outerloop-science 0.1.0.dev0__py3-none-any.whl

outerloop/tick.py

@@ -0,0 +1,3166 @@
+"""One tick of the loop: sentinel, heartbeat, and the fail-safe sweep.
+
+The tick is stateless and bounded — everything durable lives in run-state
+files (`runstate`) and Slurm. It implements the backup layers of the wake
+design (docs/design/architecture.md, "Wake delivery and fail-safety"); the
+primary layer (the afterany dependency job) is submitted by whoever launches
+an experiment and needs no help from here.
+
+Wake *delivery* is behind a seam (`WakeDispatcher`) so this module stays
+testable and the actual session dispatch (harness + brief) can evolve
+independently.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import contextlib
+import json
+import logging
+import math
+import os
+import re
+import socket
+import subprocess
+from collections.abc import Sequence
+from dataclasses import asdict, dataclass, field, replace
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Any, Protocol
+from uuid import uuid4
+
+from outerloop.compute import (
+    GONE,
+    Compute,
+    JobSpec,
+    LocalCompute,
+    SlurmError,
+    SlurmQueryError,
+    compute_from_env,
+    is_pending,
+    is_terminal,
+    local_mode,
+    quote_command,
+)
+from outerloop.disk import DEFAULT_MIN_FREE_BYTES, check_disk
+from outerloop.harness import DEFAULT_MAX_TURNS, redact
+from outerloop.housekeeping import shed_ended_workspaces
+from outerloop.limits import EffectiveLimits, effective_limits
+from outerloop.markers import has_marker, marker
+from outerloop.runstate import (
+    ABORTED,
+    ENDED,
+    IMPLEMENTING,
+    IN_REVIEW,
+    MAX_WAKE_ATTEMPTS,
+    STUCK,
+    WAITING,
+    Lease,
+    RunRecord,
+    acquire_lease,
+    lease_is_stale,
+    list_runs,
+    load_record,
+    outage_active,
+    read_lease,
+    reap_lease,
+    release_lease,
+    run_dir,
+    save_record,
+    update_lease_holder,
+)
+
+log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+PAUSE_SENTINEL = "PAUSE"
+# Operator on-switch for dispatched-wake, mirroring PAUSE: a root-relative
+# sentinel an operator arms/disarms with a touch/rm — no chain restart, no
+# env-var surgery on a live tick. The AUTORESEARCH_DISPATCH_WAKE env var still
+# works too (either arms it); the sentinel is the reversible, restart-free path.
+DISPATCH_WAKE_SENTINEL = "DISPATCH_WAKE"
+HEARTBEAT_NAME = "heartbeat.json"
+# Written at a full tick's END (not its start) — the coalesce guard's signal, so
+# a tick that crashes mid-work cannot suppress the next (recovery) tick.
+WORK_MARKER_NAME = "last_worked.json"
+
+# Grace between "experiment terminal" and the sweep stepping in: the afterany
+# job gets this long to deliver before the backup assumes it lost.
+DEFAULT_GRACE_S = 15 * 60
+# a blind park (no job ids to poll) waits its eval walltime plus this queue
+# slack before a follow-up is sent to look for the result
+BLIND_PARK_SLACK_MIN = 12 * 60
+# A held lease is stale after the session timeout plus slack.
+DEFAULT_LEASE_TTL_S = 3600 + 15 * 60
+# Coalesce guard: skip a tick's work if another ran within this window. Under
+# partition congestion, queued ticks bunch up and become eligible together
+# (serialized by the singleton dependency), so they would run back-to-back and
+# redundantly re-sweep. The chain schedules ticks a full cadence apart by
+# begin-time, so only late-bunched pile-ups fall inside this window; keep it
+# well BELOW the cadence (default 30 min). 0 disables. Env: AUTORESEARCH_MIN_TICK_MINUTES.
+DEFAULT_MIN_TICK_S = 10 * 60
+# Ceiling for the coalesce window: a value above this is almost certainly a typo
+# (a window near/over the cadence would coalesce every on-cadence tick and stall
+# the loop). Clamp + warn rather than silently freeze. The operator is still
+# responsible for keeping it below their configured cadence.
+MAX_MIN_TICK_S = 60 * 60
+
+
+class WakeDispatcher(Protocol):
+    """Delivers one wake, called with the lease already held.
+
+    Returns "" when delivery completed synchronously (the caller releases the
+    lease), or the Slurm job id of an asynchronous wake job that now owns the
+    lease (released by that job on completion; reaped by TTL if it dies).
+
+    Contract for real dispatchers: a wake that RESULTS IN PROGRESS
+    must either move the run out of `waiting` or reset `wake_attempts` —
+    the counter means "wakes since the run last made progress", and layer 5
+    ends the run as stuck when it reaches MAX_WAKE_ATTEMPTS."""
+
+    def dispatch(self, record: RunRecord, reason: str) -> str: ...
+
+
+@dataclass
+class RecordingDispatcher:
+    """Test/dry-run dispatcher: records what would have been woken."""
+
+    dispatched: list[tuple[str, str]] = field(default_factory=list)
+    holder_job_id: str = ""  # set to simulate async dispatch
+
+    def dispatch(self, record: RunRecord, reason: str) -> str:
+        self.dispatched.append((record.run_id, reason))
+        return self.holder_job_id
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class TickReport:
+    paused: bool = False
+    coalesced: bool = False  # skipped as a redundant pile-up (a tick ran too recently)
+    swept: int = 0
+    woken: tuple[tuple[str, str], ...] = ()  # (run_id, reason)
+    deferred: tuple[str, ...] = ()  # runs skipped on "Slurm unknown"
+    reaped_leases: tuple[str, ...] = ()
+    stuck: tuple[str, ...] = ()
+    implementing_ended: tuple[str, ...] = ()  # killed climbs the sweep closed out
+    review_ended: tuple[tuple[str, str], ...] = ()  # (run_id, ending)
+    followups_submitted: tuple[tuple[str, str], ...] = ()  # (run_id, job_id)
+    intake: tuple[str, str] = ("", "")  # (issue tag, job_id) when one was claimed
+    self_initiated: tuple[str, str] = ("", "")  # (benchmark, job_id) when one launched
+    steward: tuple[str, str] = ("", "")  # (issue tag, job_id) when a stewardship launched
+    disk: tuple[str, ...] = ()  # preflight warnings (home entries are warn-only)
+    launch_blocked: bool = False  # True when the preflight turned launch lanes off
+    shed: tuple[str, ...] = ()  # ended runs whose workspaces housekeeping removed
+
+
+# The submitted walltime must never exceed the job partition's MaxTime —
+# sbatch REJECTS a longer request outright, which would ground every climb.
+# The DEFAULT matches cpu_short (6 h); an operator moving work jobs to a
+# longer partition (AUTORESEARCH_JOB_PARTITION=cpu48) raises the cap with
+# AUTORESEARCH_MAX_JOB_MINUTES. Code-side ceiling: the cap must stay under
+# STRANDED_IMPLEMENTING_S or the picker declares live runs stranded — jobs
+# longer than 10 h need that window made spec-aware first (named gap). The
+# self-deadline arms at the CLAMPED value, so a job that wanted more time
+# fails safe mid-panel instead of never starting.
+MAX_ATTEMPT_JOB_MINUTES = 6 * 60
+MAX_JOB_MINUTES_CEILING = 10 * 60
+
+
+def _bot_login_default() -> str:
+    """FollowupSpec's login default, resolved at construction (the tick reads
+    the chain's env, jobs inherit it); github is imported here on purpose —
+    the tick module stays importable without it."""
+    from outerloop.github import bot_login_from_env
+
+    return bot_login_from_env()
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class FollowupSpec:
+    """How the tick launches follow-up jobs for in-review runs."""
+
+    account: str
+    partition: str
+    run_root: Path
+    image: str
+    home: Path  # AUTORESEARCH_HOME: cwd for the submitted job
+    bot_login: str = field(default_factory=_bot_login_default)
+    time_minutes: int = 90  # min()'d with the contract's followup_job_minutes
+    max_turns: int = DEFAULT_MAX_TURNS  # session turn budget for follow-up jobs
+    pat_file: str = ""  # forwarded to the job; "" = the followup CLI default
+    # GitHub App config path; jobs inherit AUTORESEARCH_GITHUB_APP_FILE from
+    # the tick environment, so it is never threaded through argv
+    github_app_file: str = ""
+    target: str = ""  # the repo the intake pass scans for requested-lane issues
+    # the STEWARD'S OWN key (role separation): the steward lane stays off
+    # until the operator provisions it
+    steward_key_file: str = ""
+    # Pre-PR verification panel for climb jobs (docs/design/orchestrator-verify.md).
+    # DEFAULT ON — the flip is code, the off-switch is AUTORESEARCH_PANEL="".
+    # The climb CLI fails LOUDLY on a bad panel config (a configured gate must
+    # never silently vanish); the tick preflights the same rules — lens
+    # grammar AND key file — before claiming or submitting so nothing is
+    # stranded. The panel's walltime is the orchestrator's own overhead: the
+    # tick ADDS a panel allowance to the contract-clamped job budget
+    # (_panel_job_minutes) rather than eating the author's time; a residual
+    # overrun still fails safe through the self-deadline.
+    panel: str = "verify,review"
+    panel_key_file: str = ""  # "" = the climb CLI's default verifier-key path
+    # The GPU lane for benchmarks whose contract sets `gpus > 0` (their evals
+    # and author launches); empty = this deployment cannot place GPU jobs,
+    # and the launch lanes refuse such benchmarks (a queue that can never
+    # run is worse than a loud refusal). gpu_account "" = same as `account`.
+    gpu_partition: str = ""
+    gpu_account: str = ""
+    # Where submitted WORK jobs (climb/steward/followup) run; empty = same as
+    # `partition`. The tick chain itself always stays on `partition` — ticks
+    # are minutes, work jobs can be hours, and Slurm prices walltime into
+    # scheduling priority, so the two deserve independent placement.
+    job_partition: str = ""
+    # Partition MaxTime for work jobs — the panel-augmented walltime clamps
+    # here (see MAX_ATTEMPT_JOB_MINUTES). Raise together with job_partition.
+    max_job_minutes: int = MAX_ATTEMPT_JOB_MINUTES
+
+
+# Generous vs the ~2 h job walltimes plus queue wait, tight enough that
+# full trees + per-flight venvs cannot pile up for days; same-day
+# forensics is the norm, and the disk preflight is the backstop.
+FLIGHT_TTL_S = 24 * 3600
+
+
+def flight_checkout(home: Path, name: str, now: float) -> Path:
+    """A detached git worktree of the checkout's HEAD commit, for one
+    submitted job to run from. The shared checkout is reset --hard at
+    every tick's deploy, so a queued job that cd's into it can have its
+    code swapped mid-flight; a flight pins the deployed commit, and the
+    tree survives for forensics after a crash. HEAD, deliberately:
+    uncommitted hand-edits in the shared checkout do not fly — only
+    deployed code does. Failures fall back to the shared checkout — a
+    snapshot must never ground the fleet."""
+    flights = home.parent / "flights"
+    try:
+        flights.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        # same name in the same tick (e.g. two orders on one benchmark, or
+        # truncation collisions) must get its own tree, not a silent
+        # fallback: suffix until free, with a unique tail as the backstop
+        target = flights / f"{name}-{int(now)}"
+        for attempt in range(2, 6):
+            if not target.exists():
+                break
+            target = flights / f"{name}-{int(now)}-{attempt}"
+        if target.exists():
+            target = flights / f"{name}-{int(now)}-{uuid4().hex[:8]}"
+        subprocess.run(
+            ["git", "-C", str(home), "worktree", "add", "--detach", str(target)],
+            check=True,
+            capture_output=True,
+            text=True,
+            timeout=60,
+        )
+        return target
+    except (OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError) as exc:
+        log.warning("flight snapshot failed for %s (%s); using the shared checkout", name, exc)
+        return home
+
+
+def _benchmark_gpus(contract: Any, benchmark: str) -> int:
+    bench = next((b for b in getattr(contract, "benchmarks", []) if b.name == benchmark), None)
+    return int(getattr(bench, "gpus", 0) or 0)
+
+
+def _gpu_lane_error(contract: Any, benchmark: str, spec: FollowupSpec) -> str:
+    """Why an attempt on `benchmark` cannot launch here, or "": a contract
+    with GPU benchmarks needs this deployment to name a GPU lane — otherwise
+    evals would queue into jobs that can never run (the climb would then
+    park forever on a phantom eval). ANY GPU benchmark in the contract
+    counts, not just the climbed one: the suite gate measures siblings.
+    Local compute has no lanes — jobs run on whatever GPUs the machine
+    has — so the check is waived there."""
+    if spec.gpu_partition or local_mode():
+        return ""
+    gpu_benches = [
+        b.name for b in getattr(contract, "benchmarks", []) if int(getattr(b, "gpus", 0) or 0)
+    ]
+    if gpu_benches:
+        return (
+            f"contract has GPU benchmarks ({', '.join(gpu_benches)}) but no GPU lane is "
+            "configured (set AUTORESEARCH_GPU_PARTITION)"
+        )
+    return ""
+
+
+def _flight_command(home: Path, job_name: str, now: float, argv: list[str]) -> str:
+    """The job's shell command, cd'ing into a fresh flight snapshot.
+
+    The flight is named FROM the job name (one truncation rule, here) so
+    the reaper's pending-job immunity — live job name prefixes flight
+    name — holds by construction at every submit site. argv must contain
+    absolute paths only; every spec path is absolute by construction, and
+    a relative path would resolve inside a tree that is reaped later."""
+    flight = flight_checkout(home, job_name[:40], now)
+    return f"cd {quote_command([str(flight)])} && {quote_command(argv)}"
+
+
+def reap_flights(
+    home: Path,
+    now: float,
+    ttl_s: float = FLIGHT_TTL_S,
+    live_job_names: Sequence[str] = (),
+) -> int:
+    """Remove flight worktrees older than the TTL — age by directory
+    mtime, no name parsing — UNLESS a pending or running job's NAME
+    prefixes the flight's (flights are named after their job). Queue wait
+    is unbounded (GPU partitions can pend for days), so age alone must
+    never delete a tree a job will cd into; the TTL is purely the
+    forensics-retention window for flights whose job is gone. Name
+    matching is conservative: one live job name protects every flight it
+    prefixes. Best-effort: a stubborn flight is logged, not fatal."""
+    flights = home.parent / "flights"
+    if not flights.is_dir():
+        return 0
+    reaped = 0
+    for entry in flights.iterdir():
+        if any(name and entry.name.startswith(name[:40]) for name in live_job_names):
+            continue  # a queued or running job still needs this tree
+        try:
+            age = now - entry.stat().st_mtime
+        except OSError:
+            continue
+        if age < ttl_s:
+            continue
+        try:
+            subprocess.run(
+                ["git", "-C", str(home), "worktree", "remove", "--force", str(entry)],
+                check=True,
+                capture_output=True,
+                text=True,
+                timeout=60,
+            )
+            reaped += 1
+        except (OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError):
+            # not a registered worktree (a half-created flight, or debris):
+            # remove the directory itself and prune the registry, or the
+            # entry warns forever without ever going away
+            import shutil
+
+            shutil.rmtree(entry, ignore_errors=True)
+            with contextlib.suppress(OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError):
+                subprocess.run(
+                    ["git", "-C", str(home), "worktree", "prune"],
+                    check=True,
+                    capture_output=True,
+                    text=True,
+                    timeout=60,
+                )
+            if not entry.exists():
+                reaped += 1
+            else:
+                log.warning("could not reap flight %s", entry.name)
+    return reaped
+
+
+CONTRACT_ALARM_MARKER = marker("contract-alarm")
+CONTRACT_ALARM_AFTER = 3  # consecutive failing ticks (~1.5 h) before alarming
+
+
+def contract_alarm(
+    root: Path,
+    github: Any,
+    target: str,
+    error: str | None,
+    now: float,
+    bot_login: str = "agentic-learning-bot",
+) -> None:
+    """Persistent contract failure must surface where humans look.
+
+    A rejected or unfetchable contract silently idles every launch lane.
+    After CONTRACT_ALARM_AFTER consecutive failing ticks this
+    opens ONE issue on the target repo; the next successful load closes
+    it and says so. Alarm plumbing is best-effort by construction: it
+    must never break the tick it reports for."""
+    state_path = root / "contract-alarm.json"
+    try:
+        state = json.loads(state_path.read_text())
+    except (OSError, ValueError):
+        state = {}
+    if error is None:
+        open_alarm = int(state.get("issue", 0))
+        if not open_alarm and state:
+            # creation may have landed without a recorded number (dry-run,
+            # odd response, lost state file): search so recovery can still
+            # close it. Only ticks that follow SOME failure signal pay the
+            # search; total state loss + instant recovery leaves the issue
+            # for the next alarm cycle's search to adopt and close.
+            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                open_alarm = _find_alarm_issue(github, target, bot_login)
+        if open_alarm:
+            try:
+                github.close_issue(target, open_alarm)
+            except Exception as exc:
+                # keep the state so the NEXT healthy tick retries the close;
+                # unlinking here would orphan the open alarm forever — and
+                # no comment yet, or every retry would repeat it
+                log.warning("could not close contract alarm #%s: %s", open_alarm, exc)
+                return
+            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                github.comment(
+                    target, open_alarm, "The tick loads again cleanly; launch lanes resume."
+                )
+        if state:
+            with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+                state_path.unlink()
+        return
+    count = int(state.get("count", 0)) + 1
+    state["count"] = count
+    # redacted (the client's own token is the one secret this process
+    # holds) and fenced with a run longer than any backtick run inside —
+    # transport errors can echo request material, loader errors can echo
+    # contract content, and both are untrusted for a public issue body
+    safe_error = redact(error, _client_secrets(github)).replace(str(Path.home()), "~")[:600]
+    # A recorded issue a human closed by hand stays closed: closing the
+    # alarm is the maintainer's "I know" — re-opening or re-creating it
+    # every threshold would be alarm spam, and recovery still clears state.
+    if count >= CONTRACT_ALARM_AFTER and not state.get("issue"):
+        # search open issues first: state loss must not spawn duplicates
+        try:
+            number = _find_alarm_issue(github, target, bot_login) or github.create_issue(
+                target,
+                "outerloop: launch lanes are paused",
+                f"{CONTRACT_ALARM_MARKER}\nThe orchestrator's launch lanes "
+                f"(intake, steward, self-initiated) have sat out {count} "
+                f"consecutive ticks. The error below names the cause — a "
+                f"contract that failed to load, or a panel config the climb "
+                f"would reject.\n\n"
+                f"{_fence(safe_error)}\n{safe_error}\n{_fence(safe_error)}\n\n"
+                f"This issue closes itself when a tick passes cleanly.",
+            )
+            if number:
+                state["issue"] = number
+        except Exception as exc:
+            log.warning("contract alarm could not post to %s: %s", target, exc)
+    with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+        tmp = state_path.with_suffix(f".{os.getpid()}.tmp")
+        tmp.write_text(json.dumps(state))
+        os.replace(tmp, state_path)
+
+
+def _client_secrets(github: Any) -> tuple[str, ...]:
+    try:
+        token = github.auth.token()
+        if token:
+            return (token,)
+    except Exception as exc:
+        # degraded redaction must not be silent: the error text goes to a
+        # public issue, and a renamed auth surface would no-op the redact
+        log.warning("alarm redaction has no client token (%s)", exc)
+    return ()
+
+
+def _contract_text(github: Any, target: str, ref: str) -> str | None:
+    """The target's contract at `ref` — `.outerloop.yaml`, else the legacy
+    `.autoresearch.yaml` — or None when it has neither."""
+    from outerloop.contract import find_contract
+
+    found = find_contract(lambda name: github.get_file_content(target, name, ref))
+    return found[1] if found else None
+
+
+def _fence(content: str) -> str:
+    longest = max((len(run) for run in re.findall(r"`+", content)), default=0)
+    return "`" * max(3, longest + 1)
+
+
+def _find_alarm_issue(github: Any, target: str, bot_login: str) -> int:
+    """Only the BOT'S own marker'd issue counts: the marker is a public
+    string, and adopting a stranger's issue would let anyone suppress the
+    real alarm or get their issue closed by the bot."""
+    from outerloop.github import is_own_login
+
+    return next(
+        (
+            int(issue.get("number", 0))
+            for issue in github.list_open_issues(target, max_pages=10)
+            if has_marker(str(issue.get("body", "")), "contract-alarm")
+            and is_own_login(str((issue.get("user") or {}).get("login", "")), bot_login)
+        ),
+        0,
+    )
+
+
+def shape_followup_spec(spec: FollowupSpec, limits: EffectiveLimits, contract: Any) -> FollowupSpec:
+    """Clamp the operator's follow-up spec by the contract's effective
+    limits. Both knobs clamp only when the contract EXPLICITLY sets them:
+    a contract shapes spend downward, but an operator's deliberate config
+    is never silently reduced by defaults (raising budgets is operator
+    territory)."""
+    if contract is None:
+        return spec
+    # direct attribute access: Budgets is our typed model, and a rename
+    # must fail loudly here, not silently stop shaping spend downward
+    if contract.budgets.session_max_turns is not None:
+        spec = replace(spec, max_turns=min(spec.max_turns, limits.session_max_turns))
+    if contract.budgets.followup_job_minutes is not None:
+        spec = replace(spec, time_minutes=min(spec.time_minutes, limits.followup_job_minutes))
+    return spec
+
+
+def _base_dial(
+    github: Any, target: str, pr: dict, main_contract: Any, main_target: str = ""
+) -> str:
+    """The merge dial that governs THIS PR: its own target's base-branch
+    contract. The tick's contract is read from ITS configured target's main;
+    it applies only to a main-based PR of that same target — any other
+    target or base is fetched from the PR's own coordinates, and unreadable
+    or unparsable means "manual" (never arm on doubt)."""
+    base_ref = str((pr.get("base") or {}).get("ref", "")) or "main"
+    if base_ref == "main" and target == main_target:
+        return str(getattr(main_contract, "merge", "manual"))
+    try:
+        from outerloop.contract import load_contract
+
+        raw = _contract_text(github, target, base_ref)
+        if raw is None:
+            return "manual"
+        return str(getattr(load_contract(raw, target), "merge", "manual"))
+    except Exception as exc:
+        log.warning("base-contract read failed for %s@%s: %s", target, base_ref, exc)
+        return "manual"
+
+
+def service_in_review(
+    root: Path,
+    github: Any,  # GitHubClient (Any keeps tick importable without github deps)
+    compute: Compute,
+    spec: FollowupSpec,
+    now: float,
+    dry_run: bool = False,
+    allow_submit: bool = True,
+    contract: Any = None,
+) -> tuple[list[tuple[str, str]], list[tuple[str, str]]]:
+    """PR-state transitions + follow-up job submission for in-review runs.
+
+    allow_submit=False (disk preflight failed) keeps the cheap state
+    transitions — ending merged/closed runs still matters — but submits no
+    new session jobs.
+
+    The tick only READS GitHub here (cheap, every cycle); the session-running
+    work happens in a submitted job, which takes the run lease itself — a
+    duplicate submission no-ops on the lease, and `followup_job_id` keeps the
+    tick from queueing duplicates in the first place.
+    """
+    from outerloop.followup import (
+        _pr_number,
+        close_if_done,
+        conflict_wake_action,
+        has_new_comments,
+        panel_wake_pending,
+    )
+
+    ended: list[tuple[str, str]] = []
+    submitted: list[tuple[str, str]] = []
+    for record in list_runs(root):
+        if record.state != IN_REVIEW or not record.pr_url:
+            continue
+        try:
+            ending = close_if_done(root, record, github, now)
+            if ending:
+                ended.append((record.run_id, ending))
+                continue
+            # Steward records are serviced with the STEWARD'S key and the
+            # steward scope check (respond_once derives the mode from the
+            # record's agent id); without a provisioned steward key the
+            # lane stays human-answered.
+            is_steward = record.agent_id.startswith("steward")
+            if is_steward and not spec.steward_key_file:
+                continue
+            # per-ROLE outage latch: state transitions above still ran,
+            # only this record's session spawn sits the cooldown out
+            paused = outage_active(root, now, role="steward" if is_steward else "solver")
+            if paused:
+                log.info("follow-up for %s paused (api outage: %s)", record.run_id, paused)
+                continue
+            try:
+                pr = github.get_pull_request(record.target, _pr_number(record.pr_url))
+            except Exception:
+                continue  # unreadable PR: nothing to decide this tick
+            # Idempotent auto-arm: once GitHub reports the PR CLEAN (green
+            # checks AND up-to-date with the CURRENT base — GitHub's own
+            # freshness proof), the kernel-read contract STILL says auto, and
+            # A dispatched re-measure in flight: nothing else is serviced (the
+            # sealed change lands first, so the next comment is answered on
+            # the tree it will actually see) and nothing is armed. Once every
+            # eval job is terminal, a follow-up is submitted to finish it.
+            measure_ready = False
+            if record.followup_stage:
+                raw_ids = record.followup_stage.get("job_ids")
+                job_ids = [str(j) for j in raw_ids] if isinstance(raw_ids, list) else []
+                if job_ids:
+                    try:
+                        states = [compute.status(j) for j in job_ids]
+                    except SlurmQueryError:
+                        continue  # unknown: neither service nor arm
+                    if not all(is_terminal(s) or s == GONE for s in states):
+                        continue
+                    measure_ready = True
+                else:
+                    # a BLIND park (the measurer could not read the queue at
+                    # dispatch): no ids to poll, so the eval walltime plus the
+                    # climb's queue slack is the floor before a follow-up is
+                    # sent to look — never one per tick (terra #241 r1)
+                    from outerloop.dispatch import effective_eval_minutes
+
+                    parked_at = float(record.followup_stage.get("parked_at", 0.0) or 0.0)  # type: ignore[arg-type]
+                    floor_min = int(record.followup_stage.get("eval_minutes", 0) or 0)  # type: ignore[call-overload]
+                    floor_s = (effective_eval_minutes(floor_min) + BLIND_PARK_SLACK_MIN) * 60
+                    if now - parked_at < floor_s:
+                        continue
+                    measure_ready = True
+            wake_action = conflict_wake_action(record, pr)
+            if wake_action == "clear":
+                # the PR is clean again: re-arm the wake for this head — the
+                # base can move and conflict the SAME head a second time
+                try:
+                    save_record(root, replace(record, dirty_wake_head=""), now)
+                except OSError as exc:
+                    log.warning("conflict cursor clear failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+            if (
+                not measure_ready
+                and not has_new_comments(record, github, spec.bot_login)
+                and wake_action != "wake"
+                and not panel_wake_pending(record, pr)
+            ):
+                # NOTHING awaits servicing — only a fully quiet PR may
+                # self-merge (pending reviewer feedback always wins over
+                # arming: a followup must service it first, and a pushed
+                # change would kill the blessing anyway). The RECORD says the
+                # publish was auto-eligible (published under merge:auto with
+                # a clean panel — #171's exact arming condition; a manual
+                # publish never consented, and contracts alone cannot prove
+                # either fact after a dial flip); GitHub's own CLEAN state is
+                # the freshness proof; the PR's base-branch contract is the
+                # governing dial. Running every tick survives any crash
+                # between a sync push and this step; the helper direct-merges
+                # when nothing is pending to arm against.
+                # ...and no follow-up job may be LIVE: a running responder can
+                # have pushed a code change whose record write (clearing the
+                # blessing) has not landed yet — arming on that head would
+                # merge code the panel never saw (terra #228 r7)
+                followup_live = False
+                if record.followup_job_id:
+                    try:
+                        state = compute.status(record.followup_job_id)
+                        followup_live = not (is_terminal(state) or state == GONE)
+                    except SlurmQueryError:
+                        followup_live = True  # unknown = assume live, never arm
+                if (
+                    not dry_run
+                    and not is_steward
+                    and not followup_live
+                    and record.auto_blessed_head
+                    and str((pr.get("head") or {}).get("sha", "")) == record.auto_blessed_head
+                    and contract is not None
+                    and pr.get("state") == "open"
+                    and not pr.get("merged")
+                    and not pr.get("draft")
+                    and pr.get("mergeable_state") == "clean"
+                    and _base_dial(github, record.target, pr, contract, spec.target) == "auto"
+                ):
+                    try:
+                        # the mutation itself is bound to the blessed head: a
+                        # push racing this check is refused by GitHub, not
+                        # merged (terra #228 r9)
+                        github.arm_auto_merge_auto_mode(
+                            record.target,
+                            _pr_number(record.pr_url),
+                            expected_head=record.auto_blessed_head,
+                        )
+                    except Exception as exc:
+                        log.warning("auto-arm failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+                continue
+            if record.followup_job_id:
+                try:
+                    state = compute.status(record.followup_job_id)
+                    if not (is_terminal(state) or state == GONE):
+                        continue  # a follow-up job is already queued/running
+                except SlurmQueryError:
+                    continue  # unknown — do not stack another job
+            # the wake-attempt counter caps follow-up retries too: a responder
+            # that cannot advance its cursors must not burn a session per tick
+            if record.wake_attempts >= MAX_WAKE_ATTEMPTS:
+                log.warning(
+                    "run %s: %d follow-up attempts without progress; not resubmitting",
+                    record.run_id,
+                    record.wake_attempts,
+                )
+                continue
+            if not allow_submit:
+                log.warning("run %s has new comments but disk preflight failed", record.run_id)
+                continue
+            if dry_run:
+                submitted.append((record.run_id, "dry-run"))
+                continue
+            # The author follow-up carries the climb's panel so a pushed code
+            # change is RE-READ before the tick may arm it (followup.py). The
+            # panel brings its own walltime, like the climb's allowance — the
+            # contract's followup budget caps the author, not the gate. A
+            # panel that would die at startup is left off: the reply still
+            # goes out, the PR simply stays human-merged (the tick's contract
+            # alarm already names the misconfig).
+            panel_argv: list[str] = []
+            panel_minutes = 0
+            if not is_steward and spec.panel.strip():
+                panel_error = _panel_preflight_error(spec)
+                if panel_error:
+                    log.warning(
+                        "follow-up for %s runs without the panel: %s", record.run_id, panel_error
+                    )
+                else:
+                    from outerloop.panel import panel_read_minutes
+
+                    panel_argv = _climb_panel_argv(spec)
+                    panel_minutes = panel_read_minutes(spec.panel)
+            # the author's budget first, the read on top, both under the
+            # partition cap — and the follow-up is told how many minutes the
+            # read actually got (--panel-minutes), so a cap that eats the
+            # allowance costs the READ (skipped, said so), never the author
+            author_minutes = min(spec.time_minutes, spec.max_job_minutes)
+            job_minutes = min(author_minutes + panel_minutes, spec.max_job_minutes)
+            if panel_argv:
+                panel_argv = [*panel_argv, "--panel-minutes", str(job_minutes - author_minutes)]
+            argv = [
+                "uv",
+                "run",
+                "python",
+                "-m",
+                "outerloop.followup",
+                "--run-root",
+                str(spec.run_root),
+                "--run-id",
+                record.run_id,
+                "--image",
+                spec.image,
+                "--bot-login",
+                spec.bot_login,
+                "--job-minutes",
+                # the SAME clamped value Slurm gets: a deadline armed past
+                # the real walltime is a Slurm kill before a clean ending
+                str(job_minutes),
+                "--max-turns",
+                str(spec.max_turns),
+                # the cluster coordinates the climb gets: a GPU benchmark's
+                # re-measure is dispatched to the GPU lane, never run here
+                "--account",
+                spec.account,
+                "--partition",
+                spec.partition,
+                "--gpu-partition",
+                spec.gpu_partition,
+                "--gpu-account",
+                spec.gpu_account,
+                *panel_argv,
+            ]
+            if spec.pat_file:
+                argv += ["--pat-file", spec.pat_file]
+            # config-driven author: the author follow-up resolves its key per the
+            # RUN's backend (from the record) inside followup.main — the tick does
+            # not thread it. The steward is a distinct role with its own key.
+            if is_steward and spec.steward_key_file:
+                argv += ["--key-file", spec.steward_key_file]
+            job_id = compute.submit(
+                JobSpec(
+                    job_name=f"followup-{record.run_id}"[:60],
+                    account=spec.account,
+                    partition=spec.job_partition or spec.partition,
+                    time_minutes=job_minutes,
+                    command=_flight_command(spec.home, f"followup-{record.run_id}"[:60], now, argv),
+                    cpus=4,
+                    mem="8G",
+                )
+            )
+            # read-modify-write on the FRESH record: the submitted job may
+            # already be saving its own fields
+            latest = load_record(root, record.run_id)
+            save_record(
+                root,
+                replace(
+                    latest,
+                    followup_job_id=job_id,
+                    wake_attempts=latest.wake_attempts + 1,
+                ),
+                now,
+            )
+            submitted.append((record.run_id, job_id))
+        except (SlurmError, Exception) as exc:
+            log.warning("in-review service failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+    return ended, submitted
+
+
+def _last_worked_ts(root: Path) -> float | None:
+    """The `ts` of the last tick that COMPLETED its work, or None if there is no
+    readable marker (first tick, or a corrupt/missing file). The coalesce guard
+    keys on this, NOT the heartbeat: the heartbeat is stamped at tick START (for
+    the watchdog), so a tick that crashes mid-work still leaves a fresh
+    heartbeat — coalescing on that would suppress the very recovery tick. The
+    work marker is written only at a full tick's END, so a failed tick never
+    hides behind it."""
+    # The marker is a best-effort optimization we write ourselves; ANY failure
+    # reading/parsing/converting a corrupt file (OSError, ValueError,
+    # OverflowError on a huge int, RecursionError on deep nesting, ...) must
+    # degrade to "no marker" so coalesce simply proceeds — it can never crash the
+    # tick before its heartbeat. bool is an int subclass, so exclude it; inf/nan
+    # are not usable elapsed anchors.
+    try:
+        payload = json.loads((root / WORK_MARKER_NAME).read_text())
+        ts = payload.get("ts") if isinstance(payload, dict) else None
+        if not isinstance(ts, int | float) or isinstance(ts, bool):
+            return None
+        val = float(ts)
+        return val if math.isfinite(val) else None
+    except Exception:
+        return None
+
+
+def _mark_worked(root: Path, now: float) -> None:
+    """Record that a tick completed its work at `now` — the coalesce signal.
+    Best-effort: a marker that cannot be written must not fail the tick."""
+    try:
+        tmp = root / f".{WORK_MARKER_NAME}.tmp"
+        tmp.write_text(json.dumps({"ts": now}))
+        os.replace(tmp, root / WORK_MARKER_NAME)
+    except OSError as exc:
+        log.warning("work-marker write failed: %s", exc)
+
+
+def mark_tick_complete(root: Path, report: TickReport, now: float) -> None:
+    """Stamp the coalesce marker iff the tick actually did work, at real
+    COMPLETION time (the caller passes time.time() AFTER tick() returns). A
+    paused/coalesced tick leaves it untouched; a tick that raised never reaches
+    here — so only a genuinely completed tick can coalesce the next one, and a
+    long tick's marker reflects when it finished, not when it started."""
+    if not report.paused and not report.coalesced:
+        _mark_worked(root, now)
+
+
+def write_heartbeat(root: Path, now: float, disk: dict[str, object] | None = None) -> None:
+    """Best-effort: a heartbeat that cannot be written (full disk) must not
+    kill the tick — the tick can still end runs and post to GitHub."""
+    payload: dict[str, object] = {"ts": now, "host": socket.gethostname(), "pid": os.getpid()}
+    if disk is not None:
+        payload["disk"] = disk
+    try:
+        tmp = root / f".{HEARTBEAT_NAME}.tmp"
+        tmp.write_text(json.dumps(payload))
+        os.replace(tmp, root / HEARTBEAT_NAME)
+    except OSError as exc:
+        log.warning("heartbeat write failed: %s", exc)
+
+
+def _holder_alive(compute: Compute, lease_job_id: str) -> bool | None:
+    """True/False when Slurm answered; None when it could not (an outage
+    must not look like a dead holder)."""
+    if not lease_job_id:
+        return None
+    try:
+        state = compute.status(lease_job_id)
+    except SlurmQueryError:
+        return None
+    return not (is_terminal(state) or state == GONE)
+
+
+def _wake(
+    root: Path,
+    record: RunRecord,
+    reason: str,
+    dispatcher: WakeDispatcher,
+    now: float,
+    holder: str,
+) -> bool:
+    """Lease-guarded wake. True when this tick delivered (or handed off) it.
+
+    The attempt counter is bumped BEFORE dispatch, so a dispatcher that dies
+    mid-delivery still counts toward the stuck threshold.
+    """
+    if not acquire_lease(root, record.run_id, holder, holder_job_id="", now=now):
+        return False
+    bumped = replace(
+        record,
+        wake_attempts=record.wake_attempts + 1,
+        # repair legacy records as we touch them: save_record (rightly)
+        # refuses to write a waiting run without a deadline
+        deadline=record.deadline if record.deadline > 0 else now,
+    )
+    save_record(root, bumped, now)
+    try:
+        holder_job = dispatcher.dispatch(bumped, reason)
+    except Exception as exc:
+        log.warning("wake dispatch failed for %s: %s: %s", record.run_id, type(exc).__name__, exc)
+        release_lease(root, record.run_id)
+        return False
+    if holder_job and not local_mode():
+        # An async wake job now owns the lease; it releases on completion,
+        # and the TTL/holder-dead check reaps it if it dies.
+        update_lease_holder(root, record.run_id, f"wake-job:{holder_job}", holder_job, now)
+    else:
+        # No job to hand the lease to — or a LOCAL dispatch, which ran the
+        # whole wake synchronously: the attempt already finished and released
+        # its own lease, and recreating one under a terminal job id would
+        # make the next sweep reap a corpse instead of delivering.
+        release_lease(root, record.run_id)
+    return True
+
+
+WAKE_SPEC_NAME = "wake-spec.json"
+
+
+def dispatch_wake_armed(root: Path) -> bool:
+    """The operator's on-switch for dispatched wakes: the env var, or the
+    sentinel file (touch/rm, no chain restart). Read by the tick and by every
+    park, so a disarm takes effect at once."""
+    return (
+        bool(os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_DISPATCH_WAKE", "").strip())
+        or (root / DISPATCH_WAKE_SENTINEL).exists()
+    )
+
+
+def write_wake_spec(root: Path, spec: FollowupSpec) -> None:
+    """Publish the tick's wake recipe for the jobs that park runs: a park
+    submits its own wake (`arm_wake`) with exactly the tick's settings, so
+    dispatched wakes stay one recipe with one owner."""
+    data = {k: (str(v) if isinstance(v, Path) else v) for k, v in asdict(spec).items()}
+    tmp = root / f".{WAKE_SPEC_NAME}.{os.getpid()}.tmp"
+    tmp.write_text(json.dumps(data))
+    os.replace(tmp, root / WAKE_SPEC_NAME)
+
+
+def remove_wake_spec(root: Path) -> None:
+    with contextlib.suppress(FileNotFoundError):
+        (root / WAKE_SPEC_NAME).unlink()
+
+
+def load_wake_spec(root: Path) -> FollowupSpec | None:
+    """The published wake recipe, or None when dispatched wakes are not armed
+    (or the file is unreadable — the sweep still delivers)."""
+    try:
+        data = json.loads((root / WAKE_SPEC_NAME).read_text())
+    except (OSError, ValueError):
+        return None
+    if not isinstance(data, dict):
+        return None
+    names = {f.name for f in FollowupSpec.__dataclass_fields__.values()}
+    kwargs: dict[str, Any] = {
+        k: (Path(v) if k in ("run_root", "home") else v) for k, v in data.items() if k in names
+    }
+    try:
+        return FollowupSpec(**kwargs)
+    except TypeError:
+        return None
+
+
+def arm_wake(
+    root: Path, record: RunRecord, dispatcher: WakeDispatcher, now: float, *, holder_job_id: str
+) -> str:
+    """Submit a parked run's wake NOW, depending on the jobs it waits on, so
+    it fires the moment they finish instead of a sweep cadence (plus grace)
+    later. The same job and lease as a sweep-delivered wake: a wake job that
+    parks again hands its own lease to the wake it arms; any other holder (a
+    tick mid-delivery) keeps it and the sweep delivers as before. Arming is
+    not a redelivery, so it leaves `wake_attempts` — the sweep's stuck
+    counter — alone: an eval requeued by preemption fires the afterany
+    early, the wake re-parks, and that must not count toward STUCK. Returns
+    the wake job id, or "" when nothing was armed. A park with nothing to
+    depend on (a checkpoint sleep, a blind park) is not armed: it rides the
+    deadline floor, as before."""
+    if not _poll_targets(record):
+        return ""
+    lease = read_lease(root, record.run_id)
+    if lease is not None:
+        if not holder_job_id or lease.holder_job_id != holder_job_id:
+            return ""
+    elif not acquire_lease(
+        root, record.run_id, f"park:{holder_job_id or os.getpid()}", holder_job_id="", now=now
+    ):
+        return ""
+    if record.deadline <= 0:  # a waiting record always carries a deadline
+        record = replace(record, deadline=now)
+        save_record(root, record, now)
+    try:
+        job = dispatcher.dispatch(record, "parked")
+    except Exception as exc:
+        log.warning("arming the wake failed for %s: %s: %s", record.run_id, type(exc).__name__, exc)
+        job = ""
+    if job:
+        update_lease_holder(root, record.run_id, f"wake-job:{job}", job, now)
+    elif lease is None:
+        release_lease(root, record.run_id)
+    return job
+
+
+def _armed_wake_lost(
+    root: Path,
+    compute: Compute,
+    record: RunRecord,
+    lease: Lease,
+    now: float,
+    grace_s: float,
+    dry_run: bool,
+) -> bool:
+    """An armed wake that is still PENDING on its dependency after every job
+    it waits on has been terminal for a full grace window is not coming
+    (Slurm reports the dependency as never satisfiable, or the afterany was
+    lost). Cancel it so the sweep redelivers; the lease is then reaped.
+
+    A wake the SITE moved off the partition it was submitted to may be
+    starving there — on Torch a pending job can be shifted to a lower-tier
+    partition (2026-09-02, wake 16787511 sat on `all` for hours) — but
+    relocation alone is routine (jobs move to `cs` while still waiting on
+    their dependencies and start on time). So a relocated holder counts as
+    lost only once every job it waited on is terminal AND the grace window
+    has run out without it starting; then it is cancelled and redelivered
+    onto the requested partition."""
+    if not lease.holder_job_id:
+        return False
+    job_ids = _poll_targets(record)
+    if not job_ids:
+        return False
+    try:
+        holder_state = compute.status(lease.holder_job_id)
+        if not is_pending(holder_state):
+            return False
+        reason = compute.pending_reason(lease.holder_job_id)
+        states = [compute.status(jid) for jid in job_ids]
+    except SlurmQueryError:
+        return False
+    moved = _moved_off_partition(root, compute, lease.holder_job_id)
+    if reason == "DependencyNeverSatisfied":
+        pass
+    elif not all(is_terminal(s) for s in states):
+        return False  # its dependencies are still running: nothing to redeliver yet
+    elif reason != "Dependency" and not moved:
+        return False
+    else:
+        # Dependency-pending past its dependencies, or RELOCATED and eligible:
+        # both get the grace window. Relocation alone is normal (the site
+        # moves pending jobs routinely); a relocated wake counts as lost only
+        # when every job it waited on is terminal and it still has not
+        # started once the grace has run out — cancelling earlier would only
+        # reset its queue age and burn a wake attempt.
+        if moved:
+            log.info(
+                "armed wake %s for %s sits on partition %s (asked for %s) past its dependencies",
+                lease.holder_job_id,
+                record.run_id,
+                moved[0],
+                moved[1],
+            )
+        if record.terminal_seen <= 0:
+            if not dry_run:
+                save_record(root, replace(record, terminal_seen=now), now)
+            return False
+        if now - record.terminal_seen < grace_s:
+            return False
+    if dry_run:
+        return True
+    try:
+        compute.cancel(lease.holder_job_id)
+        # only a cancellation Slurm confirms lets the sweep redeliver: a
+        # still-pending wake would otherwise run beside its replacement
+        return not is_pending(compute.status(lease.holder_job_id))
+    except Exception:
+        return False
+
+
+def sweep(
+    root: Path,
+    compute: Compute,
+    dispatcher: WakeDispatcher,
+    now: float,
+    grace_s: float = DEFAULT_GRACE_S,
+    lease_ttl_s: float = DEFAULT_LEASE_TTL_S,
+    dry_run: bool = False,
+) -> TickReport:
+    """The backup wake layers, applied to every waiting run.
+
+    dry_run reports what WOULD happen with zero writes — no leases, no
+    attempt counters, no dispatch.
+    """
+    woken: list[tuple[str, str]] = []
+    deferred: list[str] = []
+    reaped: list[str] = []
+    stuck: list[str] = []
+    holder = f"tick:{socket.gethostname()}:{os.getpid()}"
+    records = [r for r in list_runs(root) if r.state == WAITING]
+
+    def wake(record: RunRecord, reason: str, tag: str) -> None:
+        if dry_run or _wake(root, record, reason, dispatcher, now, holder):
+            woken.append((record.run_id, tag))
+
+    for record in records:
+        try:
+            _sweep_one(
+                root,
+                compute,
+                dispatcher,
+                now,
+                grace_s,
+                lease_ttl_s,
+                dry_run,
+                record,
+                holder,
+                wake,
+                deferred,
+                reaped,
+                stuck,
+            )
+        except Exception as exc:
+            log.warning("sweep failed on %s: %s: %s", record.run_id, type(exc).__name__, exc)
+
+    return TickReport(
+        swept=len(records),
+        woken=tuple(woken),
+        deferred=tuple(deferred),
+        reaped_leases=tuple(reaped),
+        stuck=tuple(stuck),
+        # NOT the global dry_run: that flag only dries WAKE delivery;
+        # ending killed climbs' records dispatches nothing and must run
+        # live even while wakes stay dry.
+        implementing_ended=tuple(_sweep_implementing(root, compute, now, grace_s)),
+    )
+
+
+RESEARCH_LOG_BRANCH = "research-log"
+RESEARCH_LOG_MARKER = marker("research-log")
+RESEARCH_LOG_PER_TICK = 3
+
+
+def _ledger_marker(root: Path, run_id: str) -> Path:
+    return run_dir(root, run_id) / "ledger-published"
+
+
+def _ledger_since(root: Path, target: str) -> Path:
+    return root / ("research-log-since-" + target.replace("/", "__"))
+
+
+def _ledger_issue_cache(root: Path, target: str) -> Path:
+    return root / ("research-log-issue-" + target.replace("/", "__"))
+
+
+def service_research_log(root: Path, github: Any, spec: FollowupSpec, now: float) -> int:
+    """STATE-driven ledger (terra #170 r1: wiring publisher calls at terminal
+    sites missed four terminal paths — attempt error, zero-change resume,
+    the direct live terminal, steward): any run of this target whose
+    terminal report exists but carries no published marker gets archived on
+    the `research-log` branch and a two-line pointer routed — to the run's
+    claimed issue never (it already got the full finish post), else to an
+    open order issue naming the benchmark, else to the rolling log issue
+    whose number is CACHED in the state dir (no 300-issue pagination scan,
+    no duplicate creation). Running in the single tick also removes the
+    concurrent-first-archive races by construction. The pointer posts only
+    AFTER a successful archive (no dead links); the marker is written only
+    after full success, so a crashed publish retries next tick. Runs ended
+    before the feature's first pass are marker-stamped silently (no
+    backfill spam).
+    """
+    since_path = _ledger_since(root, spec.target)
+    first_pass = not since_path.exists()
+    if first_pass:
+        with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+            since_path.write_text(str(now))
+    published = 0
+    for record in list_runs(root):
+        if record.target != spec.target or record.state not in (ENDED, IN_REVIEW):
+            continue
+        marker = _ledger_marker(root, record.run_id)
+        report_path = run_dir(root, record.run_id) / "report.md"
+        state = ""
+        with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+            state = marker.read_text()
+        if state.startswith(("done", "adopted")) or not report_path.exists():
+            continue
+        if first_pass and (record.updated or record.created) < now:
+            # adopt pre-feature history silently: browsable going forward,
+            # no retroactive issue spam. Only records OLDER than the since
+            # marker — a run that goes terminal during this very pass is new
+            # work and publishes normally (terra #170 r2).
+            with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+                marker.write_text("adopted-unpublished")
+            continue
+        if published >= RESEARCH_LOG_PER_TICK:
+            break
+        try:
+            report = report_path.read_text()
+        except OSError:
+            continue
+        outcome = record.ending or ("improved" if record.state == IN_REVIEW else "ended")
+        if _publish_ledger_entry(github, spec.target, root, record, outcome, report, marker, state):
+            published += 1
+    return published
+
+
+def _publish_ledger_entry(
+    github: Any,
+    target: str,
+    root: Path,
+    record: RunRecord,
+    outcome: str,
+    report: str,
+    marker: Path,
+    state: str,
+) -> bool:
+    """Staged publish whose marker doubles as a WRITABILITY PROBE: stages
+    are "archived" -> "pointer-pending" -> "done", and no pointer is ever
+    posted in a pass where a marker write is failing (terra #170 r4: a
+    persistently unwritable marker must stall the publish, not stream a
+    duplicate pointer every tick). A pointer failure retries pointer-only;
+    a marker lost after full success re-posts at most once; the residual
+    crash-between-probe-and-post window costs at most one duplicate per
+    incident, never an unbounded stream."""
+    from datetime import UTC, datetime
+
+    date = datetime.fromtimestamp(record.updated or record.created, tz=UTC).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
+    path = f"reports/{date}-{record.run_id}.md"
+    # an earlier pass may have archived under an earlier date (an in-review
+    # archive whose record re-stamped `updated` at ENDED): the marker's own
+    # second line is the authoritative path for retries and pointers
+    prior = state.splitlines()
+    if len(prior) > 1 and prior[1].startswith("reports/") and prior[1].endswith(".md"):
+        path = prior[1]
+
+    def _mark(value: str) -> bool:
+        try:
+            # the path rides the marker so readers (the board) never have to
+            # re-derive the date from a timestamp that may have moved on
+            marker.write_text(value + "\n" + path)
+            return True
+        except OSError as exc:
+            log.warning("ledger marker write failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+            return False
+
+    try:
+        if not state.startswith(("archived", "pointer-pending")):
+            if not github.ensure_branch(target, RESEARCH_LOG_BRANCH):
+                return False
+            if not github.put_file(
+                target,
+                path,
+                report,
+                RESEARCH_LOG_BRANCH,
+                f"research log: {record.run_id} ({outcome})",
+            ):
+                return False  # retry the whole publish next tick
+            if not _mark("archived"):
+                return False  # unwritable state: stall BEFORE any pointer
+        # the probe: a fresh successful write is the license to post
+        if not _mark("pointer-pending"):
+            return False
+        url = f"https://github.com/{target}/blob/{RESEARCH_LOG_BRANCH}/{path}"
+        line = f"**{outcome}** `{record.benchmark}` — [report]({url})"
+        if record.pr_url:
+            line += f" · {record.pr_url}"
+        if record.issue_number:
+            _mark("done")  # the claimed issue already received the full finish
+            return True
+        bench = record.benchmark.casefold()
+        posted = False
+        if bench:
+            for issue in github.list_open_issues(target):
+                text = f"{issue.get('title', '')}\n{issue.get('body') or ''}"
+                if has_marker(text, "research-log") or issue.get("pull_request"):
+                    continue
+                if bench in text.casefold():
+                    github.comment(target, int(issue["number"]), line)
+                    posted = True
+                    break
+        if not posted:
+            cache = _ledger_issue_cache(root, target)
+            log_issue = 0
+            with contextlib.suppress(OSError, ValueError):
+                log_issue = int(cache.read_text().strip())
+            if not log_issue:
+                # cache miss (first use, or a lost/failed cache write): find
+                # the rolling issue by its marker BEFORE creating another —
+                # the cache is a fast path, never the source of truth
+                # (terra #170 r5: a failed cache write must not duplicate
+                # the rolling issue)
+                for issue in github.list_open_issues(target):
+                    if has_marker(str(issue.get("body") or ""), "research-log"):
+                        log_issue = int(issue.get("number", 0))
+                        break
+            if not log_issue:
+                log_issue = github.create_issue(
+                    target,
+                    "Research log",
+                    f"{RESEARCH_LOG_MARKER}\nOne two-line comment per finished "
+                    f"autoresearch run — full reports live on the [`{RESEARCH_LOG_BRANCH}`]"
+                    f"(https://github.com/{target}/tree/{RESEARCH_LOG_BRANCH}/reports) "
+                    "branch. Results relevant to an open order issue are posted "
+                    "there instead.",
+                )
+            if log_issue:
+                with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+                    cache.write_text(str(log_issue))
+                try:
+                    github.comment(target, log_issue, line)
+                except Exception:
+                    # a stale cached number (locked/deleted/transferred issue)
+                    # must not stall delivery forever: drop the cache so the
+                    # next pass re-discovers or re-creates (terra #170 r5)
+                    with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+                        cache.unlink()
+                    raise
+        _mark("done")  # write just proved out via the probe; failure = freak
+        return True
+    except Exception as exc:  # advisory ledger: never fail the tick
+        log.warning("research-log publish failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+        return False
+
+
+def _kill_stamp(root: Path, run_id: str) -> Path:
+    return run_dir(root, run_id) / "attempt-terminal-seen"
+
+
+def _sweep_implementing(root: Path, compute: Compute, now: float, grace_s: float) -> list[str]:
+    """End `implementing` records whose climb job died without a verdict.
+
+    A climb that CRASHES contains its own ending (attempt.py); a climb that is
+    KILLED — walltime, preemption, scancel after the SIGTERM grace, node
+    death — leaves no exception to contain, so this pass records the ending
+    (the picker's stranded guard only frees the lane). Slurm truth decides:
+    job terminal or GONE, plus a grace so a just-finished healthy climb can
+    write its own final state first. Outage never reads as dead. Legacy
+    records without a job id age out on the stranded window instead.
+    """
+    ended: list[str] = []
+    for record in list_runs(root):
+        if record.state != IMPLEMENTING:
+            continue
+        try:
+            if record.run_job_id:
+                try:
+                    state = compute.status(record.run_job_id)
+                except SlurmQueryError:
+                    continue  # Slurm outage must not read as a dead job
+                if not (is_terminal(state) or state == GONE):
+                    continue  # alive; the climb owns its own record
+                # Grace runs from FIRST OBSERVED terminal: during Slurm's
+                # KillWait the job already reports terminal while the
+                # SIGTERM containment is still writing its honest ending —
+                # record age would be hours and protect nothing. The stamp
+                # is a write-once SIDECAR file, never a record write: while
+                # the climb may still be alive the sweep must not touch the
+                # record at all (a load-modify-replace here could revert a
+                # concurrently written ending), and the waiting sweep's
+                # terminal_seen field stays reserved for the EXPERIMENT job.
+                stamp = _kill_stamp(root, record.run_id)
+                if not stamp.exists():
+                    try:
+                        fd = os.open(stamp, os.O_WRONLY | os.O_CREAT | os.O_EXCL, 0o644)
+                        try:
+                            os.write(fd, f"{now}".encode())
+                        finally:
+                            os.close(fd)
+                    except FileExistsError:
+                        pass  # a concurrent tick stamped it; its clock stands
+                    except OSError as exc:
+                        log.warning("kill-stamp write failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+                    continue
+                # An empty stamp (write failed after create — the disk-full
+                # case — or a concurrent tick mid-write) must fall back to
+                # mtime, NOT to epoch 0, which would skip the grace outright.
+                try:
+                    raw = stamp.read_text().strip()
+                    seen = float(raw) if raw else stamp.stat().st_mtime
+                except (OSError, ValueError):
+                    try:
+                        seen = stamp.stat().st_mtime
+                    except OSError:
+                        continue  # stamp vanished mid-read; next tick decides
+                if now - seen < grace_s:
+                    continue
+                note = f"climb job {record.run_job_id} ended {state} without a verdict"
+            else:
+                # No Slurm evidence at all (legacy record, or a manual dev
+                # invocation without SLURM_JOB_ID): only the run DEADLINE —
+                # past which nothing legitimately lives — justifies a
+                # terminal verdict; the shorter stranded window merely
+                # frees the picker lane and must not author endings.
+                deadline = record.deadline if record.deadline > 0 else (record.created + 24 * 3600)
+                if now < deadline:
+                    continue
+                note = "implementing with no recorded climb job, past its run deadline"
+            fresh = load_record(root, record.run_id)
+            if fresh.state != IMPLEMENTING:
+                continue  # the climb landed its own ending meanwhile
+            for jid in _poll_targets(fresh):
+                # defensive: no current path records an experiment while
+                # still implementing, but an orphan GPU job burning budget
+                # after its run is declared dead must never survive one
+                with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                    compute.cancel(jid)
+            save_record(
+                root,
+                replace(
+                    fresh,
+                    state=ENDED,
+                    ending=ABORTED,
+                    ending_note=(
+                        f"{note} — ended by the sweep (a killed climb "
+                        f"leaves no exception to contain)"
+                    ),
+                ),
+                now,
+            )
+            # every ending produces a report — but never clobber one the
+            # climb already wrote before it was killed
+            report_path = run_dir(root, record.run_id) / "report.md"
+            if not report_path.exists():
+                try:
+                    report_path.write_text(
+                        f"# Run report — {record.target} / {record.benchmark}\n"
+                        f"Outcome: **aborted** (climb job killed)\n"
+                        f"Note: {note}\n"
+                    )
+                except OSError as exc:
+                    log.warning("sweep report write failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+            log.warning("sweep ended implementing run %s: %s", record.run_id, note)
+            ended.append(record.run_id)
+        except Exception as exc:  # per-record isolation, like the waiting sweep
+            log.warning("implementing-sweep failed on %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+    return ended
+
+
+def _moved_off_partition(root: Path, compute: Compute, job_id: str) -> tuple[str, str] | None:
+    """(actual, wanted) when a queued kernel job no longer sits in the
+    partition the wake recipe asks for, else None. Unknown either way —
+    no recipe, a compute without partitions, a failed query — is None:
+    never cancel on doubt."""
+    spec = load_wake_spec(root)
+    if spec is None:
+        return None
+    wanted = spec.job_partition or spec.partition
+    if not wanted:
+        return None
+    try:
+        actual = compute.job_partition(job_id)
+    except (SlurmQueryError, ValueError, AttributeError):
+        return None
+    # both sides may be comma-separated lists: moved only when the job holds
+    # NONE of the partitions the recipe asked for; empty is unknown, not moved
+    have = {p.strip() for p in actual.split(",") if p.strip()}
+    want = {p.strip() for p in wanted.split(",") if p.strip()}
+    if not have or have & want:
+        return None
+    return actual, wanted
+
+
+def _poll_targets(record: RunRecord) -> list[str]:
+    """Every Slurm job this run waits on. The single `experiment_job_id` is
+    the common case; a MULTI-job park (candidate + siblings, or several author
+    launches) records no single id — its jobs live in the stage's `afterany`
+    dependency string, the one source that always names them all. Without
+    this fallback a multi-job park is blind and rides the deadline floor."""
+    if record.experiment_job_id:
+        return [record.experiment_job_id]
+    afterany = str((record.stage or {}).get("afterany", ""))
+    return [t for t in afterany.split(":")[1:] if t]
+
+
+def _sweep_one(
+    root: Path,
+    compute: Compute,
+    dispatcher: WakeDispatcher,
+    now: float,
+    grace_s: float,
+    lease_ttl_s: float,
+    dry_run: bool,
+    record: RunRecord,
+    holder: str,
+    wake,
+    deferred: list[str],
+    reaped: list[str],
+    stuck: list[str],
+) -> None:
+    if True:
+        # Leases first: a LIVE wake in flight owns this run — even the stuck
+        # verdict must wait for it (its session may be the one that succeeds).
+        lease = read_lease(root, record.run_id)
+        if lease is not None:
+            alive = _holder_alive(compute, lease.holder_job_id)
+            if not lease_is_stale(lease, now, lease_ttl_s, alive):
+                if not _armed_wake_lost(root, compute, record, lease, now, grace_s, dry_run):
+                    return
+                record = load_record(root, record.run_id)
+            if dry_run:
+                reaped.append(record.run_id)
+                return
+            if not reap_lease(root, record.run_id, reaper=f"{os.getpid()}-{now}", expected=lease):
+                return  # a concurrent tick reaped it first; it owns redelivery
+            reaped.append(record.run_id)
+
+        # Layer 5: too many failed attempts is a terminal, reported state.
+        if record.wake_attempts >= MAX_WAKE_ATTEMPTS:
+            if not dry_run:
+                ended = replace(
+                    record,
+                    state=ENDED,
+                    ending=STUCK,
+                    ending_note=(
+                        f"{record.wake_attempts} wake attempts without the run leaving 'waiting'"
+                    ),
+                )
+                save_record(root, ended, now)
+            stuck.append(record.run_id)
+            return
+
+        job_ids = _poll_targets(record)
+        if not job_ids:
+            # No job ids to poll. A BLIND PARK (the measurer could not read Slurm,
+            # so `MeasurementPending` carried no ids) still hibernated with a
+            # deadline — the deadline floor is its ONLY wake, so fire on it. A
+            # genuinely mid-write record has no deadline and is left alone.
+            # (A jobless CHECKPOINT SLEEP arrives here too — its deadline is
+            # near-term by construction, attempt.py sizes it to the next sweep
+            # pass, not the 12h queue slack that protects queued jobs.)
+            if record.deadline > 0 and now > record.deadline:
+                wake(record, "blind park past deadline", "deadline")
+            return
+
+        try:
+            states = [compute.status(jid) for jid in job_ids]
+        except SlurmQueryError:
+            # Layer 4's rule: query failure is "Slurm unknown", never "gone".
+            deferred.append(record.run_id)
+            return
+
+        # deadline <= 0 cannot be written by save_record for waiting runs;
+        # if one exists anyway (legacy/hand-edited), treat it as already past
+        # for GONE — a vanished-experiment wake is safe — but never for
+        # PENDING, where the consequence would be cancelling a healthy job.
+        past_deadline = record.deadline <= 0 or now > record.deadline
+
+        if all(is_terminal(s) for s in states):
+            state = ",".join(sorted(set(states)))
+            # Layer 3, with real grace: time runs from when the sweep FIRST
+            # saw every job terminal, not from submission — the afterany
+            # job gets the full window to deliver before the backup steps in.
+            # Local compute has no afterany jobs to wait for (jobs are
+            # terminal at submit): the sweep IS the delivery, so grace would
+            # only cost a whole extra loop iteration.
+            if local_mode():
+                wake(record, f"experiment {state}", state)
+                return
+            if record.terminal_seen <= 0:
+                if dry_run:
+                    # no writes in dry-run: report the would-wake now so the
+                    # terminal path is visible to live plumbing checks
+                    wake(record, f"experiment {state}", state)
+                else:
+                    save_record(
+                        root,
+                        replace(
+                            record,
+                            terminal_seen=now,
+                            # repair legacy records as we touch them (see _wake)
+                            deadline=record.deadline if record.deadline > 0 else now,
+                        ),
+                        now,
+                    )
+                return
+            if now - record.terminal_seen >= grace_s:
+                wake(record, f"experiment {state}", state)
+        elif any(is_pending(s) for s in states) and record.deadline > 0 and now > record.deadline:
+            # Unschedulable in practice: cancel every non-terminal job
+            # (best-effort — scancel trouble must not abort the sweep), then
+            # wake with that fact.
+            if not dry_run:
+                for jid, s in zip(job_ids, states, strict=True):
+                    if is_terminal(s) or s == GONE:
+                        continue
+                    try:
+                        compute.cancel(jid)
+                    except Exception as exc:  # scancel trouble is never fatal here
+                        log.warning("cancel %s failed: %s", jid, exc)
+            wake(record, "experiment unschedulable (pending past deadline)", "unschedulable")
+        elif all(is_terminal(s) or s == GONE for s in states):
+            # done-or-vanished, at least one GONE (all-terminal handled above)
+            if past_deadline:
+                wake(record, "experiment vanished from Slurm", "vanished")
+            # else: sacct lag right after submission is normal; wait.
+        # something RUNNING (or recently pending): nothing to do yet.
+
+
+def tick(
+    root: Path,
+    compute: Compute,
+    dispatcher: WakeDispatcher,
+    now: float,
+    grace_s: float = DEFAULT_GRACE_S,
+    lease_ttl_s: float = DEFAULT_LEASE_TTL_S,
+    dry_run: bool = False,
+    github: Any = None,
+    followup_spec: FollowupSpec | None = None,
+    followup_dry_run: bool = False,
+    min_free_bytes: int = DEFAULT_MIN_FREE_BYTES,
+    min_tick_s: float = DEFAULT_MIN_TICK_S,
+) -> TickReport:
+    """One full tick. Pause sentinel wins over everything: a paused loop
+    heartbeats (so the watchdog stays quiet) but touches nothing.
+
+    Disk preflight gates every lane that LAUNCHES new work (follow-up jobs,
+    intake claims, self-initiated climbs): a session started on a full or
+    nearly-full filesystem dies mid-flight in ways that lose data. The sweep
+    still runs — its writes are small, per-record contained, and ending runs
+    matters more when storage is failing, not less.
+    """
+    # Heartbeat FIRST, before any probe: check_disk touches $HOME (a
+    # different filesystem), and a hung mount there must not starve the
+    # watchdog signal. The disk-annotated heartbeat follows once known. The
+    # coalesce guard reads the last COMPLETED tick's marker (not the heartbeat).
+    prior_worked = _last_worked_ts(root)
+    write_heartbeat(root, now)
+    disk_health = check_disk(root, min_free_bytes=min_free_bytes)
+    write_heartbeat(root, now, disk=disk_health.as_dict())
+    for warning in disk_health.warnings():
+        log.warning("disk: %s", warning)
+    if (root / PAUSE_SENTINEL).exists():
+        log.info("pause sentinel present; tick is a no-op")
+        return TickReport(paused=True)
+    # Coalesce a congestion pile-up: if a tick COMPLETED its work within
+    # min_tick_s, this one is redundant (that recent tick already swept and
+    # launched). Keyed on the work marker (stamped by the CALLER at real
+    # completion time), not the heartbeat, so a tick that crashed mid-work does
+    # not suppress this recovery tick. Heartbeat still written above, so the
+    # watchdog stays fed and the chain stays alive.
+    if min_tick_s > 0 and prior_worked is not None:
+        elapsed = now - prior_worked
+        if elapsed < 0:
+            # marker dated in the future -> the clock jumped back; never coalesce
+            # on it (that could stall the loop), and surface it rather than fail
+            # silently.
+            log.warning(
+                "work marker is %.0fs in the future (clock skew?); not coalescing", -elapsed
+            )
+        elif elapsed < min_tick_s:
+            log.info(
+                "coalescing: last completed tick %.0fs ago (< %.0fs); tick is a no-op",
+                elapsed,
+                min_tick_s,
+            )
+            return TickReport(coalesced=True)
+    report = sweep(root, compute, dispatcher, now, grace_s, lease_ttl_s, dry_run=dry_run)
+    # Housekeeping: ended runs shed ws/ and ws-home/ after a grace period;
+    # when the state filesystem's write probe failed, the grace is waived and
+    # the sweep frees oldest-first until the probe passes, then the preflight
+    # is taken again so launch lanes can come back this very tick.
+    # Force-shed (waive the grace) only when the state root cannot be WRITTEN,
+    # not merely when it is below the free-space threshold: a writable disk
+    # that is just low keeps the 24 h grace so a post-mortem is not deleted
+    # under someone. A dry-run tick sheds nothing (the destructive lane obeys
+    # the zero-writes contract, like sweep()).
+    shed: list[str] = []
+    if not dry_run:
+        cannot_write = not disk_health.state_root.writable
+        # Bounded per tick so shedding (rm -rf of tens of thousands of files
+        # per workspace on a networked FS) never blows the tick's own timeout:
+        # a few runs on a healthy disk, more but still time-boxed when it is
+        # failing. The backlog drains over several ticks.
+        shed = shed_ended_workspaces(
+            root,
+            now,
+            force=cannot_write,
+            limit=25 if cannot_write else 3,
+            time_budget_s=300.0 if cannot_write else 120.0,
+            until_ok=(lambda: check_disk(root, min_free_bytes=min_free_bytes).state_root.writable)
+            if cannot_write
+            else None,
+        )
+        if shed and cannot_write:
+            disk_health = check_disk(root, min_free_bytes=min_free_bytes)
+            write_heartbeat(root, now, disk=disk_health.as_dict())
+    if shed:
+        from dataclasses import replace as _dc_replace
+
+        report = _dc_replace(report, shed=tuple(shed))
+    launch_ok = disk_health.launch_ok()
+    if not launch_ok:
+        log.warning("disk preflight failed; launch lanes are OFF this tick")
+    # Mid-leg sync is serviced regardless of follow-up/board servicing: it
+    # only needs the workspace and the PAT (a git fetch, no GitHub REST and
+    # no contract), and a live session waiting on `sync` must not depend on
+    # whether github/contract loaded this tick.
+    if followup_spec is not None:
+        service_syncs(root, followup_spec, now)
+    if github is not None and followup_spec is not None:
+        # expired flight snapshots die with their TTL, not with a human.
+        # One home suffices: every lane's spec derives from followup_spec
+        # via replace(), so all flights share this checkout's flights/ dir.
+        # Blind means delete nothing — but only QUERY failures count as
+        # blindness; a compute backend missing the method is a programming
+        # error and propagates.
+        try:
+            live_names = compute.active_job_names()
+        except SlurmQueryError as exc:
+            log.warning("cannot list live jobs (%s); reaping no flights this tick", exc)
+            live_names = None
+        if live_names is not None:
+            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                reaped = reap_flights(followup_spec.home, now, live_job_names=live_names)
+                if reaped:
+                    log.info("reaped %d expired flight snapshot(s)", reaped)
+        # ONE contract fetch per tick feeds every lane: the requested and
+        # self-initiated lanes need its benchmarks, and all three lanes now
+        # take their session/job limits from its budgets — clamped by our
+        # ceilings (limits.py), so a target shapes spend, never raises it.
+        # A failed fetch leaves in-review servicing running on defaults;
+        # the launch lanes need the contract and sit out this tick.
+        contract = None
+        if followup_spec.target:
+            contract_error: str | None = "contract file missing on main"
+            try:
+                from outerloop.contract import load_contract
+
+                raw = _contract_text(github, followup_spec.target, "main")
+                if raw is not None:
+                    contract = load_contract(raw, followup_spec.target)
+                    contract_error = None
+            except Exception as exc:
+                log.warning("contract fetch failed for %s: %s", followup_spec.target, exc)
+                contract_error = f"{type(exc).__name__}: {exc}"
+            if contract_error is None:
+                # a bad panel config idles the same launch lanes a bad
+                # contract does — same silent-idle class, so it rides the
+                # same alarm
+                panel_error = _panel_preflight_error(followup_spec)
+                if panel_error:
+                    contract_error = f"panel preflight: {panel_error}"
+            try:
+                contract_alarm(
+                    root,
+                    github,
+                    followup_spec.target,
+                    contract_error,
+                    now,
+                    bot_login=followup_spec.bot_login,
+                )
+            except Exception as exc:
+                log.warning("contract alarm failed: %s", exc)
+        limits = effective_limits(contract.budgets if contract is not None else None)
+        # The contract's followup walltime only overrides when EXPLICITLY
+        # set — and only DOWNWARD from the operator's spec value: strictly-
+        # downward shaping must hold against operator config too, not just
+        # against the module defaults.
+        spec = shape_followup_spec(followup_spec, limits, contract)
+        ended, submitted = service_in_review(
+            root,
+            github,
+            compute,
+            spec,
+            now,
+            dry_run=followup_dry_run,
+            allow_submit=launch_ok,
+            contract=contract,
+        )
+        try:
+            service_research_log(root, github, spec, now)
+        except Exception as exc:  # the ledger is advisory; the tick continues
+            log.warning("research-log service failed: %s", exc)
+        intake_job = (
+            service_intake(
+                root, github, compute, spec, now, contract, limits, dry_run=followup_dry_run
+            )
+            if launch_ok and contract is not None
+            else None
+        )
+        steward_job = (
+            service_steward(
+                root, github, compute, spec, now, contract, limits, dry_run=followup_dry_run
+            )
+            if launch_ok and intake_job is None and contract is not None
+            else None
+        )
+        self_job = None
+        if launch_ok and intake_job is None and steward_job is None and contract is not None:
+            try:
+                self_job = service_self_initiated(
+                    root,
+                    compute,
+                    spec,
+                    contract,
+                    now,
+                    limits=limits,
+                    dry_run=followup_dry_run,
+                )
+            except Exception as exc:
+                log.warning("self-initiated selection failed: %s", exc)
+        # AFTER the launch block: a run started this tick is on the strip
+        # this tick, not the next one
+        service_boards(root, github, spec.target, contract, now)
+        report = replace_report(
+            report,
+            ended,
+            submitted,
+            intake_job,
+            self_job,
+            disk_health.warnings(),
+            not launch_ok,
+            steward_job,
+        )
+    # The coalesce marker is stamped by the CALLER at real completion time (see
+    # main / mark_tick_complete) — not here with the start-of-tick `now`, which
+    # a tick longer than the window would leave stale.
+    return report
+
+
+def service_syncs(root: Path, spec: Any, now: float) -> None:
+    """Honor mid-leg sync requests: a LIVE session asked for fresh origin/*
+    refs and is waiting inside its own clock. The fetch pins the canonical
+    URL (never the workspace's mutable remote config) and only refs/remotes
+    are written — safe next to the session's local git use. Best-effort per
+    run; a failure leaves the request standing for the next cycle."""
+    from outerloop.appauth import resolve_bot_auth
+    from outerloop.attempt import _target_clone_url
+    from outerloop.github import Workspace
+    from outerloop.syscall import mark_synced, sync_requested
+
+    for record in list_runs(root):
+        if record.state != IMPLEMENTING:
+            continue
+        workspace = run_dir(root, record.run_id) / "ws"
+        if not workspace.is_dir():
+            continue
+        requested_at = sync_requested(workspace)
+        if requested_at is None:
+            continue
+        try:
+            ws = Workspace(
+                root=workspace,
+                auth=(
+                    resolve_bot_auth(spec.pat_file, spec.github_app_file)
+                    if (spec.pat_file or spec.github_app_file)
+                    else None
+                ),
+                url=_target_clone_url(record.target),
+            )
+            ws.fetch_origin()
+            mark_synced(workspace, requested_at)
+            log.info("synced origin refs for %s", record.run_id)
+        except Exception as exc:
+            log.warning("sync failed for %s: %s", record.run_id, exc)
+
+
+def service_boards(root: Path, github: Any, target: str, contract: Any, now: float) -> None:
+    """The climb board and the live strip, together and advisory: the views
+    publish from the first tick (before any run ends), and a failure never
+    stops the tick."""
+    try:
+        from outerloop.climbboard import contract_directions, service_climb_board
+
+        service_climb_board(root, github, target, contract_directions(contract))
+    except Exception as exc:
+        log.warning("climb board service failed: %s", exc)
+    try:
+        from outerloop.climbboard import service_status
+
+        service_status(root, github, target, now, contract)
+    except Exception as exc:  # each is advisory ALONE: one failing never mutes the other
+        log.warning("status strip service failed: %s", exc)
+
+
+def replace_report(
+    report: TickReport,
+    ended: list[tuple[str, str]],
+    submitted: list[tuple[str, str]],
+    intake_job: tuple[str, str] | None = None,
+    self_job: tuple[str, str] | None = None,
+    disk_warnings: list[str] | None = None,
+    launch_blocked: bool = False,
+    steward_job: tuple[str, str] | None = None,
+) -> TickReport:
+    from dataclasses import replace as dc_replace
+
+    return dc_replace(
+        report,
+        review_ended=tuple(ended),
+        followups_submitted=tuple(submitted),
+        intake=intake_job or ("", ""),
+        self_initiated=self_job or ("", ""),
+        disk=tuple(disk_warnings or ()),
+        launch_blocked=launch_blocked,
+        steward=steward_job or ("", ""),
+    )
+
+
+MAX_ACTIVE_RUNS_PER_TARGET = 1
+SELF_INITIATED_COOLDOWN_S = 6 * 3600
+# the crash-loop floor: a launch that died pre-record backs off at least
+# this long regardless of the contract's cooldown dial
+DEAD_LAUNCH_BACKOFF_S = 30 * 60
+# An implementing run untouched for this long is a crashed climb job; it must
+# not block the lane forever, but the window must exceed the LONGEST honest
+# job — the 120-min contract ceiling plus the panel allowance the tick adds
+# (~4.5 h at the defaults) plus queue-start slack — or the picker declares a
+# live run stranded and starts a second one on the same target, breaking the
+# one-active-run serialization. Its cooldown entry still applies, so a
+# crashed benchmark isn't immediately retried.
+STRANDED_IMPLEMENTING_S = 12 * 3600
+# A pending marker older than this is dead even if squeue can't be read.
+PENDING_TTL_S = 4 * 3600
+
+
+def pick_self_initiated(
+    records: list[RunRecord],
+    contract: Any,
+    target: str,
+    now: float,
+    dead_attempts: dict[str, float] | None = None,
+    live_pendings: list[tuple[str, float]] | None = None,
+) -> str | None:
+    """The benchmark to climb next on `target`, or None.
+
+    Deliberately boring (the planning agent upgrades this later): serialize
+    to one active run per target, respect the contract's weekly budget and a
+    per-benchmark cooldown, then choose the benchmark least recently
+    attempted — untouched ones first. Only this target's runs count toward
+    any of it. `dead_attempts` maps benchmark -> submitted_at for launches
+    that died BEFORE writing a run record (per-benchmark tombstones) — each
+    counts toward cooldown with a crash-loop floor, so alternating
+    pre-record failures can't ping-pong every tick (terra #172 r2/r3).
+    """
+    mine = [r for r in records if r.target == target]
+
+    def stranded(r: RunRecord) -> bool:
+        return r.state == IMPLEMENTING and now - max(r.updated, r.created) > STRANDED_IMPLEMENTING_S
+
+    active = [r for r in mine if r.state != ENDED and not stranded(r)]
+    if len(active) >= _attempt_width(contract):
+        return None
+    week_ago = now - 7 * 24 * 3600
+    # queued slots count toward the weekly budget BEFORE their records
+    # exist, or a width-N target with one run left could submit N (terra
+    # #173 r2); when a marker lands, the service clears it before calling
+    # here, so a run is never counted twice
+    queued = sum(1 for _, submitted_at in live_pendings or [] if submitted_at >= week_ago)
+    if sum(1 for r in mine if r.created >= week_ago) + queued >= contract.budgets.runs_per_week:
+        return None
+    last_attempt: dict[str, float] = {}
+    for r in mine:
+        if r.benchmark:
+            last_attempt[r.benchmark] = max(last_attempt.get(r.benchmark, 0.0), r.created)
+    for bench_name, submitted_at in (dead_attempts or {}).items():
+        last_attempt[bench_name] = max(last_attempt.get(bench_name, 0.0), submitted_at)
+    for bench_name, submitted_at in live_pendings or []:
+        # a queued sibling starts its benchmark's cooldown clock too:
+        # width spreads across benchmarks first, and re-picking the same
+        # one needs the contract to have set cooldown to 0 (portfolio)
+        if bench_name:
+            last_attempt[bench_name] = max(last_attempt.get(bench_name, 0.0), submitted_at)
+    cooldown_min = getattr(contract.budgets, "attempt_cooldown_minutes", None)
+    cooldown_s = SELF_INITIATED_COOLDOWN_S if cooldown_min is None else cooldown_min * 60
+    # A launch that died BEFORE writing a run record is invisible to the
+    # runs_per_week cap, so its cooldown attribution is the ONLY crash-loop
+    # guard — it keeps a floor even when the contract dials cooldown to 0
+    # (terra #172: zero cooldown otherwise resubmits a crashing launch
+    # every tick, uncapped).
+    dead_benches = set(dead_attempts or ())
+    candidates = sorted(
+        contract.benchmarks,
+        key=lambda b: (last_attempt.get(b.name, 0.0), b.name),
+    )
+    for bench in candidates:
+        floor_s = cooldown_s
+        if bench.name in dead_benches:
+            floor_s = max(cooldown_s, DEAD_LAUNCH_BACKOFF_S)
+        if now - last_attempt.get(bench.name, 0.0) >= floor_s:
+            return str(bench.name)
+    return None
+
+
+def _tombstone_path(root: Path, target: str, benchmark: str) -> Path:
+    safe = f"{target.replace('/', '__')}__{benchmark}"
+    return root / "pending-dead" / (safe + ".json")
+
+
+def write_tombstone(root: Path, target: str, benchmark: str, submitted_at: float) -> None:
+    """Per-benchmark crash memory: a launch died before writing a record, so
+    nothing else (runs_per_week, cooldown-by-records) can see it. The
+    tombstone persists independently of the live pending marker — a second
+    benchmark's launch must not erase it (terra #172 r3)."""
+    path = _tombstone_path(root, target, benchmark)
+    try:
+        path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        path.write_text(json.dumps({"submitted_at": submitted_at}))
+    except OSError as exc:
+        log.warning("tombstone write failed for %s/%s: %s", target, benchmark, exc)
+
+
+def read_tombstones(root: Path, target: str, contract: Any, now: float) -> dict[str, float]:
+    """benchmark -> submitted_at for unserved crash tombstones; entries past
+    their window (the larger of the crash floor and the contract cooldown)
+    are pruned on read."""
+    cooldown_min = getattr(contract.budgets, "attempt_cooldown_minutes", None)
+    cooldown_s = SELF_INITIATED_COOLDOWN_S if cooldown_min is None else cooldown_min * 60
+    window = max(DEAD_LAUNCH_BACKOFF_S, cooldown_s)
+    out: dict[str, float] = {}
+    prefix = target.replace("/", "__") + "__"
+    dead_dir = root / "pending-dead"
+    if not dead_dir.is_dir():
+        return out
+    for path in dead_dir.glob(prefix + "*.json"):
+        bench = path.stem[len(prefix) :]
+        try:
+            submitted_at = float(json.loads(path.read_text())["submitted_at"])
+        except (OSError, ValueError, KeyError, TypeError):
+            with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+                path.unlink()
+            continue
+        if now - submitted_at > window:
+            with contextlib.suppress(OSError):
+                path.unlink()  # backoff served
+            continue
+        out[bench] = submitted_at
+    return out
+
+
+# WIDTH slots are the only suffixed marker names; the pattern also fences
+# list_pendings against a longer target that shares this one's file-name
+# prefix (org/foo vs org/foobar — "/" encodes as "__", so glob alone is
+# ambiguous)
+_SLOT_AGENT_RE = re.compile(r"agent-\d+")
+
+
+def _pending_path(root: Path, target: str, agent: str = "") -> Path:
+    # agent "" is the legacy single-slot name, still read for back-compat
+    # with a marker written before the width dial deployed. The slot
+    # separator is "@" because it CANNOT appear in a GitHub owner/repo
+    # name — any character legal in repo names ("_", ".", "-") would make
+    # org/pilot's slot file collide with some other target's legacy file
+    # (org/pilot__agent-01 is a valid repo).
+    suffix = f"@{agent}" if agent else ""
+    return root / "pending" / (target.replace("/", "__") + suffix + ".json")
+
+
+def read_pending(root: Path, target: str, agent: str = "") -> dict[str, Any] | None:
+    """The submit-time marker for a climb whose run record may not exist yet."""
+    path = _pending_path(root, target, agent)
+    try:
+        data = json.loads(path.read_text())
+    except (OSError, ValueError):
+        return None
+    return data if isinstance(data, dict) and "submitted_at" in data else None
+
+
+def list_pendings(root: Path, target: str) -> list[tuple[str, dict[str, Any]]]:
+    """(agent, marker) for every live pending marker of `target` — one per
+    WIDTH slot, plus the legacy un-suffixed marker from a pre-width deploy
+    (attributed to agent-01)."""
+    out: list[tuple[str, dict[str, Any]]] = []
+    stem = target.replace("/", "__")
+    pending_dir = root / "pending"
+    if not pending_dir.is_dir():
+        return out
+    for path in sorted(pending_dir.glob(stem + "*.json")):
+        name = path.stem
+        if name == stem:
+            agent = ""
+        elif name.startswith(stem + "@") and _SLOT_AGENT_RE.fullmatch(name[len(stem) + 1 :]):
+            agent = name[len(stem) + 1 :]
+        else:
+            continue  # a longer target sharing this prefix (org/foo vs org/foobar)
+        try:
+            data = json.loads(path.read_text())
+        except (OSError, ValueError):
+            continue
+        if isinstance(data, dict) and "submitted_at" in data:
+            out.append((agent or str(data.get("agent_id") or "agent-01"), data))
+    return out
+
+
+def write_pending(
+    root: Path, target: str, benchmark: str, job_id: str, now: float, agent: str = ""
+) -> None:
+    path = _pending_path(root, target, agent)
+    path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    tmp = path.with_suffix(".tmp")
+    tmp.write_text(
+        json.dumps(
+            {"benchmark": benchmark, "job_id": job_id, "submitted_at": now, "agent_id": agent}
+        )
+    )
+    os.replace(tmp, path)
+
+
+def clear_pending(root: Path, target: str, agent: str = "") -> None:
+    _pending_path(root, target, agent).unlink(missing_ok=True)
+
+
+def _attempt_width(contract: Any) -> int:
+    width = getattr(getattr(contract, "budgets", None), "max_active_attempts", None)
+    return int(width) if width else MAX_ACTIVE_RUNS_PER_TARGET
+
+
+def _free_agent_slot(occupied: set[str], width: int) -> str | None:
+    for i in range(1, width + 1):
+        agent = f"agent-{i:02d}"
+        if agent not in occupied:
+            return agent
+    return None
+
+
+def _climb_panel_argv(spec: FollowupSpec) -> list[str]:
+    """Panel args for a climb job; empty when the operator disabled the panel."""
+    if not spec.panel.strip():
+        return []
+    argv = ["--panel", spec.panel]
+    if spec.panel_key_file:
+        argv += ["--panel-key-file", spec.panel_key_file]
+    return argv
+
+
+def _author_config_error(spec: FollowupSpec) -> str:
+    """Why the config-driven author would die at the climb's startup ("" when it
+    won't), checked on the tick host BEFORE a claim/submit so a codex misconfig
+    (e.g. AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_BACKEND=codex with no non-claude model) never
+    strands a claimed intake issue. Reads the fleet author config from env — the
+    same source the climb defaults from — and the image the tick already knows."""
+    from outerloop.attempt import codex_author_config_error
+
+    backend = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_BACKEND") or "claude"
+    model = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_MODEL") or "claude-opus-5"
+    return codex_author_config_error(backend, model, spec.image)
+
+
+def _panel_preflight_error(spec: FollowupSpec) -> str:
+    """Why the climb would die at startup on this panel config ("" when it
+    won't): the lens spec, then the key file — each checked with the climb's
+    OWN rules (parse_lenses for the grammar and claude-only backend;
+    FileTokenProvider for exists/mode-600/non-empty), so preflight and climb
+    cannot disagree.
+
+    Preflighted BEFORE claiming or submitting: the climb CLI fails loudly,
+    but by then an intake issue is already claimed — and pick_issue never
+    reclaims — so the strand must be caught on the tick host, which shares
+    the home filesystem the climb will read."""
+    if not spec.panel.strip():
+        return ""
+    try:
+        from outerloop.attempt import PANEL_KEY_DEFAULT, resolve_author_key_file
+        from outerloop.github import FileTokenProvider
+        from outerloop.panel import parse_lenses
+
+        try:
+            lenses = parse_lenses(spec.panel)
+        except ValueError as exc:
+            return str(exc)
+        # non-claude (shelled) lenses: mirror the climb's rules exactly, per
+        # backend — image required, the judge's OWN key (set + absolute +
+        # neither the author's nor the claude panel key + readable), and for
+        # hermes its pinned clone.
+        shelled = {
+            "codex": "AUTORESEARCH_PANEL_CODEX_KEY_FILE",
+            "hermes": "AUTORESEARCH_PANEL_HERMES_KEY_FILE",
+        }
+        for lens_backend, key_env in shelled.items():
+            if not any(backend == lens_backend for _, backend, _ in lenses):
+                continue
+            if not spec.image or not Path(spec.image).is_file():
+                return (
+                    f"a {lens_backend} panel lens requires a real container image "
+                    f"(AUTORESEARCH_IMAGE={spec.image!r})"
+                )
+            key_raw = os.environ.get(key_env, "").strip()
+            if not key_raw:
+                return (
+                    f"a {lens_backend} panel lens needs {key_env} "
+                    "(role separation: the judge's own key, never the author's)"
+                )
+            key_path = Path(key_raw).expanduser()
+            if not key_path.is_absolute():
+                return (
+                    f"{lens_backend} panel key path {key_path} is relative; only absolute paths fly"
+                )
+            author = Path(resolve_author_key_file("codex")).expanduser()
+            if key_path.resolve() == author.resolve():
+                return (
+                    f"{lens_backend} panel key file {key_path} is the codex author "
+                    "key (role separation: the judge needs its own key)"
+                )
+            claude_panel = Path(spec.panel_key_file or PANEL_KEY_DEFAULT).expanduser()
+            if key_path.resolve() == claude_panel.resolve():
+                return (
+                    f"{lens_backend} panel key file {key_path} is the claude panel "
+                    "key file (an anthropic key must never reach another "
+                    "provider's login)"
+                )
+            FileTokenProvider(key_path).token()
+            if lens_backend == "hermes":
+                repo = os.environ.get("REVIEW_HERMES_REPO", "").strip()
+                # a REAL clone, not merely a directory: the harness executes
+                # run_agent.py from it with the panel key, so an arbitrary or
+                # empty path must fail here, never after a run is claimed
+                if not repo or not (Path(repo).expanduser() / "run_agent.py").is_file():
+                    return (
+                        f"a hermes panel lens needs REVIEW_HERMES_REPO pointing at "
+                        f"the pinned clone (run_agent.py not found under {repo!r})"
+                    )
+                from outerloop.role_runner import _HERMES_PROVIDERS
+
+                provider = os.environ.get("REVIEW_HERMES_PROVIDER", "").lower() or "openrouter"
+                if provider not in _HERMES_PROVIDERS:
+                    return (
+                        f"unknown REVIEW_HERMES_PROVIDER {provider!r} "
+                        f"(have: {sorted(_HERMES_PROVIDERS)})"
+                    )
+        if not any(backend == "claude" for _, backend, _ in lenses):
+            return ""  # codex-only panel: the claude key checks below don't apply
+        path = Path(spec.panel_key_file or PANEL_KEY_DEFAULT).expanduser()
+        if not path.is_absolute():
+            # the climb runs from a flight directory, not the tick's cwd — a
+            # relative path that resolves here could still miss there
+            return f"panel key path {path} is relative; only absolute paths fly"
+        # the AUTHOR key the climb will actually use resolves per the fleet backend
+        # (claude vs codex keys coexist), config-driven like the climb itself — so
+        # the role-separation check compares the panel key against the RIGHT author
+        # key, and a codex run is never judged by a stray Claude key.
+        fleet_backend = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_BACKEND") or "claude"
+        author = Path(resolve_author_key_file(fleet_backend))
+        if not author.is_absolute():
+            # same rule as the panel key: the climb resolves paths from a
+            # flight directory, so a relative author path both misconfigures
+            # the author AND defeats the role-separation comparison below
+            return f"author key path {author} is relative; only absolute paths fly"
+        if path.resolve() == author.resolve():
+            return (
+                f"panel key file {path} is the author key file "
+                "(role separation: the verifier needs its own key)"
+            )
+        # ADC-only deployments (Vertex covering the claude panel) hold no
+        # Anthropic key at all — the same tolerance role_key applies at run
+        # time, so the preflight and the climb agree.
+        from outerloop.role_runner import role_key
+
+        role_key(path)
+        return ""
+    except Exception as exc:
+        # never raises: an unexpected failure (partial deploy, ELOOP, unset
+        # HOME) must fail closed WITH the alarm, not abort the tick that
+        # would have written it
+        return f"{type(exc).__name__}: {exc}"
+
+
+def _attempt_job_minutes(spec: FollowupSpec, limits: EffectiveLimits) -> int:
+    """The submitted climb walltime: contract budget + panel allowance,
+    clamped at the partition cap. Warns when the cap cuts below the session
+    budget — the self-deadline would then fire before the author's own
+    clock, and that must be a visible operator choice, never a silent
+    surprise."""
+    from outerloop.limits import ATTEMPT_OVERHEAD_MINUTES
+
+    wanted = limits.attempt_job_minutes + _panel_job_minutes(spec, limits)
+    job = min(wanted, spec.max_job_minutes)
+    if job < wanted:
+        log.info(
+            "climb job clamped to %d min by the partition cap (worst case "
+            "wanted %d); slow panel rounds fail safe via the self-deadline",
+            job,
+            wanted,
+        )
+    if job < limits.session_minutes + ATTEMPT_OVERHEAD_MINUTES:
+        log.warning(
+            "work-job cap %d min leaves no runway around the %d-min session "
+            "(the orchestrator needs ~%d min); sessions or endings will be "
+            "cut short by the self-deadline",
+            job,
+            limits.session_minutes,
+            ATTEMPT_OVERHEAD_MINUTES,
+        )
+    return job
+
+
+def _panel_job_minutes(spec: FollowupSpec, limits: EffectiveLimits) -> int:
+    """Extra walltime the panel needs, ADDED to the contract-clamped job
+    budget: the contract's knobs cap the AUTHOR's spend and their ceilings
+    deliberately cannot raise ours (limits.py), so the panel — the
+    orchestrator's own gate, flipped on by the tick — brings its own time.
+    Worst case: three sequential reads of every lens (initial, post-revision,
+    merged-tree) on the judge budget, plus one revision wake on the session
+    budget. The revision's re-measure rides the margin the self-deadline
+    already fails safe on."""
+    lenses = [entry for entry in spec.panel.split(",") if entry.strip()]
+    if not lenses:
+        return 0
+    from outerloop.roles import reviewer_spec, verifier_spec
+
+    judge_minutes = max(reviewer_spec().budget.walltime_s, verifier_spec().budget.walltime_s) // 60
+    return 3 * len(lenses) * judge_minutes + limits.session_minutes
+
+
+def _climb_limit_argv(limits: EffectiveLimits, job_minutes: int) -> list[str]:
+    """Climb-CLI flags carrying the tick-resolved limits: the job's ACTUAL
+    walltime rides along (contract budget + any panel allowance, clamped at
+    the partition cap — exactly what the JobSpec gets) so the climb arms its
+    self-deadline against the real clock (Slurm delivers no signals to our
+    processes on Torch). The session shrinks to fit a
+    CAPPED job with the same rule limits.effective_limits applies to
+    contract values — better a short session that ends cleanly than a full
+    one the self-deadline kills mid-flight."""
+    from outerloop.limits import ATTEMPT_OVERHEAD_MINUTES, SESSION_MINUTES_FLOOR
+
+    session = min(limits.session_minutes, job_minutes - ATTEMPT_OVERHEAD_MINUTES)
+    return [
+        "--max-turns",
+        str(limits.session_max_turns),
+        "--session-minutes",
+        str(max(SESSION_MINUTES_FLOOR, session)),
+        "--job-minutes",
+        str(job_minutes),
+    ]
+
+
+def service_self_initiated(
+    root: Path,
+    compute: Compute,
+    spec: FollowupSpec,
+    contract: Any,
+    now: float,
+    limits: EffectiveLimits | None = None,
+    dry_run: bool = False,
+) -> tuple[str, str] | None:
+    """The default background mode: when nothing else needs doing, climb the
+    least-recently-attempted benchmark.
+
+    A pending marker written at submit time bridges the gap between
+    `compute.submit` and the climb job writing its run record — without it,
+    every tick during Slurm queue latency would launch a duplicate climb.
+    """
+    limits = limits if limits is not None else effective_limits(getattr(contract, "budgets", None))
+    paused = outage_active(root, now, role="solver")
+    if paused:
+        log.info("self-initiated lane paused (api outage: %s)", paused)
+        return None
+    try:
+        records = list_runs(root)
+        width = _attempt_width(contract)
+        # WIDTH: every live pending marker occupies a slot; landed ones
+        # clear; dead ones become per-benchmark tombstones and free theirs.
+        occupied: set[str] = set()
+        live_pendings: list[tuple[str, float]] = []
+        nonslot_busy = False
+        for agent, pending in list_pendings(root, spec.target):
+            marker_agent = "" if not pending.get("agent_id") else agent
+            submitted_at = float(pending["submitted_at"])
+            # A slotted marker lands only when ITS OWN record appears —
+            # matching on target+time alone would let a sibling slot's
+            # record clear a still-live marker (terra #173). A legacy
+            # marker names no slot, so it keeps the lax match.
+            landed = any(
+                r.target == spec.target
+                and r.created >= submitted_at - 60
+                and (not marker_agent or r.agent_id == marker_agent)
+                for r in records
+            )
+            expired = now - submitted_at > PENDING_TTL_S
+            if landed:
+                clear_pending(root, spec.target, marker_agent)
+            elif (alive := _holder_alive(compute, str(pending.get("job_id", "")))) is True or (
+                not expired and alive is not False
+            ):
+                # climb queued or starting; its record isn't written yet. A
+                # provably-alive job holds its SLOT regardless of the
+                # marker's TTL — queue wait can exceed it — the TTL only
+                # breaks ties when Slurm can't say.
+                occupied.add(agent)
+                live_pendings.append((str(pending.get("benchmark", "")), submitted_at))
+                if not marker_agent:
+                    # a live un-slotted marker is another lane's submit
+                    # (steward/intake, or a pre-width deploy): serial
+                    nonslot_busy = True
+            else:
+                # Died before writing a record: persist the crash memory as a
+                # PER-BENCHMARK tombstone (a sibling launch must not erase
+                # this — terra #172 r3), then free the slot.
+                write_tombstone(root, spec.target, str(pending.get("benchmark", "")), submitted_at)
+                clear_pending(root, spec.target, marker_agent)
+        stranded_cutoff = now - STRANDED_IMPLEMENTING_S
+        for r in records:
+            if r.target == spec.target and r.state != ENDED:
+                if r.state == IMPLEMENTING and max(r.updated, r.created) <= stranded_cutoff:
+                    continue  # stranded: pick ignores it, so must occupancy
+                occupied.add(r.agent_id)
+                if not _SLOT_AGENT_RE.fullmatch(r.agent_id):
+                    nonslot_busy = True
+        if nonslot_busy:
+            # steward and intake keep their pre-width one-run-per-target
+            # exclusivity: width applies AMONG self-initiated slots, it
+            # does not license launching beside another lane (terra #173)
+            return None
+        if len(occupied) >= width:
+            return None
+        slot_agent = _free_agent_slot(occupied, width)
+        if slot_agent is None:
+            return None
+        dead_attempts = read_tombstones(root, spec.target, contract, now)
+        benchmark = pick_self_initiated(
+            records, contract, spec.target, now, dead_attempts, live_pendings
+        )
+        if benchmark is None:
+            return None
+        if getattr(contract, "merge", "manual") == "auto" and not spec.panel:
+            # auto merge mode means gate+PANEL clean self-merges; a
+            # deployment with no panel configured must not launch attempts
+            # that would publish panel-less self-merging PRs (terra #171)
+            log.error(
+                "attempt on %s not launched: contract sets merge:auto but "
+                "no panel is configured (set AUTORESEARCH_PANEL, or the "
+                "contract back to merge:manual)",
+                benchmark,
+            )
+            return None
+        if lane_error := _gpu_lane_error(contract, benchmark, spec):
+            log.error("attempt on %s not launched: %s", benchmark, lane_error)
+            return None
+        author_error = _author_config_error(spec)
+        if author_error:
+            log.error(
+                "climb on %s not launched: author misconfigured — %s "
+                "(fix AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_BACKEND/_MODEL)",
+                benchmark,
+                author_error,
+            )
+            return None
+        panel_error = _panel_preflight_error(spec)
+        if panel_error:
+            log.error(
+                "climb on %s not launched: panel misconfigured — %s "
+                "(fix it, or set AUTORESEARCH_PANEL='' to disable the panel)",
+                benchmark,
+                panel_error,
+            )
+            return None
+        if dry_run:
+            return (benchmark, "dry-run")
+        job_minutes = _attempt_job_minutes(spec, limits)
+        argv = [
+            "uv",
+            "run",
+            "python",
+            "-m",
+            "outerloop.attempt",
+            "--target",
+            spec.target,
+            "--benchmark",
+            benchmark,
+            "--run-root",
+            str(spec.run_root),
+            "--image",
+            spec.image,
+            "--agent-id",
+            slot_agent,
+            *_climb_limit_argv(limits, job_minutes),
+            *_climb_panel_argv(spec),
+        ]
+        if spec.pat_file:
+            argv += ["--pat-file", spec.pat_file]
+        # config-driven author: climb resolves the author backend/model/key from
+        # AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_* env (inherited by the job), so the tick threads
+        # neither the backend nor its key — a new backend needs zero tick change.
+        job_id = compute.submit(
+            JobSpec(
+                job_name=f"climb-{benchmark}-{slot_agent}"[:60],
+                account=spec.account,
+                partition=spec.job_partition or spec.partition,
+                time_minutes=job_minutes,
+                command=_flight_command(
+                    spec.home, f"climb-{benchmark}-{slot_agent}"[:60], now, argv
+                ),
+                cpus=4,
+                mem="8G",
+            )
+        )
+        write_pending(root, spec.target, benchmark, job_id, now, agent=slot_agent)
+        log.info("self-initiated climb on %s: job %s", benchmark, job_id)
+        return (benchmark, job_id)
+    except Exception as exc:  # one bad pass must not break the tick
+        log.warning("self-initiated pass failed: %s", exc)
+        return None
+
+
+def service_steward(
+    root: Path,
+    github: Any,
+    compute: Compute,
+    spec: FollowupSpec,
+    now: float,
+    contract: Any,
+    limits: EffectiveLimits,
+    dry_run: bool = False,
+) -> tuple[str, str] | None:
+    """The steward lane: claim at most ONE labeled work-order issue per tick
+    and submit a stewardship job. Off until the operator provisions the
+    steward's own key (role separation) and the contract declares a steward
+    scope."""
+    from outerloop.steward import pick_steward_issue
+
+    target = spec.target
+    if not target or not spec.steward_key_file:
+        return None
+    if getattr(contract, "steward", None) is None:
+        return None
+    try:
+        from outerloop.steward import release_orphaned_claims
+
+        # ONE active run per target covers stewardships too: an env rewrite
+        # must not fly alongside a solver climb or another stewardship.
+        records = list_runs(root)
+        # reconcile first: killed jobs never post their own release — and
+        # BEFORE the outage pause below, because a claim orphaned by the
+        # very session the outage killed must not stay held all cooldown
+        # (reconciliation is model-free bookkeeping; only spawning pauses)
+        release_orphaned_claims(github, target, records, now, bot_login=spec.bot_login)
+        paused = outage_active(root, now, role="steward")
+        if paused:
+            log.info("steward lane paused (api outage: %s)", paused)
+            return None
+        if any(r.target == target and r.state != ENDED for r in records):
+            return None
+        # The queue window (submit -> job writes its record) is bridged by
+        # the SAME per-target pending markers the self-initiated lane uses
+        # — ALL of them, slotted included: a width slot queued without a
+        # record yet must block a stewardship the same way an active run
+        # does. Liveness first, TTL only breaks unknown ties (queue wait
+        # can outlive the TTL).
+        for slot, pending in list_pendings(root, target):
+            marker_agent = "" if not pending.get("agent_id") else slot
+            submitted_at = float(pending.get("submitted_at", 0.0))
+            landed = any(
+                r.target == target
+                and r.created >= submitted_at - 60
+                and (not marker_agent or r.agent_id == marker_agent)
+                for r in records
+            )
+            expired = now - submitted_at > PENDING_TTL_S
+            alive = _holder_alive(compute, str(pending.get("job_id", "")))
+            if not landed and (alive is True or (not expired and alive is not False)):
+                return None
+        task = pick_steward_issue(github, target, contract, spec.bot_login)
+        if task is None:
+            return None
+        if _benchmark_gpus(contract, task.benchmark) > 0:
+            # the stewardship validates its rewrite IN-JOB (SubprocessEvaluator
+            # inside the CPU work job — no GPUs, no --nv), so a GPU benchmark
+            # cannot be stewarded yet; refuse rather than launch a validation
+            # that can only fail (terra #174 r2)
+            log.error(
+                "stewardship on %s not launched: GPU benchmarks validate in-job "
+                "and the steward job has no GPU allocation",
+                task.benchmark,
+            )
+            return None
+        if dry_run:
+            return (f"steward-issue-{task.number}", "dry-run")
+        from outerloop.intake import CLAIM_MARKER, issue_hypothesis
+
+        github.comment(
+            target,
+            task.number,
+            f"{CLAIM_MARKER}\nClaimed by the steward for benchmark "
+            f"`{task.benchmark}`; a run is queued and a report will follow here.",
+        )
+        import base64 as _b64
+
+        work_order_b64 = _b64.b64encode(issue_hypothesis(task).encode()).decode()
+        argv = [
+            "uv",
+            "run",
+            "python",
+            "-m",
+            "outerloop.steward",
+            "--target",
+            target,
+            "--benchmark",
+            task.benchmark,
+            "--run-root",
+            str(spec.run_root),
+            "--image",
+            spec.image,
+            "--issue",
+            str(task.number),
+            "--work-order-b64",
+            work_order_b64,
+            "--key-file",
+            spec.steward_key_file,
+            # the SAME clamped walltime the JobSpec requests, so the
+            # self-deadline arms against the real clock
+            *_climb_limit_argv(limits, min(limits.attempt_job_minutes, spec.max_job_minutes)),
+        ]
+        if spec.pat_file:
+            argv += ["--pat-file", spec.pat_file]
+        try:
+            job_id = compute.submit(
+                JobSpec(
+                    job_name=f"steward-issue-{task.number}",
+                    account=spec.account,
+                    partition=spec.job_partition or spec.partition,
+                    time_minutes=min(limits.attempt_job_minutes, spec.max_job_minutes),
+                    command=_flight_command(spec.home, f"steward-issue-{task.number}", now, argv),
+                    cpus=4,
+                    mem="8G",
+                )
+            )
+        except Exception:
+            # release the claim: a claim with no job behind it would orphan
+            # the work order forever (pick skips claimed issues)
+            from outerloop.steward import RELEASE_MARKER
+
+            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                github.comment(
+                    target,
+                    task.number,
+                    f"{RELEASE_MARKER}\nSubmission failed; claim released — "
+                    f"a later tick will retry this work order.",
+                )
+            raise
+        write_pending(root, target, f"steward:{task.benchmark}", job_id, now)
+        log.info("steward issue #%s claimed for job %s", task.number, job_id)
+        return (f"steward-issue-{task.number}", job_id)
+    except Exception as exc:  # the steward lane must not break the tick
+        log.warning("steward pass failed: %s", exc)
+        return None
+
+
+def service_intake(
+    root: Path,
+    github: Any,
+    compute: Compute,
+    spec: FollowupSpec,
+    now: float,
+    contract: Any = None,
+    limits: EffectiveLimits | None = None,
+    dry_run: bool = False,
+) -> tuple[str, str] | None:
+    """The requested lane: claim at most ONE qualifying issue per tick and
+    submit a climb job for it. The claim comment (posted by the climb job
+    before its session) marks an issue taken; one-per-tick keeps a burst of
+    issues from bursting the budget. The contract arrives from the tick's
+    single per-target fetch; None (fetch failed) sits the lane out."""
+    from outerloop.contract import load_contract
+    from outerloop.intake import issue_hypothesis, pick_issue
+
+    target = spec.target
+    if not target:
+        return None
+    paused = outage_active(root, now, role="solver")
+    if paused:
+        log.info("intake lane paused (api outage: %s)", paused)
+        return None
+    try:
+        if contract is None:
+            contract_raw = _contract_text(github, target, "main")
+            if contract_raw is None:
+                return None
+            contract = load_contract(contract_raw, target)
+        limits = limits if limits is not None else effective_limits(contract.budgets)
+        task = pick_issue(github, target, contract, spec.bot_login)
+        if task is None:
+            return None
+        if getattr(contract, "merge", "manual") == "auto" and not spec.panel:
+            # auto merge mode means gate+PANEL clean self-merges; a
+            # deployment with no panel configured must not launch attempts
+            # that would publish panel-less self-merging PRs (terra #171)
+            log.error(
+                "attempt on %s not launched: contract sets merge:auto but "
+                "no panel is configured (set AUTORESEARCH_PANEL, or the "
+                "contract back to merge:manual)",
+                task.benchmark,
+            )
+            return None
+        if lane_error := _gpu_lane_error(contract, task.benchmark, spec):
+            log.error("attempt on %s not launched: %s", task.benchmark, lane_error)
+            return None
+        author_error = _author_config_error(spec)
+        if author_error:
+            log.error(
+                "issue #%d not claimed: author misconfigured — %s "
+                "(fix AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_BACKEND/_MODEL)",
+                task.number,
+                author_error,
+            )
+            return None
+        panel_error = _panel_preflight_error(spec)
+        if panel_error:
+            log.error(
+                "issue #%d not claimed: panel misconfigured — %s "
+                "(fix it, or set AUTORESEARCH_PANEL='' to disable the panel)",
+                task.number,
+                panel_error,
+            )
+            return None
+        if dry_run:
+            return (f"issue-{task.number}", "dry-run")
+        job_minutes = _attempt_job_minutes(spec, limits)
+        # claim BEFORE submit: Slurm queueing can take minutes, and the next
+        # tick must not re-claim the same issue in that window
+        from outerloop.intake import CLAIM_MARKER, MAX_INTAKE_ATTEMPTS, RELEASE_MARKER
+
+        github.comment(
+            target,
+            task.number,
+            f"{CLAIM_MARKER}\nClaimed for benchmark `{task.benchmark}`; a run "
+            "is queued and a report will follow here.",
+        )
+        import base64 as _b64
+
+        hypothesis_b64 = _b64.b64encode(issue_hypothesis(task).encode()).decode()
+        argv = [
+            "uv",
+            "run",
+            "python",
+            "-m",
+            "outerloop.attempt",
+            "--target",
+            target,
+            "--benchmark",
+            task.benchmark,
+            "--run-root",
+            str(spec.run_root),
+            "--image",
+            spec.image,
+            "--issue",
+            str(task.number),
+            "--hypothesis-b64",
+            hypothesis_b64,
+            *_climb_limit_argv(limits, job_minutes),
+            *_climb_panel_argv(spec),
+        ]
+        if spec.pat_file:
+            argv += ["--pat-file", spec.pat_file]
+        # config-driven author: climb resolves the author key from the
+        # AUTORESEARCH_AUTHOR_* env by backend; the tick does not thread it.
+        try:
+            job_id = compute.submit(
+                JobSpec(
+                    job_name=f"climb-issue-{task.number}",
+                    account=spec.account,
+                    partition=spec.job_partition or spec.partition,
+                    time_minutes=job_minutes,
+                    command=_flight_command(spec.home, f"climb-issue-{task.number}", now, argv),
+                    cpus=4,
+                    mem="8G",
+                )
+            )
+        except Exception:
+            # the claim is already posted and pick_issue skips claimed
+            # issues, so a failed submit must release it (same pattern as
+            # the steward lane) or the issue is stranded forever
+            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                github.comment(
+                    target,
+                    task.number,
+                    f"{RELEASE_MARKER}\nSubmission failed; claim released — "
+                    f"a later tick will retry this issue (intake gives up "
+                    f"after {MAX_INTAKE_ATTEMPTS} claim attempts and leaves "
+                    f"it for a human).",
+                )
+            raise
+        log.info("issue #%s claimed for climb job %s", task.number, job_id)
+        return (f"issue-{task.number}", job_id)
+    except Exception as exc:  # intake must not break the tick
+        log.warning("intake pass failed: %s", exc)
+        return None
+
+
+@dataclass
+class LoggingDispatcher:
+    """Never dispatched in production: main() runs the sweep dry unless
+    dispatched wake is armed, so no lease is taken and no attempt is
+    counted. This exists for the seam."""
+
+    def dispatch(self, record: RunRecord, reason: str) -> str:
+        log.info("WOULD WAKE %s (%s) — session dispatch lands in phase 5", record.run_id, reason)
+        return ""
+
+
+@dataclass
+class JobWakeDispatcher:
+    """Delivers a wake by submitting a Slurm job that runs the wake CLI
+    (`climb --resume <run_id>`), depending on the run's eval jobs (the record's
+    `afterany`) so it fires when they finish — or immediately if they already
+    have. CPU-only and short: a wake reads cached results and opens a PR, it
+    never holds a GPU. Returns the wake job id (async: it owns the lease until
+    it completes)."""
+
+    compute: Compute
+    spec: FollowupSpec
+    now: float
+    wake_minutes: int = 20
+
+    def dispatch(self, record: RunRecord, reason: str) -> str:
+        argv = [
+            "uv",
+            "run",
+            "python",
+            "-m",
+            "outerloop.attempt",
+            "--resume",
+            record.run_id,
+            "--run-root",
+            str(self.spec.run_root),
+            "--image",
+            self.spec.image,
+            "--account",
+            self.spec.account,
+            "--partition",
+            self.spec.partition,
+            "--gpu-partition",
+            self.spec.gpu_partition,
+            "--gpu-account",
+            self.spec.gpu_account,
+            # the wake runs the SAME verification panel as the fresh climb, so a
+            # dispatched improvement is verified before it is published.
+            *_climb_panel_argv(self.spec),
+            # session budget for the depth-axis REVISION (a blocking panel
+            # finding wakes the author to revise).
+            "--max-turns",
+            str(self.spec.max_turns),
+        ]
+        # An AUTHOR-SLEEP wake resumes a FULL author session (not the short
+        # read-decide a candidate wake runs), so the Slurm job must fit that
+        # session or walltime kills the resumed session mid-run and the run just
+        # waits for another wake. Size the job to the session
+        # budget + overhead and pass --session-minutes so the in-job
+        # self-deadline fires BEFORE Slurm's walltime. A candidate wake keeps
+        # the short budget (read results + panel).
+        from outerloop.limits import ATTEMPT_OVERHEAD_MINUTES
+        from outerloop.roles import author_spec
+
+        if record.stage.get("phase") == "author-sleep":
+            session_minutes = author_spec().budget.walltime_s // 60
+            argv += ["--session-minutes", str(session_minutes)]
+            job_minutes = min(session_minutes + ATTEMPT_OVERHEAD_MINUTES, self.spec.max_job_minutes)
+        else:
+            job_minutes = self.wake_minutes + _wake_panel_minutes(self.spec)
+        if self.spec.pat_file:
+            argv += ["--pat-file", self.spec.pat_file]
+        # config-driven author: `climb --resume` resolves the author key from the
+        # PARKED RUN's backend (persisted on its record) inside climb.main — the
+        # tick does not thread the key, so a fleet flip picks the right one.
+        name = f"wake-{record.run_id}"[:60]
+        afterany = str(record.stage.get("afterany", ""))
+        return self.compute.submit(
+            JobSpec(
+                job_name=name,
+                account=self.spec.account,
+                partition=self.spec.job_partition or self.spec.partition,
+                time_minutes=job_minutes,
+                command=_flight_command(self.spec.home, name, self.now, argv),
+                dependency=afterany,
+                cpus=2,
+                mem="4G",
+            )
+        )
+
+
+def _wake_panel_minutes(spec: FollowupSpec) -> int:
+    """Extra wake walltime for the verification panel it now runs — the base
+    `wake_minutes` covers only reading results + opening the PR. Budgeted for
+    the worst case a single wake reaches: one read per lens PLUS one revision
+    author session (the depth-axis wake-to-revise). The revision's re-measure
+    only DISPATCHES (then the job ends, parked), so it needs no extra time.
+    Grounded in the same judge/author budgets the climb job uses."""
+    from outerloop.panel import panel_read_minutes
+    from outerloop.roles import author_spec
+
+    read_minutes = panel_read_minutes(spec.panel)
+    if not read_minutes:
+        return 0
+    return read_minutes + author_spec().budget.walltime_s // 60
+
+
+def _wake_dispatcher_from_env(
+    compute: Compute, followup_spec: FollowupSpec | None, now: float, root: Path
+) -> tuple[WakeDispatcher, bool]:
+    """The wake delivery for this tick, behind an EXPLICIT on-switch so the
+    dispatched-wake path lands DARK. Returns `(dispatcher, live)`:
+
+    * armed (the `AUTORESEARCH_DISPATCH_WAKE` env var OR a `<root>/DISPATCH_WAKE`
+      sentinel file) AND the chain env carries what a wake job needs -> the real
+      `JobWakeDispatcher` and a LIVE sweep;
+    * otherwise -> the `LoggingDispatcher` and a DRY sweep.
+
+    The sentinel mirrors PAUSE: an operator arms/disarms with a touch/rm, no
+    chain restart. So dispatched climbing is turned on deliberately, and a
+    half-configured environment fails safe to dry rather than to a wake job
+    that cannot run."""
+    if not dispatch_wake_armed(root):
+        return LoggingDispatcher(), False
+    if followup_spec is None:
+        log.warning("dispatch-wake armed but the chain env is incomplete; wake stays dry")
+        return LoggingDispatcher(), False
+    log.info("dispatched-wake ON: the waiting-run sweep delivers real wakes this tick")
+    return JobWakeDispatcher(compute, followup_spec, now), True
+
+
+def _max_job_minutes_from_env() -> int:
+    """AUTORESEARCH_MAX_JOB_MINUTES, clamped into what the code can honor:
+    at least the climb-job floor (an operator on a short-MaxTime partition
+    must be able to LOWER the cap below cpu_short's 6h, or every submit is
+    rejected), at most the ceiling the stranded window allows. A clamped
+    value logs — a silently-changed cap would read as the partition
+    rejecting jobs for no reason."""
+    from outerloop.limits import ATTEMPT_JOB_MINUTES_FLOOR
+
+    raw = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_MAX_JOB_MINUTES", "").strip()
+    if not raw:
+        return MAX_ATTEMPT_JOB_MINUTES
+    try:
+        value = int(raw)
+    except ValueError:
+        log.warning("AUTORESEARCH_MAX_JOB_MINUTES=%r is not an integer; using default", raw)
+        return MAX_ATTEMPT_JOB_MINUTES
+    clamped = max(ATTEMPT_JOB_MINUTES_FLOOR, min(value, MAX_JOB_MINUTES_CEILING))
+    if clamped != value:
+        log.warning("AUTORESEARCH_MAX_JOB_MINUTES=%d clamped to %d", value, clamped)
+    return clamped
+
+
+def _cadence_s() -> float:
+    """The chain's tick cadence in seconds (AUTORESEARCH_CADENCE_MIN, the same
+    knob tick_chain.sbatch uses), defaulting to 30 min when unset/invalid."""
+    raw = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_CADENCE_MIN", "").strip()
+    try:
+        cadence_s = float(raw) * 60 if raw else 30 * 60
+    except ValueError:
+        cadence_s = 30 * 60
+    return cadence_s if (math.isfinite(cadence_s) and cadence_s > 0) else 30 * 60
+
+
+def _coalesce_ceiling_s() -> float:
+    """The largest SAFE coalesce window, bounding both the default and an
+    explicit AUTORESEARCH_MIN_TICK_MINUTES: half the cadence (so an on-cadence
+    tick is never coalesced even when the previous one ran a little late), and
+    never above the absolute MAX_MIN_TICK_S. A window at/above the cadence would
+    swallow every normal tick and stall the loop — this is what forbids it."""
+    return min(float(MAX_MIN_TICK_S), _cadence_s() / 2)
+
+
+def _default_min_tick_s() -> float:
+    """The coalesce window when none is set: the safe ceiling, further capped at
+    the 10-min DEFAULT_MIN_TICK_S — small enough to only catch pile-ups, and
+    cadence-aware so a short cadence scales it down instead of swallowing every
+    tick."""
+    return min(DEFAULT_MIN_TICK_S, _coalesce_ceiling_s())
+
+
+def _min_tick_s_from_env() -> float:
+    """AUTORESEARCH_MIN_TICK_MINUTES -> the coalesce window in seconds. Unset
+    derives a cadence-aware default; non-numeric/non-finite also fall back to it;
+    negative clamps to 0 (coalesce disabled); a value at/above the safe ceiling
+    (half the cadence, capped at MAX_MIN_TICK_S) clamps down so it cannot stall
+    the loop."""
+    raw = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_MIN_TICK_MINUTES", "").strip()
+    if not raw:
+        return _default_min_tick_s()
+    try:
+        minutes = float(raw)
+    except ValueError:
+        log.warning("AUTORESEARCH_MIN_TICK_MINUTES=%r is not a number; using default", raw)
+        return _default_min_tick_s()
+    # reject inf/nan: an infinite window would coalesce every future tick and
+    # freeze the loop (a finite elapsed time is always < inf)
+    if not math.isfinite(minutes):
+        log.warning("AUTORESEARCH_MIN_TICK_MINUTES=%r is not finite; using default", raw)
+        return _default_min_tick_s()
+    seconds = max(0.0, minutes * 60)
+    ceiling = _coalesce_ceiling_s()
+    if seconds > ceiling:
+        log.warning(
+            "AUTORESEARCH_MIN_TICK_MINUTES=%s exceeds the safe ceiling "
+            "(%.0f min, ~half the cadence); clamping so normal ticks are not coalesced",
+            raw,
+            ceiling / 60,
+        )
+        return ceiling
+    return seconds
+
+
+def _followup_spec_from_env(root: Path) -> tuple[Any, FollowupSpec | None]:
+    """GitHub client + FollowupSpec from the chain environment, or Nones when
+    the environment is incomplete (the tick then runs without in-review
+    servicing, and logs what is absent)."""
+    pat_file = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_PAT_FILE", "")
+    app_file = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_GITHUB_APP_FILE", "")
+    account = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_ACCOUNT", "")
+    partition = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_PARTITION", "")
+    image = os.environ.get(
+        "AUTORESEARCH_IMAGE",
+        os.path.expanduser("~/autoresearch-images/agent-py312.sif"),
+    )
+    home = os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_HOME", "")
+    # Local compute runs jobs as subprocesses: Slurm placement is meaningless
+    # there, so account/partition are only required when a cluster is in play.
+    placed = bool(account and partition) or local_mode()
+    if (pat_file or app_file) and placed and home and Path(image).is_file():
+        from outerloop.appauth import resolve_bot_auth
+        from outerloop.github import GitHubClient
+
+        try:
+            github = GitHubClient(auth=resolve_bot_auth(pat_file, app_file))
+            followup_spec = FollowupSpec(
+                account=account,
+                partition=partition,
+                run_root=root,
+                image=image,
+                home=Path(home),
+                pat_file=pat_file,
+                github_app_file=app_file,
+                target=os.environ.get(
+                    "AUTORESEARCH_TARGET", "agentic-learning-ai-lab/autoresearch-pilot"
+                ),
+                steward_key_file=os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_STEWARD_KEY_FILE", ""),
+                panel=os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_PANEL", "verify,review"),
+                panel_key_file=os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_PANEL_KEY_FILE", ""),
+                job_partition=os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_JOB_PARTITION", ""),
+                gpu_partition=os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_GPU_PARTITION", ""),
+                gpu_account=os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_GPU_ACCOUNT", ""),
+                max_job_minutes=_max_job_minutes_from_env(),
+            )
+            return github, followup_spec
+        except Exception as exc:
+            log.warning("in-review servicing disabled: %s", exc)
+            return None, None
+    absent = [
+        name
+        for name, value in [
+            ("AUTORESEARCH_PAT_FILE or _GITHUB_APP_FILE", pat_file or app_file),
+            ("AUTORESEARCH_ACCOUNT", account or ("-" if local_mode() else "")),
+            ("AUTORESEARCH_PARTITION", partition or ("-" if local_mode() else "")),
+            ("AUTORESEARCH_HOME", home),
+        ]
+        if not value
+    ]
+    if not Path(image).is_file():
+        absent.append(f"image:{image}")
+    log.info("in-review servicing disabled (missing: %s)", ", ".join(absent))
+    return None, None
+
+
+def _loop_cadence_s(cadence_min: float) -> float:
+    """The --loop sleep, clamped to [60s, 24h]: argparse accepts inf (which
+    would OverflowError out of time.sleep) and sub-minute values would spin.
+    A non-positive argument defers to AUTORESEARCH_CADENCE_MIN."""
+    return min(24 * 3600.0, max(60.0, cadence_min * 60 if cadence_min > 0 else _cadence_s()))
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    import argparse
+    import time
+
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="One tick of the autoresearch loop.")
+    parser.add_argument("--root", required=True, type=Path, help="state root on the shared FS")
+    parser.add_argument("--grace-s", type=float, default=DEFAULT_GRACE_S)
+    parser.add_argument("--lease-ttl-s", type=float, default=DEFAULT_LEASE_TTL_S)
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--min-free-gb",
+        type=float,
+        default=DEFAULT_MIN_FREE_BYTES / 1024**3,
+        help="skip launching new work when the state filesystem has less free",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--loop",
+        action="store_true",
+        help="run a tick every cadence in the foreground — the local-mode "
+        "chain (Slurm deployments use tick_chain.sbatch instead)",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--cadence-min",
+        type=float,
+        default=0.0,
+        help="minutes between --loop ticks; unset defers to "
+        "AUTORESEARCH_CADENCE_MIN via the chain's own parser (default 30)",
+    )
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+    logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, format="%(asctime)s %(message)s")
+
+    args.root.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    # The tick's --root is the authority; children (and this process's own
+    # LocalCompute) read AUTORESEARCH_ROOT, so a bare `tick --loop --root X`
+    # must not split-brain them: local job states would land nowhere and
+    # every finished job would read GONE until the park deadline.
+    # RESOLVED: local jobs cd into flight checkouts, so a relative root
+    # would scatter their state dirs across working directories
+    if os.environ.get("AUTORESEARCH_ROOT", "") != str(args.root.resolve()):
+        os.environ["AUTORESEARCH_ROOT"] = str(args.root.resolve())
+    # In-review servicing is LIVE when credentials + image are available in the
+    # chain environment. The waiting-run sweep delivers real wakes only when the
+    # operator arms it — the AUTORESEARCH_DISPATCH_WAKE env var or a
+    # <root>/DISPATCH_WAKE sentinel — and the env is complete; by default it
+    # stays dry with the LoggingDispatcher — dispatched climbing lands DARK.
+    # ONE compute for the process: LocalCompute remembers its jobs' states
+    # in memory, so a --loop deployment must not discard them between ticks.
+    compute = compute_from_env()
+
+    def run_once() -> None:
+        github, followup_spec = _followup_spec_from_env(args.root)
+        now = time.time()
+        dispatcher, wake_live = _wake_dispatcher_from_env(compute, followup_spec, now, args.root)
+        # parks arm their own wake from this recipe; without it the sweep delivers.
+        # Local compute never arms: jobs are synchronous, so an afterany wake's
+        # dependencies are terminal before submit returns — the next loop
+        # iteration's sweep delivers every wake instead (wake latency = cadence).
+        if wake_live and followup_spec is not None and not isinstance(compute, LocalCompute):
+            write_wake_spec(args.root, followup_spec)
+        else:
+            remove_wake_spec(args.root)
+
+        report = tick(
+            args.root,
+            compute,
+            dispatcher,
+            now=now,
+            grace_s=args.grace_s,
+            lease_ttl_s=args.lease_ttl_s,
+            dry_run=not wake_live,
+            github=github,
+            followup_spec=followup_spec,
+            followup_dry_run=False,
+            min_free_bytes=int(args.min_free_gb * 1024**3),
+            min_tick_s=_min_tick_s_from_env(),
+        )
+        # Stamp the coalesce marker at REAL completion time (a fresh time.time(),
+        # not the start-of-tick `now`), so a long tick does not leave a stale marker.
+        mark_tick_complete(args.root, report, time.time())
+        log.info(
+            "tick done: paused=%s coalesced=%s swept=%d woken=%d deferred=%d reaped=%d stuck=%d "
+            "impl_ended=%s review_ended=%s followups=%s intake=%s self_initiated=%s steward=%s "
+            "disk=%s launch_blocked=%s shed=%d",
+            report.paused,
+            report.coalesced,
+            report.swept,
+            len(report.woken),
+            len(report.deferred),
+            len(report.reaped_leases),
+            len(report.stuck),
+            report.implementing_ended or "-",
+            report.review_ended,
+            report.followups_submitted,
+            report.intake,
+            report.self_initiated,
+            report.steward,
+            report.disk or "ok",
+            report.launch_blocked,
+            len(report.shed),
+        )
+
+    if not args.loop:
+        run_once()
+        return 0
+    # The local-mode chain: same stateless tick, a foreground loop instead of
+    # sbatch successors. Records on disk carry all state, so killing and
+    # restarting the loop resumes exactly like the Slurm chain would.
+    cadence_s = _loop_cadence_s(args.cadence_min)
+    while True:
+        started = time.time()
+        try:
+            run_once()
+        except Exception:
+            log.exception("tick failed; the loop continues")
+        time.sleep(max(0.0, cadence_s - (time.time() - started)))
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    raise SystemExit(main())