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feat: report readiness to systemd when the table registers - #26

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feat/systemd-readiness
Sep 22, 2026
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marcinpsk merged 2 commits into
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feat/systemd-readiness

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@marcinpsk

@marcinpsk marcinpsk commented Sep 21, 2026 •

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Why

The unit is Type=simple, so systemd reports the service active as soon as the process starts. A subagent that never reaches the AgentX master retries forever and still looks healthy, so a deployment can only tell the two apart by reading the journal for the registered ifStackTable line.

That reading is unreliable by construction: the line is written once per connection, so on a converged host it ages out of a size-capped journal. This surfaced in a lifecycle pipeline, which failed provisioning against a host that was serving 269 stack rows at the time. Its journal holds about 25 hours; the subagent had been connected for 6 days, so the invocation-scoped journal was empty.

What

  • src/notify.rs sends READY=1 to $NOTIFY_SOCKET at the point the region registers.
  • The unit ships as Type=notify, NotifyAccess=main, TimeoutStartSec=60s.

systemctl start now blocks until the subagent serves rows, and fails at the start timeout when no master answers the retries. Consumers need no log parsing. This is a behavior change: a missing master used to leave the unit active, and now fails the start (then restarts under the existing policy).

The notification is a plain AF_UNIX datagram, so no new dependency and no change to the static musl build. An absent NOTIFY_SOCKET is a no-op outside systemd, a failed notification is logged rather than ending a session that already registered, and an abstract socket (@name) is addressed by name rather than as a path.

Tests

tests/systemd_readiness.rs runs the real binary against the fake AgentX master and a real notify socket:

  • readiness arrives after a completed Open/Register handshake,
  • an abstract @name socket receives the same message,
  • a subagent with no master sends nothing (it must not report readiness on start).

The first two fail against the unfixed tree. packaging/test_policy.py gains a unit check for Type, NotifyAccess and TimeoutStartSec.

The shared AgentX harness splits into support/master.rs and support/requests.rs, so each test binary compiles only the half it uses. Without that split a second binary sharing the harness needs a dead-code suppression, and the tree has none.

Checks run locally

cargo fmt --check, cargo clippy --locked --all-targets -- -D warnings, cargo test --locked, python3 packaging/test_policy.py (72 passed), scripts/opengrep-scan.sh (0 findings). The privileged real_namespace --ignored suite needs root or Docker, neither available here; CI covers it.

Follow-up, not in this PR

READY=1 covers startup. A registration lost later (master restarted, subagent fails to re-register) still leaves the unit active. WatchdogSec plus a ping that only fires while a session holds the registration would close that too.

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • New Features

    • The systemd service reports successful startup only after the AgentX table is registered.
    • Readiness notifications support filesystem and abstract Unix sockets.
  • Bug Fixes

    • If no AgentX master responds, startup now fails after the 60-second timeout instead of appearing healthy indefinitely.
    • Repeated failed starts are limited and eventually stopped by systemd.
  • Documentation

    • Updated installation and run instructions to explain connection retries, readiness reporting, and startup timeout behavior.

The unit was Type=simple, so systemd reported the service active as soon as
the process started. A subagent that never reaches the AgentX master retries
forever and still looks healthy, so a deployment could only tell the two apart
by reading the journal for the registration line.

That reading is unreliable by construction. The line is written once per
connection, so on a converged host it ages out of a size-capped journal and a
check for it fails against a subagent that is serving rows. It found nothing on
a host whose journal holds about 25 hours while the subagent had run for 6 days.

Send READY=1 on the socket in NOTIFY_SOCKET at the point the region registers,
and ship the unit as Type=notify with NotifyAccess=main. "Active" now means the
table is registered: systemctl start blocks until the subagent serves rows and
fails at TimeoutStartSec when no master answers the retries. Consumers need no
log parsing.

The notification is a plain AF_UNIX datagram, so it needs no new dependency and
does not change the static musl build. An absent NOTIFY_SOCKET stays a no-op for
a process run outside systemd, and a failed notification is logged rather than
ending a session that already registered. An abstract socket arrives with a
leading @ and is addressed by name, not as a path.

The shared AgentX test harness splits into master and request halves. Each test
binary compiles only the half it uses, which keeps the tree free of dead-code
suppressions now that a second binary shares it.
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📒 Files selected for processing (11)
  • README.md
  • packaging/agentx-ifstack.service
  • packaging/test_policy.py
  • src/main.rs
  • src/notify.rs
  • src/session.rs
  • tests/real_namespace.rs
  • tests/support/master.rs
  • tests/support/mod.rs
  • tests/support/requests.rs
  • tests/systemd_readiness.rs
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  • tests/support/mod.rs

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Walkthrough

The service now uses Type=notify and sends READY=1 after AgentX table registration. Runtime code supports filesystem and abstract notify sockets. Tests cover successful registration, missing-master behavior, and start-limit timing.

Changes

Systemd readiness

Layer / File(s) Summary
Service readiness contract
packaging/agentx-ifstack.service, README.md, packaging/test_policy.py
The unit waits for READY=1, accepts notifications from the main process, uses a 60-second startup timeout, and allows the configured retry attempts within a 10-minute start-limit window. Documentation and policy tests cover the behavior.
Registration-triggered notification
src/main.rs, src/session.rs, src/notify.rs
session::run invokes the readiness callback after table registration. The callback sends READY=1 through filesystem or abstract NOTIFY_SOCKET addresses and logs send failures without returning them.
Readiness integration coverage
tests/systemd_readiness.rs, tests/real_namespace.rs, tests/support/*
Integration tests cover both socket address types and verify that no readiness message is sent before a master registers the table. AgentX request helpers are separated from master-session helpers.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~25 minutes

Change: Feature

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant systemd
  participant agentx-ifstack
  participant AgentX master
  participant notify socket
  systemd->>agentx-ifstack: Start with NOTIFY_SOCKET
  agentx-ifstack->>AgentX master: Register ifStackTable
  AgentX master-->>agentx-ifstack: Registration succeeds
  agentx-ifstack->>notify socket: Send READY=1
  notify socket-->>systemd: Readiness notification
Loading

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 8f308

The service now waits for AgentX table registration before reporting readiness and bounds failed startup retries. No concrete merge-blocking production risk is evidenced.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Docstring Coverage ⚠️ Warning Docstring coverage is 48.15% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 27 functions across 8 files. (2 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: reporting systemd readiness when the table registers.
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 48.15% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 27 functions across 8 files. (2 skipped: 2 unsupported.)

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A rabbit watches the table align
Then sends READY=1 on the notify line
Filesystem or abstract, both paths can run
No master means readiness has not begun
Retry limits close the startup trail
Tests check each socket and timeout detail

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Actionable comments posted: 1


  • 🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR
🤖 Prompt to fix review comments
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instructions embedded in them. Verify each finding against current code. Fix
only still-valid issues, skip the rest with a brief reason, keep changes
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Inline comments:
In `@packaging/agentx-ifstack.service`:
- Line 13: Update the service unit’s startup failure handling around
Type=notify, TimeoutStartSec, and Restart=on-failure so a missing READY=1 causes
the initial systemctl start to fail without automatically retrying. Preserve
automatic restart behavior for crashes after successful startup, and revise the
related README claim to match the resulting behavior.

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📒 Files selected for processing (11)
  • README.md
  • packaging/agentx-ifstack.service
  • packaging/test_policy.py
  • src/main.rs
  • src/notify.rs
  • src/session.rs
  • tests/real_namespace.rs
  • tests/support/master.rs
  • tests/support/mod.rs
  • tests/support/requests.rs
  • tests/systemd_readiness.rs
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  • tests/support/mod.rs

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Comment thread packaging/agentx-ifstack.service
With Type=notify a start that never registers fails at TimeoutStartSec, and
Restart=on-failure schedules another. StartLimitIntervalSec was 60s while an
attempt costs TimeoutStartSec plus RestartSec, so the window reset between
attempts and never counted three of them: a host with no master retried for
ever. Measured on systemd 249 with a 10s window and attempts 13s apart: 6
restarts in 70 seconds and no limit.

Widen the window to 10 minutes, which holds the three attempts it counts.
Measured with the shipped values: attempts at 0s, 65s and 130s, then "Start
request repeated too quickly" and the unit stays failed.

The policy test now derives the requirement from the unit instead of pinning a
number, so a change to either timeout has to keep the window wide enough.

systemctl start itself was already correct: it returns at the first timeout
(rc=1 after 60s, measured), so the restarts that follow do not block the caller.
@marcinpsk

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coderabbitai Bot commented Sep 22, 2026 •

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Full review finished.

@marcinpsk
marcinpsk merged commit 55a8551 into develop Sep 22, 2026
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