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fix(keepalive): expire the unproductive retry allowance into a cooldown, not a latch - #3440

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fix/unproductive-cooldown
Sep 14, 2026
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stranske merged 2 commits into
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fix/unproductive-cooldown

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@stranske stranske commented Sep 14, 2026

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Follow-up to #3436, and a correction to it.

The problem with what I merged

#3436 grants a bounded number of re-dispatches after a zero-output run, then refuses with
drainable: a new head commit; unproductive retries exhausted (3/2).

That refusal is the original #3433 deadlock moved two runs later. The only actor that could
produce the head commit is the agent being refused. It passes questions 1 and 3 of the
latched-gate check and fails question 2: the mechanism that clears it cannot run while the
gate is closed.

The fleet's own parallel attempt at #3433, #3435, got this right before I did — it expires the
allowance into a timed cooldown. #3435 is superseded by the merged #3436 and now conflicts with
main, so rather than revive it I have ported the part it was right about.

What changed

  • The allowance now expires into a 30-minute cooldown measured from the last completion.
    Time alone clears it, and the hourly keepalive sweep wakes it.
  • An unparseable or missing completed_at lets the dispatch through. A gate that cannot
    measure itself must fail toward motion; holding the loop shut on the strength of its own
    blindness is how instance nine of this defect class behaved.
  • The streak stops climbing past the allowance, so each new zero-output run buys one fresh
    window rather than an ever-growing number that means nothing.
  • docs/keepalive/GoalsAndPlumbing.md gains the decision table, the unmeasured-vs-unproductive
    distinction, and the reasoning above. fix(keepalive): stop the dispatch debounce latching on a zero-output run #3436 shipped with no documentation; that was a gap,
    and fix(keepalive): retry successful runs without productive output #3435 had caught it.

Verification

  • tests/scripts/test_runner_lib.py + tests/workflows: 1122 passed, 10 skipped.
  • Three new tests. One asserts the refusal's drainable path does not mention a head commit,
    which is the property that distinguishes a cooldown from a latch.
  • Deliberate-break gate: making the cooldown never expire fails
    test_dispatch_resumes_once_the_cooldown_has_elapsed and
    test_unmeasurable_cooldown_fails_toward_motion; restoring it passes.
  • ruff and black clean.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • New Features

    • Runner dispatches can retry runs that produce no output, up to a defined limit.
    • After repeated zero-output completions, dispatch pauses for 30 minutes and reports when retrying will resume.
    • Productive and unmeasured completions continue to follow their existing behavior.
    • Dispatch status now reports refusal reasons and drainable state information.
  • Documentation

    • Added guidance describing retry limits, cooldown behavior, completion outcomes, and dispatch status reporting.

…wn, not a latch

The #3433 fix granted a bounded number of re-dispatches after a zero-output run and then
refused until the head changed. That refusal is the ORIGINAL deadlock moved two runs
later: only the agent being refused could push the commit that would clear it.

The allowance now expires into a 30-minute cooldown measured from the last completion.
Time alone clears it and the hourly keepalive sweep wakes it, so nothing the gate forbids
is needed to open it. A `completed_at` that cannot be parsed lets the dispatch through --
a gate that cannot measure itself must fail toward motion rather than hold the loop shut
on the strength of its own blindness.

The design came from the fleet's own parallel attempt at #3433 (#3435), which reached the
cooldown before I did; that PR is superseded by the merged #3436 but was right about this.
Its documentation gap is closed here too: docs/keepalive/GoalsAndPlumbing.md now carries
the full decision table, the unmeasured-vs-unproductive distinction, and why the expiry is
a timer.

Deliberate-break gate: making the cooldown never expire fails
test_dispatch_resumes_once_the_cooldown_has_elapsed and
test_unmeasurable_cooldown_fails_toward_motion; restoring it passes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Copilot AI lite review requested due to automatic review settings September 14, 2026 04:26
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  • tests/scripts/test_runner_lib.py
📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Runner dispatches now retry zero-output completions up to a limit, then enter a 30-minute cooldown. Dispatch resumes after cooldown expiry or when the completion timestamp is invalid. The public constant, documentation, and tests reflect this behavior.

Changes

Runner dispatch cooldown

Layer / File(s) Summary
Cooldown contract and public API
scripts/runner_lib/core.py, scripts/runner_lib/__init__.py, docs/keepalive/GoalsAndPlumbing.md
Defines and exports the 30-minute cooldown. Documents productivity measurement, retry limits, cooldown behavior, refusal reasons, and drainable-state reporting.
Dispatch cooldown state transitions
scripts/runner_lib/core.py
Validates completion timestamps, denies dispatch during the cooldown, resumes dispatch after expiry, and caps the unproductive completion count while re-arming the cooldown.
Cooldown behavior validation
tests/scripts/test_runner_lib.py
Tests cooldown activation, dispatch after cooldown expiry, and fail-open behavior for invalid completion timestamps.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to d662a

A future change could break repeated cooldown behavior after dispatch resumes without the test suite detecting it. Add the focused regression coverage before merging.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Docstring Coverage ⚠️ Warning Docstring coverage is 63.64% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 11 functions across 3 files. (1 skipped: … Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.
✅ Passed checks (4 passed)
Check name Status Explanation
Description Check ✅ Passed Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check ✅ Passed The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: replacing the unproductive retry latch with an expiring cooldown.
Linked Issues check ✅ Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check ✅ Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

Docstring coverage is 63.64% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 11 functions across 3 files. (1 skipped: 1 unsupported.)

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@tests/scripts/test_runner_lib.py`:
- Around line 1044-1045: Extend the cooldown re-arming test after the resumed
dispatch: record a zero-output completion, assert the tally remains
UNPRODUCTIVE_COMPLETION_RETRY_LIMIT + 1, then immediately verify should_dispatch
is false with reason "unproductive-cooldown".

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 3ecbe0e and d662a50.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)
  • docs/keepalive/GoalsAndPlumbing.md
  • scripts/runner_lib/__init__.py
  • scripts/runner_lib/core.py
  • tests/scripts/test_runner_lib.py

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Comment thread tests/scripts/test_runner_lib.py

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🔵 Needs a closer look

Add regression coverage for dispatching after cooldown and re-arming a fresh capped cooldown.

Pull request overview

Replaces the exhausted keepalive retry latch with a 30-minute cooldown and fail-open timestamp handling.

Changes:

  • Adds cooldown-based retry recovery and caps unproductive streaks.
  • Exports the cooldown constant.
  • Adds regression coverage and documents the behavior.
File summaries
File Summary
tests/scripts/test_runner_lib.py Tests cooldown, expiry, and invalid timestamps; re-arm behavior after a subsequent zero-output run still needs coverage.
scripts/runner_lib/core.py Implements cooldown recovery and capped retry tracking.
scripts/runner_lib/__init__.py Exports the cooldown constant.
docs/keepalive/GoalsAndPlumbing.md Documents cooldown semantics, decision paths, and rationale.
Review details

Suppressed comments (1)

scripts/runner_lib/core.py:1232

  • The new cap/re-arm path is not exercised: the current tests cover entering cooldown and aging the timestamp, but never dispatch after cooldown, record another produced_work=False completion, and assert that the next check starts a fresh cooldown while the tally remains capped. A regression here would still pass the suite despite the documented guarantee that each later zero-output run buys a new window.
            # Past the allowance the streak stops climbing: the cooldown is re-armed from this
            # completion's timestamp instead, so each new zero-output run buys one fresh window
            # rather than an ever-growing count that means nothing.
            record["unproductive_completions"] = min(
                previous + 1, UNPRODUCTIVE_COMPLETION_RETRY_LIMIT + 1
  • Files reviewed: 4/4 changed files
  • Comments generated: 0
  • Review effort level: Lite

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@stranske-keepalive

stranske-keepalive Bot commented Sep 14, 2026

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Automated Status Summary

Head SHA: a92f5d8
Latest Runs: ⏳ pending — Gate
Required contexts: summary
Required: core tests (3.12): ⏳ pending, core tests (3.13): ⏳ pending, docker smoke: ⏳ pending, gate: ⏳ pending

Workflow / Job Result Logs
(no jobs reported) ⏳ pending

Coverage Overview

  • Coverage history entries: 1

Coverage Trend

Metric Value
Current 80.04%
Baseline 85.00%
Delta -4.96%
Minimum 70.00%
Status ✅ Pass

Top Coverage Hotspots (lowest coverage)

File Coverage Missing
scripts/issue_dedup_smoke.py 0.0% 4
scripts/runner_lib/__main__.py 0.0% 3
scripts/prune_agent_stubs.py 39.7% 26
tools/ensure_workflow_timeout_variables.py 42.1% 74
scripts/repo_review_round2_runner.py 42.6% 344
scripts/sync_label_docs.py 42.9% 64
scripts/repo_review_backlog_scan.py 45.3% 116
tools/codex_session_analyzer.py 47.9% 59
scripts/create_verifier_labels.py 48.3% 58
tools/ci_failure_triage.py 49.7% 113
scripts/validate_template_sync.py 52.1% 36
scripts/select_consumer_sync_phase.py 53.0% 62
scripts/langchain/verdict_extract.py 54.1% 21
scripts/langsmith_observability_health.py 55.3% 83
scripts/analyze_codex_session.py 59.2% 74

Low Coverage Files (<50.0%)

File Coverage Missing
scripts/issue_dedup_smoke.py 0.0% 4
scripts/runner_lib/__main__.py 0.0% 3
scripts/prune_agent_stubs.py 39.7% 26
tools/ensure_workflow_timeout_variables.py 42.1% 74
scripts/repo_review_round2_runner.py 42.6% 344
scripts/sync_label_docs.py 42.9% 64
scripts/repo_review_backlog_scan.py 45.3% 116
tools/codex_session_analyzer.py 47.9% 59
scripts/create_verifier_labels.py 48.3% 58
tools/ci_failure_triage.py 49.7% 113

Updated automatically; will refresh on subsequent CI/Docker completions.


Keepalive checklist

Scope

No scope information available

Tasks

  • No tasks defined

Acceptance criteria

  • No acceptance criteria defined

Review was right that the expiry test alone cannot tell a working re-arm from two
regressions: a tally that keeps climbing (so each window is measured from an ever-staler
completion) and an expired window that never closes again (so a permanently broken runner
is re-dispatched forever). The new test records a second zero-output completion after the
first cooldown expires and asserts both a fresh refusal and the capped tally.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@stranske
stranske deployed to agent-standard September 14, 2026 04:35 — with GitHub Actions Active
@stranske
stranske merged commit a5908e2 into main Sep 14, 2026
48 checks passed
@stranske
stranske deleted the fix/unproductive-cooldown branch September 14, 2026 04:44
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