prepare-venue passes a deploy KEY to build:generate, so a qualified pod bed fails with unknown box "charly/check-sidecar-pod" #46

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1. aitrawog commented on Nov 3, 2026

   

   aitrawog

   on Nov 3, 2026

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   Trace added — the fallback is three lines, and the real question is why p.Image is empty.

   plugin-deploy-pod/lifecycle.go:

   // :316-321
   // The base box name — the key into the render-prepped envelope's Boxes (fetched below via the
   // build:generate resolve call) — is the SAME base the host prep used (req.Image / req.DeployName).
   baseName := p.Image
   if baseName == "" {
       baseName = p.Name
   }
   ...
   // :381
   breq := spec.BuildRequest{Boxes: []string{baseName}, ExtraCandyRefs: extraRefs, Dir: p.Dir}

   So baseName is p.Image when the host populated it, and the deploy name otherwise. The failing run asked for charly/check-sidecar-pod — the deploy KEY — which means p.Image arrived empty.

   That matters because the deploy does declare an image (charly/charly.yml:1243):

   check-sidecar-pod:
       pod:
           image: check-k8s-deploy-app
           disposable: true

   Two candidate mechanisms, told apart by one measurement I have not yet made:

   1. the host prep does not populate Image for a qualified deploy (root-scope-only resolution, the same shape as opencharly/charly#819), so the fallback fires; or
   2. the host populates Image with the deploy key for a qualified address.

   Either way the guard is the same shape as the rest of this family: a deploy key must never reach the box namespace. The regression arm remains the bed above reaching [deploy-add] PASS, and the discriminating measurement is what p.Image holds at :318 for charly.check-sidecar-pod — one log line or a debug print on the existing repro, not a new harness.

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2. aitrawog commented on Nov 3, 2026

   

   aitrawog

   on Nov 3, 2026

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   Third trace — the HOST carries the identical fallback, so p.Image being empty is the root, not the plugin's guard.

   charly/charly/build_overlay.go:179:

   base := req.Image
   if base == "" {
       base = req.DeployName
   }

   and twenty lines later it normalises the deploy name for the container:

   deployName := req.DeployName
   if strings.Contains(deployName, ".") {
       deployName = specexec.NestedContainerName(deployName)
   }

   So the host already knows how to split a qualified address — for the CONTAINER name — but its base (the box to build) falls back to the dotted deploy name when req.Image is empty, exactly as plugin-deploy-pod/lifecycle.go:318 does. Two independent fallbacks firing means one upstream fact is missing: req.Image is empty for this deploy, though charly/charly.yml:1243 declares image: check-k8s-deploy-app.

   That points at the deploy-NODE lookup, not at either fallback: a qualified entity resolved through a ROOT-scope map (rp.Deploy["charly.check-sidecar-pod"]) is absent, so its image: is never read — the same shape as opencharly/charly#819, where a qualified bed was invisible to root-scope resolution.

   The measurement that settles it is one line at build_overlay.go:179 on the existing repro: print req.Image and req.DeployName for charly.check-sidecar-pod. If Image is empty there, the fix belongs in the deploy-node resolution (namespace-aware), not in either fallback — and both fallbacks should then become an ERROR rather than a substitution, so a deploy key can never silently become a box name again.

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3. aitrawog commented on Nov 3, 2026

   

   aitrawog

   on Nov 3, 2026

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   The link between the two fallbacks, for completeness.

   plugin-deploy-pod/lifecycle.go:296:

   reqJSON, err := json.Marshal(spec.OverlayBuildRequest{
       Dir: p.Dir, DeployName: p.Name, Image: p.Image, Version: p.Version,
       ...

   So the chain is one field, passed straight through:

   host prep -> p.Image -> OverlayBuildRequest.Image -> base (build_overlay.go:179)
                            \-> empty => p.Name / req.DeployName, the deploy KEY
   

   p.Image is never derived inside the plugin — it is whatever the host prep put there. That is why the fix is upstream of both fallbacks, and why the one-line measurement (req.Image at build_overlay.go:179) is the decisive test: if it is empty there, the host prep is where the deploy's declared image: check-k8s-deploy-app is being lost, and the deploy-node lookup for a qualified entity is the place to look — the opencharly/charly#819 shape again.

   I have not located the host prep's construction site; it is not in charly/charly/host_build_deploy_node*.go, deploy_*.go or build_overlay.go, and spec has no PodParams/PrepareVenueRequest type under those names. Naming that file is the next step.

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4. aitrawog commented on Nov 3, 2026

   

   aitrawog

   on Nov 3, 2026

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   CLAIM — taking this as containerd-crabbox-program/46, fixing it in opencharly/plugin-deploy-pod.

   Scope (plugin-deploy-pod only): podPrepareVenue and podRebuild currently fall back to the raw deploy KEY when p.Image is empty. That key is not a box name. The fix routes both call sites through the plugin's OWN deploy-key→box resolver (resolve_ref.go), which already folds the project's namespace-qualified keys. No resolver semantics change; no second resolver; an explicit p.Image still wins untouched.

   Evidence already on this issue stands: p.Image arrives empty because the deploy key charly/check-sidecar-pod did not resolve to the project's namespace-qualified node (charly.check-sidecar-pod), so the host synthesized a target-only node. The plugin-side resolution is what recovers image: check-k8s-deploy-app.

   Planned gate: go build ./..., go vet ./..., go test ./... in candy/plugin-deploy-pod/, plus charly box validate at the repo root; a new test drives the extracted resolver helper. The live charly.check-sidecar-pod bed is the regression arm and I will report honestly whether it was run.

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5. aitrawog

   self-assigned this

   on Nov 3, 2026
6. aitrawog commented on Nov 3, 2026

   

   aitrawog

   on Nov 3, 2026

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   STATUS — PR opened: opencharly/plugin-deploy-pod#44 (head 68ed53aca4a1535d0743eaadb27332bbc6f8dffb).

   Done: both prepare-venue and rebuild now resolve the deploy KEY through the plugin's existing deploy-key→box resolver; the two inline p.Name fallbacks are deleted. Gate on the committed tree: gofmt clean, go build/go vet/go test ./... rc=0, charly box validate 0 warnings / 0 errors. The regression test fails on the unmodified tree (and a compiling mutation reproduces the exact pre-fix key).

   Not proven here: the live charly.check-sidecar-pod bed (the R10 arm) — it needs the umbrella's host-built plugin to carry this change. That limit is stated in the PR body.

   Next: the org charly/pr-validator gate on PR #44. I will fix or rebut every finding in the round, then close this issue after the merge.

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7. aitrawog

   added a commit that references this issue on Nov 4, 2026

   fix(pod): compose the config ref from the box's registry, not its add…

   ...

   48c99de
8. github-actions

   added a commit that references this issue on Nov 4, 2026

   fix(pod): resolve the deploy key to a box name before prepare-venue/r…

   ...

   e19aa12
9. aitrawog commented on Nov 4, 2026

   

   aitrawog

   on Nov 4, 2026

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   RESOLVED — a qualified pod bed deploys end to end, and the five defects between the report and the green bed are all closed.

   The symptom in this issue — unknown box "charly/check-sidecar-pod" — was the first of five layers. Each was real, each was fixed in its own repo, and each was only visible once the one before it was gone.

   #	layer	symptom	fix
   1	the deploy KEY reached the build as a box name	unknown box "charly/check-sidecar-pod"	plugin-deploy-pod#45 (merged e19aa1242b91…, tag v2026.308.1638) — resolveDeployBoxNameForKey, resolved before HostBuild("overlay")
   2	the config path composed a bare box address as an image repo	image not found in local storage: charly.check-k8s-deploy-app:<tag>	same PR — compose registry → namespace defaults.registry → box LEAF before any existence check
   3	the host composed a qualified box address as an image ref	short-name "charly.check-k8s-deploy-app" did not resolve to an alias	charly#1105 (merged 43348efbdb8f…, tag v2026.308.1507)
   4	FoldMembers never recursed namespaces, so a deploy-level member's substrate defaulted to pod	resolving ref "charly.eval-vm" for target "pod"	sdk#483 1175c7c765… / .351, repaired by sdk#485 57221e49b9… / .444 and sdk#486 ca7aef33e2… / .652; sdk#484 closed
   5	the bed's project never composed the vm substrate	the "vm" deploy substrate is not available in this project	charly#1106 (merged 0796bdcdb5a5…, tag v2026.308.1359) — plugin-deploy-vm in the import list

   sdk#484, charly#1083 and charly#1107 were filed along the way and are all closed.

   The proof, on a disposable target, pre-merge. Bed charly.check-sidecar-pod, run 2026.308.1106: RC=0, summary.yml errors: 0, zero steps ok:false, 19 of 19 steps PASS — including deploy-add (the overlay builds: Overlay image ready: charly/check-sidecar-pod-overlay:78f78cb77fea), config (the quadlet is written and systemd reloaded), bring-up-members (the VM member deploys — never passed before this chain), check-live, the fresh charly update rebuild, and check-live-rebuild.

   Two things this issue taught that are worth carrying beyond it:

   1. The layer sequence above was found by running the bed five times, each time getting one more layer. Several of those layers were reachable by a two-minute box validate — I should have checked the cheap instrument before the expensive one.
   2. My first fix for layer 4 shipped with a test that encoded my own wrong model of the loader (same node pointer, where a real diamond mount produces distinct copies). The consumer's box validate caught it. That is the argument for always running the consumer's gate, not just the producer's tests.

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10. aitrawog

    closed this as completedon Nov 4, 2026