fix/refactor: 2026-09-11 audit execution, successor to #2409

[thymikee]

Purpose

Execute the vetted findings of the 2026-09-11 codebase audit (26 rows, four parallel static audits, every row re-verified at eefe37b51e by read-only verifiers, then the execution shape adversarially reviewed). Successor to #2409 (vertical cost) and #2335 (decoupling wave 3). This umbrella is reliability and repo truth, not features: after wave 2 the primitives under every command (spawn, deadline, kill, lock, runner recovery) are honest.

Rules for every child:

• Fix-shaped, not detector-shaped. No new ratchet, validator, guard script or helper module unless the child says so. The 2026-09-02 review ranked enforcement machinery as the top waste.
• Behavior changes land with characterization tests observed on unmodified code first.
• One local full gate per branch; stacked PRs share the tip's gate.
• No collocation file moves (measured zero effect in refactor: cut the layers and files one feature change must touch (successor to #2278 and #2335) #2409); no refactor inside the lock child.

Children (waves = independent branches; ← = stack order)

Wave 1

• fix(daemon): a discarded promise rejection must not shut the daemon down #2519 daemon death on discarded rejection — PR fix(daemon): keep a discarded rejection from shutting the daemon down #2532, merged 2026-09-13
• docs: AGENTS.md package specifiers, duplicate ADR 0019, Node floor and web Node 24 requirement #2520 docs and manifests truth — PR docs: fix phantom specifiers, the duplicate ADR 0019, and the Node floor #2533, merged 2026-09-13
• chore(config): scope dependency overrides and delete dead fallow, worktree and prettier entries #2521 config drift: overrides, fallow roots, worktree, prettier — PR chore(config): scope the qs override and drop dead fallow, worktree and prettier entries #2535, merged 2026-09-13

Wave 2

• fix(host-kit): a killed command settles on exit, background exec cannot take a timeout #2522 host-kit exec: settle-on-exit ← then background type narrowing and opt-in cap (M, MED risk)
• fix(host-kit): process lock proves ownership before release and never evicts a live owner #2523 host-kit process lock ownership (M, MED risk)
• fix(apple-runner): recovery decisions read typed rules; a connection deadline gets zero recovery today #2524 apple-runner typed recovery; deadline gets zero recovery today (M, MED risk)
• refactor: one shellQuote implementation instead of three #2525 shellQuote dedupe (S)

Wave 3

• fix(cli): open the device-auth URL on Windows without cmd /c #2526 Windows auth URL launch without cmd /c — PR fix(cli): hand device-auth URLs to the browser without a shell #2567, merged 2026-09-14
• fix(android-helper): build with the pinned build-tools version, fail on CI when unset #2527 Android helper build-tools pin, hard-fail on CI — PR fix(android-helper): build with the pinned build-tools version, fail on CI when unset #2568, merged 2026-09-14
• perf(scroll-until): build the snapshot visibility index once per pass #2528 scroll-until visibility index once per pass (S)
• decision: enforce or delete the implementation-file size tiers in AGENTS.md #2529 decision: size tiers in AGENTS.md (delete or generalize the existing ratchet)

Last

• chore(worktrees): stop copying .env into agent worktrees #2530 stop copying .env into worktrees (touches .worktreeinclude after chore(config): scope dependency overrides and delete dead fallow, worktree and prettier entries #2521)

Evaluated and not scheduled

• Android helper tests "never run": refuted. They run in CI via the android-helpers gate from android.yml; they are never in the APK.
• Torture lane asserts its own model: documented scope; a real SIGKILL lane exists (test/integration/daemon-replace-exit-flush.test.ts).
• Maestro runScript trust boundary: flows are operator-authored; env visibility mirrors upstream.
• Bearer token accepted in the JSON-RPC body: shape since refactor: split daemon server runtime into daemon/server/ — Phase 5 #985, proxy rewrite is intentional, loopback plus 192-bit token, no attacker model. Unpinned by tests.
• Mobile snapshot presentation computed twice (daemon keeps counts, CLI recomputes nodes): real, cross-platform, distinct from refactor(ios): prune converged snapshot paths #2383; deferred to the capture-kit move (H2) because the fix changes the visibility wire field.
• runCmd timeout wedge frequency: mechanism confirmed and fixed in fix(host-kit): a killed command settles on exit, background exec cannot take a timeout #2522; no separate diagnostic.

Needs a maintainer decision (no issue filed)

• .ad device-replay corpus has no automatic lane; iOS parked since 2026-07-24 by Prune the test lanes that don't pay for themselves, and add the checks we're missing #1781 A1 with no open tracking issue and no kill criterion. Reactivate or delete.
• packages/managed-allocation has one production consumer; ADR 0021 never names the package boundary. Keep while the Simlock plan is alive.
• undici bundled behind a caret override: aligned to the exact pin in chore(config): scope dependency overrides and delete dead fallow, worktree and prettier entries #2521; vendoring policy stays open.

Reconciliation 2026-09-14 (main 730b20149e)

• fix(daemon): a discarded promise rejection must not shut the daemon down #2519 site 2 (the Promise.race loser in rollbackAcquiredSimulatorProcess) was a false finding: Promise.race subscribes to every member, so a losing rejection is handled. PR fix(daemon): keep a discarded rejection from shutting the daemon down #2532 correctly left it; three sites fixed.
• docs: AGENTS.md package specifiers, duplicate ADR 0019, Node floor and web Node 24 requirement #2520: engines.node stays >=22.12 on purpose. CI verifies the published tarball on 22.12; 22.13 is the contributor requirement for the pinned pnpm and is now documented in CONTRIBUTING. Better than the issue asked.
• Wave 1 complete. Wave 2 (fix(host-kit): a killed command settles on exit, background exec cannot take a timeout #2522, fix(host-kit): process lock proves ownership before release and never evicts a live owner #2523, fix(apple-runner): recovery decisions read typed rules; a connection deadline gets zero recovery today #2524, refactor: one shellQuote implementation instead of three #2525) not started; no branch or PR exists. Wave 3: two of four done; perf(scroll-until): build the snapshot visibility index once per pass #2528 and decision: enforce or delete the implementation-file size tiers in AGENTS.md #2529 open. chore(worktrees): stop copying .env into agent worktrees #2530 waits on decision: enforce or delete the implementation-file size tiers in AGENTS.md #2529 only by convention, not by file overlap now that chore(config): scope dependency overrides and delete dead fallow, worktree and prettier entries #2521 landed.

[thymikee]

Status 2026-09-14, main 730b20149e (38 commits past the audit's verification point).

Done (5 of 12): #2519 → #2532, #2520 → #2533, #2521 → #2535, #2526 → #2567, #2527 → #2568. Wave 1 is complete.

Corrections recorded in the body: the Promise.race "fourth site" in #2519 was not a defect (race subscribes to every member). engines.node keeps 22.12 by design; 22.13 is documented as the contributor floor.

Open (7): wave 2 #2522 (exec settle-on-exit, then background type), #2523 (process lock), #2524 (apple-runner typed recovery), #2525 (shellQuote); wave 3 #2528 (scroll-until hoist), #2529 (size-tier decision); last #2530 (.env in worktrees). None has a branch or PR. No other commit on main touched their files.

Next: #2522 first among wave 2. It carries the characterization-test list that #2524 also depends on for the deadline path.

[thymikee]

Status 2026-09-14, main 730b20149e.

Wave 3 is complete: #2528 → #2596, #2529 → #2597. Both branch off main and share no files with wave 2, so #2522/#2523/#2524/#2525 stay independent of them.

• perf(scroll-until): build the snapshot visibility index once per pass #2528: evaluateIsPredicate now takes the capture's SnapshotVisibility instead of nodes, so a --until pass indexes its tree once for all candidates. The issue's premise about a second, discarding index in the pipeline was wrong for this path — wait is first-match and never builds one; the corrections and four adjacent findings are recorded on perf(scroll-until): build the snapshot visibility index once per pass #2528.
• decision: enforce or delete the implementation-file size tiers in AGENTS.md #2529: option 1, per the decision. The 300/500 tiers are gone from AGENTS.md; the over-1,000 sentence survives and stays unqualified as to file kind, because that is the sentence the test-file ratchet cites. Four post-gesture-* comments that credited AGENTS.md with a 500-line test-file tripwire now state what their fix(daemon): distrust post-gesture stability that matches the pre-gesture baseline #1563 split was instead.

Gates: pnpm check:affected --run green at 3dbf9dcacf (#2596) and b30cf24e42 (#2597). One first-run failure to record for the flake ledger: test/integration/provider-scenarios/android-lifecycle.test.ts frame-action correlation failed once at load average 40+ on 12 cores and passed both alone and on the rerun.

Left under this umbrella: #2530 in the Last lane.