Default ledger is empty and publication fails with missing schema_meta on bestia #140

What: Observer publication on bestia fails because the default ledger is zero bytes and has no schema tables.
Why: The populated ledger seen earlier in this task is no longer present at the default path; the responsible writer and cause are unknown.
So what: Investigate the empty-ledger transition and recover the default reporting path; AgentsMD #257 uses an isolated native-session report meanwhile.

Outcome and contribution to the Objective

Preserve durable native records and reproducible local reporting, with missing coverage disclosed rather than counted as zero.

Evidence

Agent Observer 1.4.0 completed a selected-source Codex sync during toolboxmd/agentsmd#257 delivery. A later publish --task toolboxmd/agentsmd#251 --repo toolboxmd/agentsmd --pr 257 printed:

no such table: schema_meta
Reports and lookups require an existing ledger; run agent-observer sync first.

Read-only Path.stat() and SQLite queries confirmed that ~/.local/state/agent-observer/observer.db is zero bytes, sqlite_master contains zero tables, and no schema_meta table exists. AGENT_OBSERVER_DB is unset. A nonempty observer.db.schema-2.bak remains; it was not restored, migrated or modified. Cause and data recoverability are unverified; this does not establish corruption or permanent loss.

Primary sources checked: installed CLI launcher, --version and --help, db.py default-path code, CLI error handling, file metadata and read-only schema, README ownership/publication sections, and open Issues searched for schema_meta and empty-ledger/database terms.

A separate temporary ledger initialized with the current CLI imported the existing native source successfully. Its explicitly session-scoped publication updated toolboxmd/agentsmd#257 (comment) without modifying the default ledger or inventing task ownership.

Acceptance criteria and proof

• Identify the actual transition/writer using direct evidence.
• Preserve existing recovery evidence and establish an authorized recovery path.
• Add a deterministic regression for the confirmed cause when practical.
• Verify default reporting against a populated ledger with honest coverage limits.

Non-goals and blockers

Cause is unknown. Filing this observation does not authorize an in-place restore, destructive backup replacement, deployment, installation or guessed historical attribution. Preserve ledger/sidecar and backup evidence before recovery writes.

Elon record

• Requirements and who asked: The user's standing AgentsMD rule requires filing discovered problems in their owning repository; requested Observer publication exposed this failure.
• Deleted: Unapproved default-ledger restoration, manual ownership repair and claims of permanent data loss.
• Bottleneck: The default ledger has no schema, although native evidence still imports into a separate ledger.
• Checked myself: Ran publication, inspected installed CLI version/path and primary error handling, checked file size/schema read-only, and verified isolated import and session publication.