tracking: remove temporary AQE live-lock busy rule once fixed upstream (agentic-qe#574 / #719)

[pacphi]

What

ak x verify aqe reports AQE startup as failed whenever another AQE process — normally the AQE MCP server running inside a Claude Code session — holds the patterns.rvf lock. AQE is healthy; it is only busy.

Cause is upstream. On a confirmed live lock, agentic-qe 3.14.3 (dist/integrations/ruvector/shared-rvf-adapter.js) logs the busy-owner warning, then falls through to a create attempt, which fails and surfaces a misleading FsyncFailed (0x0303). Store and lock bytes are unchanged (verified with a fixture: sha256 identical before/after). The emitted sequence is:

[RVF] <path> is locked by a live process (pid N) — not breaking the lock; degrading to SQLite for this run.
[RVF] <path> is unusable but its lock is held by a live process — leaving it alone…
[RVF] Shared adapter init failed: RVF error 0x0303: FsyncFailed

classifyAqeStartup() in src/lib/aqe-readiness.mjs deliberately tests FsyncFailed|0x0303 before the live-lock pattern (so a lock cannot hide an independent storage error), so this contention is classified failed and aqeVerificationPassed() returns false.

Upstream:

• Same-PID RVF recovery breaks its own live lock and creates corrupt-file loops proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe#574 (open) — describes this live-lock follow-up.
• fix(rvf): preserve healthy stores behind stale locks proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe#719 (open) — rethrows LockHeld instead of FsyncFailed and skips quarantine on LockHeld. Note: as read on 2026-09-26 it still attempts the create after the live-lock warning; once FsyncFailed is gone, the kit's existing live-lock rule already yields busy.

Found while verifying #237 (reported with a local dist/ patch to AQE, which upgrades overwrite). Related: #239.

Temporary kit mitigation (planned)

Recognize only the exact three-line contention fingerprint above as busy, keyed on the middle line ("is unusable but its lock is held by a live process"), which AQE emits only from its live-owner branch. A bare FsyncFailed, or lock + FsyncFailed without that middle line, stays failed. The busy reason stays honest: another AQE process holds the store; RVF integrity was not re-checked.

Where the temporary code will live

• src/lib/aqe-readiness.mjs — the contention rule in classifyAqeStartup(), commented TEMPORARY (remove once fixed upstream) citing agentic-qe#574 / #719
• tests/kit/aqe-verification.test.mjs — the captured three-line stderr → busy case

Exit criteria (close this issue when all true)

• An agentic-qe release containing the fix (#719 or equivalent) is published
• The kit's managed AQE version is at or above that release
• With a live AQE MCP server holding patterns.rvf, aqe status no longer emits FsyncFailed, and ak x verify aqe reports startup busy through the pre-existing live-lock rule
• The temporary contention rule and its test are removed; the existing "a live lock does not hide an independent storage error" tests remain and pass

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[pacphi]

The upstream part of this tracker now lives in ak's upstream watch registry
(https://github.com/pacphi/agentic-kit/blob/main/src/lib/hook-audit/agentic-dependency-constraints.json),
which watches proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe#574 and #719 and reports when a release changes them
(ledger: #243). #719 (rethrows LockHeld) was merged on 2026-09-27 and released in agentic-qe 3.14.4
the same day; whether 3.14.4 alone stops FsyncFailed under a live lock is not verified yet. This issue
closes when a released agentic-qe no longer falls through to create after a live lock (#574) and ak
removes the temporary busy rule in src/lib/aqe-readiness.mjs.

[pacphi]

PR #275 (bb2e7efe88abd3cb2d73baf26530386549e3dc2e) removed the exact FsyncFailed-as-busy exception and retained ordinary LockHeld and fail-closed storage-error coverage. Disposable native AQE 3.14.4/3.14.5 holder checks passed on macOS/Linux, preserving storage bytes. Windows AQE was not tested.

No universal kit-managed AQE floor was introduced. These receipts do not prove the combined live MCP holder plus final-artifact ak x verify aqe path or its no-create-fall-through criterion. This issue remains open on its literal exit criteria, pending that evidence or an explicit owner scope change. The integrated source is on develop; main delivery remains subject to human review.