Continuity freeze fails on hosts with >1024 installed packages (capsule entry bound collides with corpus packages/ fan-out)

[ArdonisLLC]

Environment

• SIA v1.7.8 (Omarchy plugin khephri.sia), Arch Linux
• Host: 1128 installed pacman packages

What happens

sia backup now fails during capsule freeze:

ValueError: capsule source directory exceeds its entry bound

Traceback path: siacapsule.freeze -> _copy_tree raising at siacapsule.py:721-723.

Root cause

~/.local/share/sia/corpus/packages/ accumulates one entity page per package ever seen in /var/log/pacman.log (via sense_pacman -> ensure_event_entities). On this host that directory holds 1130 files.

_CAPSULE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_LIMIT (siacapsule.py:104) is set to sialib.MAX_SOURCE_SCAN_ENTRIES, which is MAX_SOURCE_TAIL_RECORDS = 1024 — a bound meant for tailing bounded evidence sources, reused as a capsule copy bound. So the freeze can never succeed on any machine with more than 1024 packages:

_CAPSULE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_LIMIT = sialib.MAX_SOURCE_SCAN_ENTRIES  # 1024

A full Arch desktop routinely exceeds this; the failure is structural, not data corruption. The refusal is honest (nothing is silently skipped) but it makes Continuity permanently unconfigured-but-broken on such hosts — the cockpit shows a failed backup with no operator remedy short of hand-deleting corpus pages, which the corpus/ledger invariants arguably forbid.

Possible directions (your call)

1. Raise or decouple the capsule entry/record bounds from the source-scan constants (the capsule already signs every entry; the bound's job is bounding, not 1024 specifically).
2. Shard corpus/packages/ like event pages are sharded, keeping fan-out under the bound.
3. Consolidate per-package entity pages (e.g. one page per package only while installed, or a package index page), reducing fan-out at the source.
4. Emit a specific operator-facing error ("too many package pages; X > bound Y") instead of the generic failed-without-detail status, so the cockpit can explain the state.

Option 1 alone changes a safety constant; options 2/3 are structural. Happy to test any candidate on this host since it's a natural >1024-package reproducer.

Workaround considered locally

None clean: the runtime is digest-pinned by managed-install/runtime, so patching siacapsule.py in place would be refused by the tamper-evidence model — correctly, I'd add. We've left Continuity in the failed state pending an upstream fix.

[AnubisQuantumCipher]

Fixed and verified locally on fix/perception-integrity (commit 4ee1e41, not yet pushed or released).

The capsule directory fan-out limit is now independent of the source-tail sampling limit and remains bounded by the existing whole-capsule record, depth, path, link, and atomic-publication envelopes. The regression creates a directory beyond the old source limit, proves the old coupling refuses, proves the repaired freeze includes every requested file in both payload and authenticated manifest, and separately proves the total-record bound still refuses.

Evidence:

• RED: Ran 1 test in 0.013s — capsule source directory exceeds its entry bound.
• Focused GREEN: Ran 3 tests in 0.051s, OK; complete capsule boundary: Ran 46 tests in 0.496s, OK; continuity: Ran 111 tests in 2.816s, OK.
• Live front-door freeze/verify on the reporting machine both exited 0; capsule id efeb8f303e454a42a23446a66fec9e36, manifest SHA256 77ab9624d2424493a3385e924f7270f858044e79c1b4bc68a79b9f710e7b3e2d.
• Fresh clean suite including this fix and issue omarchy plugin remove deletes uninstall.sh but leaves the brainstem embedding at ~172% CPU #8: Ran 3497 tests in 5056.742s, OK (skipped=1), exit 0, sequential under MemoryMax=20G and MemorySwapMax=4G.

origin/main remains frozen and untouched; this comment reports the verified branch fix, not a published release.

[AnubisQuantumCipher]

Delivery update: the verified fix is now published on the non-main checkpoint branch fix/issues-7-8-verified.

• Fix commit: 4ee1e41
• Full-suite control checkpoint: 70d4814
• Published branch head read back as exactly 70d4814a3859f4f4040191b7e81aaea101053683.
• Test evidence remains: focused Ran 3 tests in 0.051s, capsule boundary Ran 46 tests in 0.496s, continuity Ran 111 tests in 2.816s, and the sequential clean suite Ran 3497 tests in 5056.742s, OK (skipped=1), exit 0.

This is source delivery for testing, not a release. The issue remains open because v1.7.8 users do not receive the fix until a later release. main was not changed and remains frozen at 8a624efc911457ae393a72758ade8729de5ba45d.

[AnubisQuantumCipher]

Closing the implementation issue at the owner’s request; release delivery is now explicitly tracked in draft PR #15. Fix: 4ee1e41 . Published candidate: 5cce3e1.

Previously recorded evidence remains the focused capsule and continuity regressions plus successful live front-door freeze/verify documented above. The candidate’s recorded full suite passed: 3556 tests, OK (skipped=1). These are retained results, not a new run today.

This changes tracking, not availability: the fix is published source, NOT a released update. Main remains unchanged; release review and promotion remain open in #15.