Install verify expects a phantom node when the fixed-segment root exists only as a virtual folder

[meshweaver-cloud]

What is failing

Localizer.VerifyInstalled is failing the Verify install phase (step 4/7 of the localize plan) on a node that the install had no reason to write — the rebased path of the declared install root itself when that root is a fixed-target segment (Harness / Skill / Agent) whose source subtree carries only children, not a node at the root. No manifest is written, and the retry the error text suggests can never succeed: the source declaration has no node at that path either.

Concretely, for the ClaudeCode package installing into sglauser:

• Package declares installPaths: [], so Localizer.FixedSegmentsWithContent picks the Harness segment and resolves the install root to ClaudeCode/Harness.
• The ClaudeCode subtree contains ClaudeCode and ClaudeCode/Harness/ClaudeCode — there is no node at ClaudeCode/Harness.
• CopyRoot correctly copies only ClaudeCode/Harness/ClaudeCode → sglauser/Harness/ClaudeCode.
• ExpectedInstalledPaths nevertheless adds declaredRoots.Select(root => InstalledPathOf(root, coursePath, target, viewer)), i.e. sglauser/Harness, to what verify asserts must exist.
• The path:sglauser/Harness scope:subtree scan finds only the child copy (there is no segment-root node), so the diff is exactly one missing path — sglauser/Harness — and the phase fails with the NotPersistedDiffText message.

Probable cause — high confidence

The evidence is definitive: five near-identical samples across two packages (ClaudeCode, Copilot), same viewer, always the same missing path sglauser/Harness, and both source packages provably lack a node at their {pkg}/Harness root (verified against the mesh: ClaudeCode/Harness and Copilot/Harness are Not found; only the {pkg}/Harness/{harnessId} children exist). The Localizer source is explicit that ExpectedInstalledPaths includes the declared root's rebased path unconditionally, and there is no phase that would write a segment-root node in this shape.

The defect is in Localizer.ExpectedInstalledPaths (and/or its callers in VerifyInstalled): the declared-root rebased path must not be asserted when the source declaration has no node at that root — otherwise a fixed-segment root that exists only as a virtual folder in source always fails verify. The fromSource contribution (ExpectedFromSource) already handles this correctly; the declaredRoots.Select(InstalledPathOf) contribution is what over-reaches.

The same shape is silently benign when the viewer's target home for that segment already exists from a previous install (e.g. sglauser/Skill and sglauser/Agent do exist for this user, from earlier Essentials installs — those verified fine). It fails hard on the first package to install into a segment the viewer has never populated.

Impact

Small burst, high severity for the affected user. 6 occurrences in ~52 s on one pod, one namespace (memex-cloud), one victim (sglauser), across two different harness packages — this is the same person retrying, and every retry fails identically. No harness install can ever succeed for a user who has no {viewer}/Harness node yet, which is every user's first harness install. Any package that declares no installPaths and whose fixed segment (Skill/Agent/Harness) is a pure container in source hits the same trap on first install.

The failure is fully user-visible: install dialog reports the phase error verbatim ("Install did not persist 1 node(s): 'sglauser/Harness' …"), no manifest is written, the retry advice is unactionable.

Where to look

• Store/Installer/Source/Localizer — ExpectedInstalledPaths (the over-reaching expectation) and VerifyInstalled (its caller). The fix is likely to drop the declaredRoots.Select(InstalledPathOf) line and trust fromSource + expectedCopies + the target root, or to gate the declared-root expectation on whether the source actually has a node at that root.
• Store/Publishing/Source/Provisioning — where LogCategory = "ProvisionPlan" is defined; useful only for the log correlation.
• Packages that reproduce the shape: ClaudeCode, Copilot — both declare installPaths: [] and carry only {pkg}/Harness/{id} in source.

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Evidence

Fingerprint	05f47831e3b7d6cd
Category	ProvisionPlan
Severity	Error
Namespace	memex-cloud
Pods	memex-portal-deployment-867dc45877-lgskl
Occurrences	6
First seen	2026-08-24 14:28:14Z
Last seen	2026-08-24 14:29:06Z

Recent log lines

2026-08-24 14:28:15Z memex-portal-deployment-867dc45877-lgskl fail: ProvisionPlan[0]
      [ProvisionPlan] 'ClaudeCode' FAILED in phase 4/7 'Verify install': Install did not persist 1 node(s): 'sglauser/Harness' — the copies were accepted but not stored (a transient hub error?), or the source enumeration that planned them was short. No manifest was written; please retry the install.
2026-08-24 14:28:18Z memex-portal-deployment-867dc45877-lgskl fail: ProvisionPlan[0]
      [ProvisionPlan] 'Copilot' FAILED in phase 4/7 'Verify install': Install did not persist 1 node(s): 'sglauser/Harness' — the copies were accepted but not stored (a transient hub error?), or the source enumeration that planned them was short. No manifest was written; please retry the install.
2026-08-24 14:28:18Z memex-portal-deployment-867dc45877-lgskl fail: ProvisionPlan[0]
      [ProvisionPlan] 'Copilot' FAILED in phase 4/7 'Verify install': Install did not persist 1 node(s): 'sglauser/Harness' — the copies were accepted but not stored (a transient hub error?), or the source enumeration that planned them was short. No manifest was written; please retry the install.
2026-08-24 14:29:02Z memex-portal-deployment-867dc45877-lgskl fail: ProvisionPlan[0]
      [ProvisionPlan] 'ClaudeCode' FAILED in phase 4/7 'Verify install': Install did not persist 1 node(s): 'sglauser/Harness' — the copies were accepted but not stored (a transient hub error?), or the source enumeration that planned them was short. No manifest was written; please retry the install.
2026-08-24 14:29:06Z memex-portal-deployment-867dc45877-lgskl fail: ProvisionPlan[0]
      [ProvisionPlan] 'Copilot' FAILED in phase 4/7 'Verify install': Install did not persist 1 node(s): 'sglauser/Harness' — the copies were accepted but not stored (a transient hub error?), or the source enumeration that planned them was short. No manifest was written; please retry the install.

_{Opened automatically from Admin/_LogIncident/05f47831e3b7d6cd. Recurrences are folded into this issue rather than opening new ones.}

[rbuergi]

Duplicate of #2156 — both fixed by #2246.