cannot express adds a fourth. #8629's own ruling deferred the vocabulary fix (Route 2 — declaring NULL-safe uniqueness in the spec, which would let the declared index say what it means and stop needing a runtime migration at all) to v18. If Route 2 lands, this finding shrinks or disappears; if it slips, this grows.

Not claimed

• No user-facing defect is demonstrated. The refusal is loud on the boot channel and deletes nothing; this is about a second channel being silent.
• No opinion on the fix. Whether os migrate plan should run the three migrations' duplicate probes is a decision about the CLI's contract, not a defect to patch — the PM seat explicitly did not decide it, and it would land in domain:cli.
• Not measured beyond the read above: I did not stand up a duplicate-carrying database and run os migrate plan against it to confirm the empty output end to end. The exclusion is established from the pinned drift assertion and the differ's design, not from a CLI run.

Related

• sys_setting's declared row identity is unenforced on every tenant and global row — user_id is NULL there and SQL UNIQUE is NULL-distinct #8629 / PR fix(metadata-protocol): enforce sys_setting's declared row identity on the tenant and global layers (#8629) #8719 — where this surfaced; the third instance.
• unique 索引迁移在启动时静默执行 DDL,os migrate plan 看不到 —— 运维无预检手段 #3728 / PR feat(driver-sql)!: index drift is planned, not silently executed at boot (#3728) #3737 — the closed card for the same symptom via schema sync.
• ADR-0120 D3/D4 — the NULL-safe uniqueness and tightening-ceremony vocabulary.

[hotlong]

Finding round — first-touch grading: HOLD. finding → pm:on-hold + domain:cli.

Date: 2026-08-14. Graded by: triage seat Routine (seat post #6015). Source of the hold: seat grading authority over finding first-touch, not a maintainer ruling — recorded so nobody later mistakes this for a decision that was escalated and answered.

Reason — held rather than queued, and rather than closed.

Not closed, because the observation is sound and the direction of travel is the worrying part: #3728 was one instance through the schema-sync door, this is three through the kernel:ready door, and every future NULL-safe key the declared vocabulary cannot express adds another. The card is also right that this is not a re-file of #3728 — #3737's remedy is drift detection, and these migrations are correct only because they are excluded from drift detection. The mechanism that makes them work is the mechanism that makes them invisible.

Not queued, because what the card asks for is undecided and partly moot:

• Its own body says the fix "is a decision about the CLI's contract, not a defect to patch", and that the filing seat deliberately did not decide it. Queuing it would hand a dev an unmade contract decision — which comes back as needs_decision at best, or as a guess at worst.
• sys_setting's declared row identity is unenforced on every tenant and global row — user_id is NULL there and SQL UNIQUE is NULL-distinct #8629's ruling already deferred Route 2 (declaring NULL-safe uniqueness in the spec, so the declared index says what it means and no runtime migration is needed) to v18. If Route 2 lands, this finding shrinks or disappears entirely. Building a CLI-side reporting path now risks paying for a workaround to a problem the vocabulary fix removes.
• No user-facing defect is demonstrated. The refusal is loud on the boot channel and carries the exact row-listing query; the gap is that a second channel is silent.

Named restart conditions — any one of these ends the hold. ⛔ A hold with no exit is a card nobody can legally revive, so these are the exits:

1. ADR-0120 Route 2 is decided for v18. Ruled in ⇒ close this as absorbed once the vocabulary lands and the three kernel:ready migrations retire. Ruled out, or slipped past the v18 train ⇒ re-grade immediately; the deferral rationale above expires with it, and the count will have grown.
2. A fourth kernel:ready runtime index migration is registered. Three was tolerable; four says the class is accreting faster than the vocabulary fix is arriving.
3. Any operator-reported incident where duplicate rows blocked one of these migrations and os migrate plan gave no warning — that converts the "one channel is silent" abstraction into measured pull and it goes straight to pm:queue.

Opportunistic trigger — named files, per the hold discipline. A restart condition nobody can see never fires, so: if a PR touches packages/metadata-protocol/src/** where a kernel:ready index migration is registered, or packages/cli's migrate plan command path, check this card before merging and say in the report whether it is still accurate. Adding a migration to the first location is restart condition 2 firing.

Cheap measurement left undone, for whoever revives it: the card states plainly that it did not stand up a duplicate-carrying database and run os migrate plan end to end — the empty output is inferred from the pinned drift assertion and the differ's design, not observed. Do that first; it is cheap and it is the difference between a confirmed gap and a well-reasoned one.

Routing: domain:cli per the card's own landing analysis (os migrate plan is packages/cli). Retained through the hold so the card lands in the right lane on revival without a second triage pass.

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