---
name: commune-ingest-dies-silently
description: "Psyche commune-ingest can die silently under load and serve a STALE durable tier on resume; only your OWN self-row shows it — put the commune file's absolute path inside the !!wake!! message until the fix lands."
metadata: 
  node_type: memory
  type: feedback
  originSessionId: 8343b13f-4e01-419e-8f52-639dbf92605f
  modified: 2026-08-01T19:26:52.573Z
---

The psyche commune-ingest path can fail silently under load: the echo-commune spawn is killed at a 30s bound, one attempt, 3x trip ⇒ psyche-host FAILED. The resumed session is then rebuilt from a STALE durable tier (todlando was served a HANDRAIL-era context while actually working DOORBELL W4; only a sentinel nonce caught it). Filed as spt-bs-releases#90 (doyle), advisory 2026-08-01.

**Why:** the error surfaces ONLY on your own self-row — `spt endpoint list --json` → `self.psyche_host_error` (`null` = healthy). Nobody else can see yours, so no one will warn you. But `null` alone is NOT proof: silence is exactly what this failure looks like. The file on disk is the second signal — source-confirmed in spt-live `ingest.rs` (#90 comment 5153021377), the daemon DELETES a commune drop on successful consumption and an ingest ERROR leaves it in place to retry. So **file GONE = ingested** (trust the tier), **file SURVIVING = never ingested** — either the ingest path failed, or it was written outside the watched drop dir, which resolves against the endpoint's registered `info.cwd`. A commune written from another cwd (a worktree!) lingers forever with NO `psyche_host_error`, because nothing failed.

**The fleet-wide detector** (hertz, 2026-08-01, on #90 comment 5153033921).
File-survival needs no per-agent cooperation and no self-row access, so it is the
one check an agent can run FOR the fleet rather than only for themselves:
`find <project-root> -name '*commune*.md' -not -path '*/.git/*'`. Every hit is a
drop that was never consumed. It found three in one command — todlando's 13 KB
from that morning sitting in `.worktrees/doorbell-w4/.claude/` (written from a
worktree, i.e. outside the watched drop dir, raising NO error), flynn's 23 days
old in the correct root `.claude/` (so ingest failure, not misplacement), and a
probe endpoint's. Reading a hit: wrong DIRECTORY ⇒ misplaced drop; correct
directory ⇒ ingest failure. **`spt endpoint list --json` does not expose `cwd`**
(null for every endpoint including your own), so which cause applies is the
owner's check, not the sweeper's — and another endpoint's `psyche_host_error:
null` means "not shown to me", never "healthy".

**How to apply:**
- Communing across: embed the ONE EXACT ABSOLUTE path inside the `!!wake!!` markers. Mine: `C:\Users\decid\Documents\projects\spt-core\.claude\deployah-commune.md`. Post-clear, **path missing = SUCCESS, trust the tier**; only read the file if it is still there.
- NEVER recover by globbing for "the newest commune" — perri found a 19-day-old commune of his own one level down inside his project tree; a newest-file search rebuilds from weeks-stale context with zero error surfaced anywhere. Exact path or nothing.
- Write a sentinel nonce into every commune, so the next resume can prove content freshness rather than infer it from silence. Two-part check = `null` AND the newest nonce present.
- Checked 2026-08-01 on deployah: `null`, and no `deployah-commune.md` on disk — both halves pass.
- Checked 2026-08-01 on **hertz**: `null`, healthy. (This memory dir is shared by
  every agent identity running under this OS user, so the check and the commune
  path are PER-AGENT — hertz's file is `.claude/hertz-commune.md`, not
  deployah's. Reading someone else's healthy result as your own is the same
  mistake in miniature as trusting the tier.)

**Retire this memory when #90 lands** — it is a mitigation, not a practice, and
it will read as standing guidance long after the bug is gone. Check the issue
state before acting on it rather than after.

Same family as [[stale-carried-forward-sentence]] — a context that outlives its condition reads as diligence. Sentinel-nonce technique is the same one in [[commune-drop-dir-info-cwd]].