fix(loop): worktree provisioning, fresh fetch, corruption halt

Three P1 adoption-wave findings, all of which break an unattended run.
The worktree needs make build-frontend and make testdata once before its
first push — the pre-push go-test hook embeds frontend/dist and the
fixture library and refused the push without them. The merge leg now
says to fetch origin/main in the same breath as the refresh merge: a
cached origin/main merged against the wrong base, CI went green on it,
and the merge came back 405 "behind base" — a full cycle wasted. And a
killed fetch leaves 0-byte objects in the shared store whose signature
(error: object file … is empty / unpack-objects failed) must halt the
loop for a human instead of churning, with the repair recipe written
down.

Closes #240

.pi/skills/yj-loop/SKILL.md

@@ -168,8 +168,12 @@ Merge when, and only when, **all** hold:
   `block_on_outdated_branch: true` refuses it anyway; never
   `force_manually_merged` around it.
 
-**Refresh before every merge.** In the loop worktree: fetch, then
-`git merge origin/main` on the PR branch, push. A textual conflict
+**Refresh before every merge.** In the loop worktree: `git fetch origin`
+in the same breath, then `git merge origin/main` on the PR branch,
+push. The fetch must be immediate — a cached `origin/main` merges
+against the wrong base, CI goes green on it, and the merge comes back
+405 "behind base", one whole CI cycle wasted (measured on the adoption
+wave). A textual conflict
 stops the leg there — as diff text, not as a failed merge click: hunks
 the loop authored are resolved by the loop; anything else is left with
 `⟦loop⟧` comment for a human, never forced. After any refresh push,
@@ -247,7 +251,10 @@ AVD), then `make android-emulator` per session.
 
 - **Worktree:** `git worktree add ~/.paseo/worktrees/loop/jumpy-hound
   origin/main` (from any clone; branch from origin/main in the loop
-  tree, never `git checkout main`).
+  tree, never `git checkout main`). **Provision it once before the
+  first push:** `make build-frontend` and `make testdata` — the pre-push
+  `go-test` hook needs `frontend/dist` (the `//go:embed` in `main.go`)
+  and the fixture library, and refuses the push without them.
 - **Session:** pi in that worktree, `/name loop`. Add the job via
   `/schedule-prompt` (name `yj-loop`, cron
   `0 0 10-18 * * 1-5`, prompt: "Read `.pi/skills/yj-loop/SKILL.md` and
@@ -270,4 +277,12 @@ AVD), then `make android-emulator` per session.
   which leg it really is.
 - The job did not fire — the scheduler fires only while a session is
   open in its directory (documented); "the loop is off" is the correct
-  reading, not a bug.
+  reading, not a bug.
+- `error: object file … is empty` / `unpack-objects failed` / `bad
+  object refs/heads/…` during a fetch or checkout — the shared object
+  store was corrupted (a killed fetch leaves 0-byte object files, and a
+  local ref can end up pointing at the dead sha1). **Halt and report**;
+  do not retry, the churn only deepens it. Human repair: delete the
+  0-byte objects, `git fetch origin --prune`, delete any ref that
+  still dangles (`git update-ref -d refs/heads/<b>`), re-checkout the
+  worktree at `origin/main`, then `git fsck --full`.

.planning/plans/active/020-autonomous-backlog-loop.md

@@ -112,7 +112,9 @@ in the job's directory — that limitation is the switch:
 
 - **Worktree:** `git worktree add` a dedicated clone at
   `~/.paseo/worktrees/loop/jumpy-hound`. Loop edits happen only there; a
-  dirty tree there is the loop's business and nobody else's.
+  dirty tree there is the loop's business and nobody else's. **Provision
+  it once before its first push:** `make build-frontend` + `make testdata`
+  — the pre-push `go-test` hook needs both and refuses without them.
 - **Session:** pi in that worktree, `/name loop`. The job is bound to that
   session, so another pi elsewhere in the same directory does not
   double-fire it.

CLAUDE.md

@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ make ui-test          # Vitest component/store suite in a real browser (no app)
 make ui-visual        # Same, including toMatchScreenshot comparisons
 make ui-setup         # Install the Vitest provider's own Chromium (once)
 make bindings-check   # Fail if frontend/bindings is stale vs the Go bindings
-make skill-check      # Fail if .pi/ documents a make target that doesn't exist
+make skill-check      # Fail if a doc names a make target that doesn't exist
 make commit-check     # Fail if a commit subject is not a Conventional Commit
 make lint             # golangci-lint v2 (strict), all three build configurations
 make test             # All tests with race detector, all three build configurations
@@ -673,6 +673,28 @@ rather than renaming them.
   one of the shell's rows, which is what the skip link is absolutely
   positioned to avoid.
 - `config` — TOML-based settings. Settings page uses HTMX + templ for server-rendered HTML fragments.
+
+  **A setter that can reject its argument puts the old value back**, and
+  that is a correctness rule rather than hygiene (#231). `Save()`
+  validates the *whole* config, so a value left behind by a failed write
+  does not merely fail its own call: it fails every later save, of every
+  unrelated setting — theme, launch page, shortcuts, libraries — for the
+  rest of the session. Nothing reaches disk, so a restart clears it,
+  which is exactly what makes the fault invisible and unreportable. One
+  rejected track-list column list was enough to stop the app saving
+  anything at all.
+
+  Two shapes are safe and a third is the trap. A setter that assigns and
+  *then* validates snapshots the field first and restores it on the
+  error path — seven do. `SetLibraryDirectory` is the better shape where
+  the value can be built on its own: it validates a candidate *before*
+  assigning, so there is nothing to undo. And a setter whose argument no
+  validation inspects needs neither — the bools, the favourites playlist
+  id and the shortcut bindings, plus `SetViewVisible`, which refuses an
+  unknown, non-hideable or launch-page view up front so
+  `GeneralConfig.Validate` never sees one it would fail on. Which set a
+  new setter joins is decided by whether its own `Validate` can reject
+  it, not by preference.
 - `playlist` / `smartplaylist` — Playlist CRUD and rule-based smart playlists.
 - `mediacontrols` — OS media controls behind one `Handler`: MPRIS over
   D-Bus on desktop Linux, a MediaSession on Android, a no-op stub

Makefile

@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ css-check: ## Fail on a css`` literal ended early by a backtick, or a nested rul
 # Every command in them is a make target on purpose, so this is
 # checkable.  It also asserts AGENTS.md is a symlink to CLAUDE.md, so the
 # two harnesses cannot drift onto two descriptions of one project.
-skill-check: ## Fail if the agent docs name a missing make target, or AGENTS.md is not a symlink
+skill-check: ## Fail if the docs name a missing make target, or AGENTS.md is not a symlink
 	@./scripts/skill-check.sh
 
 # Conventional Commits, which CLAUDE.md claimed CI enforced for a long

backend/config/config.go

@@ -303,6 +303,24 @@ func (c *Config) GetLibraryDirectory() string {
 	return string(c.Library.DirectoryPath)
 }
 
+// A rejected setter puts the old value back, and that is not tidiness
+// (#231).  Save validates the *whole* config, so a value left behind by
+// a failed write does not merely fail its own call: it fails every
+// later save, of every unrelated setting, silently and for the rest of
+// the session.  Nothing reaches disk, so a restart clears it -- which
+// is exactly what makes the fault hard to see and impossible to report.
+//
+// The setters below that assign and then validate therefore snapshot
+// the field first and restore it on the error path.  SetLibraryDirectory
+// is the other safe shape and the better one where the value can be
+// built on its own: it validates a candidate *before* assigning
+// anything, so there is nothing to undo.
+//
+// Not every setter needs either.  A bool, an int64 and the shortcut
+// bindings pass through no validation that can reject them, and
+// SetViewVisible refuses an unknown, non-hideable or launch-page view
+// up front, so GeneralConfig.Validate never sees one it would fail on.
+
 // SetLibraryDirectory validates and saves a new library directory,
 // then emits the LibraryConfigChanged event so listeners (e.g. the
 // Library scanner) can react.
@@ -360,11 +378,14 @@ func (c *Config) SetScanConcurrency(mode string) error {
 		c.Library.ApplyDefaults()
 	}
 
+	previous := c.Library.ScanConcurrency
 	c.Library.ScanConcurrency = library.ScanConcurrency(
 		mode,
 	)
 
 	if err := c.Library.Validate(); err != nil {
+		c.Library.ScanConcurrency = previous
+
 		return fmt.Errorf(
 			"invalid scan concurrency mode: %w", err,
 		)
@@ -455,9 +476,12 @@ func (c *Config) SetThemeAccentColor(
 		c.Theme.ApplyDefaults()
 	}
 
+	previous := c.Theme.AccentColor
 	c.Theme.AccentColor = color
 
 	if err := c.Theme.Validate(); err != nil {
+		c.Theme.AccentColor = previous
+
 		return fmt.Errorf(
 			"invalid theme accent color: %w", err,
 		)
@@ -488,9 +512,12 @@ func (c *Config) SetThemeBackgroundShade(
 		c.Theme.ApplyDefaults()
 	}
 
+	previous := c.Theme.BackgroundShade
 	c.Theme.BackgroundShade = theme.BackgroundShade(shade)
 
 	if err := c.Theme.Validate(); err != nil {
+		c.Theme.BackgroundShade = previous
+
 		return fmt.Errorf(
 			"invalid theme background shade: %w", err,
 		)
@@ -544,9 +571,12 @@ func (c *Config) SetDefaultPage(page string) error {
 		c.General.ApplyDefaults()
 	}
 
+	previous := c.General.DefaultPage
 	c.General.DefaultPage = View(page)
 
 	if err := c.General.Validate(); err != nil {
+		c.General.DefaultPage = previous
+
 		return fmt.Errorf(
 			"invalid default page: %w", err,
 		)
@@ -591,9 +621,12 @@ func (c *Config) SetQueueFallback(mode string) error {
 		c.General.ApplyDefaults()
 	}
 
+	previous := c.General.QueueFallback
 	c.General.QueueFallback = QueueFallback(mode)
 
 	if err := c.General.Validate(); err != nil {
+		c.General.QueueFallback = previous
+
 		return fmt.Errorf(
 			"invalid queue fallback: %w", err,
 		)
@@ -801,9 +834,12 @@ func (c *Config) SetTrackListColumns(
 		c.TrackList = &tracklist.Config{}
 	}
 
+	previous := c.TrackList.Columns
 	c.TrackList.Columns = columns
 
 	if err := c.TrackList.Validate(); err != nil {
+		c.TrackList.Columns = previous
+
 		return fmt.Errorf(
 			"invalid track-list columns: %w", err,
 		)
@@ -901,9 +937,12 @@ func (c *Config) SetFavoritesIconStyle(
 		c.Favorites.ApplyDefaults()
 	}
 
+	previous := c.Favorites.IconStyle
 	c.Favorites.IconStyle = favorites.IconStyle(style)
 
 	if err := c.Favorites.Validate(); err != nil {
+		c.Favorites.IconStyle = previous
+
 		return fmt.Errorf(
 			"invalid favorites icon style: %w", err,
 		)

backend/config/setter_rollback_test.go

@@ -0,0 +1,262 @@
+package config
+
+import (
+	"log/slog"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+
+	"yellowjacket/backend/library"
+	"yellowjacket/backend/tracklist"
+)
+
+// newSavableConfig builds a loaded, valid config in a temp directory,
+// so Save() writes rather than refusing with errSaveBeforeLoad.
+//
+// The library directory is real and set, because Config.Validate only
+// validates the Library section when DirectoryPath is non-empty -- an
+// empty one would hide a poisoned ScanConcurrency from the whole-config
+// save that is the symptom under test.
+func newSavableConfig(t *testing.T) *Config {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	c := &Config{
+		logger:   slog.Default(),
+		filePath: filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "config.toml"),
+		Library: &library.Config{
+			DirectoryPath: library.Directory(t.TempDir()),
+		},
+	}
+
+	c.applyDefaults()
+
+	if err := c.Load(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load() error: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if err := c.Save(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Save() on a fresh config error: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	return c
+}
+
+// TestSetterRejectionDoesNotPoisonTheConfig is the whole of #231.
+//
+// Every setter here assigns to the in-memory config and then validates.
+// When the validation rejects the argument, the rejected value has to go
+// back -- not because the caller sees it (it gets an error either way),
+// but because Config.Save() validates the *whole* config.  A value left
+// behind by a failed setter therefore fails every later save, of every
+// unrelated setting, silently and for the rest of the session.
+//
+// So each case asserts three things in order: the setter reports the
+// error, the getter still reports the old value, and an unrelated save
+// still works.  The third is the one the user feels.
+func TestSetterRejectionDoesNotPoisonTheConfig(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	cases := []struct {
+		name string
+		// reject calls the setter with an argument its own Validate
+		// refuses.
+		reject func(*Config) error
+		// read reports the value the setter writes, so the rollback is
+		// asserted on the config rather than only on the save.
+		read func(*Config) string
+	}{
+		{
+			name: "scan concurrency",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				return c.SetScanConcurrency("telepathy")
+			},
+			read: (*Config).GetScanConcurrency,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "theme accent colour",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				return c.SetThemeAccentColor("not-a-hex")
+			},
+			read: (*Config).GetThemeAccentColor,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "theme background shade",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				return c.SetThemeBackgroundShade("chartreuse")
+			},
+			read: (*Config).GetThemeBackgroundShade,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "default page",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				return c.SetDefaultPage("nowhere")
+			},
+			read: (*Config).GetDefaultPage,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "queue fallback",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				return c.SetQueueFallback("improvise")
+			},
+			read: (*Config).GetQueueFallback,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "favorites icon style",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				return c.SetFavoritesIconStyle("asterisk")
+			},
+			read: (*Config).GetFavoritesIconStyle,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "track-list columns",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				// titleArtist is a drawing definition, not a
+				// configurable column (#197), so it is exactly what
+				// the frontend used to be able to send.
+				return c.SetTrackListColumns([]tracklist.Column{
+					{ID: "titleArtist"},
+				})
+			},
+			read: func(c *Config) string {
+				return columnIDs(c.GetTrackListColumns())
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "track-list columns, duplicated",
+			reject: func(c *Config) error {
+				// The route #197 closed was one invalid id; a
+				// duplicate is the one still reachable from a client
+				// that assembles the list itself.
+				return c.SetTrackListColumns([]tracklist.Column{
+					{ID: tracklist.ColTrackName},
+					{ID: tracklist.ColTrackName},
+				})
+			},
+			read: func(c *Config) string {
+				return columnIDs(c.GetTrackListColumns())
+			},
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range cases {
+		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			t.Parallel()
+
+			c := newSavableConfig(t)
+			before := tc.read(c)
+
+			if err := tc.reject(c); err == nil {
+				t.Fatal("setter accepted an invalid value, want an error")
+			}
+
+			if after := tc.read(c); after != before {
+				t.Errorf(
+					"value after a rejected write = %q, want the previous %q",
+					after, before,
+				)
+			}
+
+			// The symptom: an unrelated setting can no longer be saved.
+			if err := c.SetPopupVolume(true); err != nil {
+				t.Errorf("an unrelated setter failed after a rejected write: %v", err)
+			}
+
+			if err := c.Save(); err != nil {
+				t.Errorf("Save() failed after a rejected write: %v", err)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+// TestRejectedSetterLeavesNothingOnDisk pairs with the sweep above: the
+// rollback must not be undone by what the file already holds, so a
+// config reloaded from disk after a rejected write agrees with memory.
+func TestRejectedSetterLeavesNothingOnDisk(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	c := newSavableConfig(t)
+
+	if err := c.SetThemeAccentColor("#123456"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SetThemeAccentColor() error: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if err := c.SetThemeAccentColor("not-a-hex"); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("SetThemeAccentColor accepted a non-colour, want an error")
+	}
+
+	reloaded := &Config{logger: slog.Default(), filePath: c.filePath}
+	reloaded.applyDefaults()
+
+	if err := reloaded.Load(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Load() error: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if got := reloaded.GetThemeAccentColor(); got != "#123456" {
+		t.Errorf("accent colour on disk = %q, want %q", got, "#123456")
+	}
+
+	if c.GetThemeAccentColor() != reloaded.GetThemeAccentColor() {
+		t.Errorf(
+			"in-memory accent %q disagrees with disk %q after a rejected write",
+			c.GetThemeAccentColor(), reloaded.GetThemeAccentColor(),
+		)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestSetLibraryDirectoryValidatesBeforeAssigning pins the precedent the
+// seven rolled-back setters follow: this one has always built and
+// validated a candidate before assigning, so a bad path never reaches
+// the config at all.
+func TestSetLibraryDirectoryValidatesBeforeAssigning(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	c := newSavableConfig(t)
+	before := c.GetLibraryDirectory()
+
+	if err := c.SetLibraryDirectory(filepath.Join(t.TempDir(), "no-such-dir")); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("SetLibraryDirectory accepted a missing directory, want an error")
+	}
+
+	if after := c.GetLibraryDirectory(); after != before {
+		t.Errorf("library directory = %q, want the previous %q", after, before)
+	}
+
+	if err := c.Save(); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("Save() failed after a rejected library directory: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestSetViewVisibleRefusesBeforeAssigning covers the other setter left
+// out of the rollback pass: it guards its own argument up front, so
+// GeneralConfig.Validate never sees a view it would reject.
+func TestSetViewVisibleRefusesBeforeAssigning(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	c := newSavableConfig(t)
+
+	if err := c.SetViewVisible("no-such-view", false); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("SetViewVisible accepted an unknown view, want an error")
+	}
+
+	if err := c.SetViewVisible(c.GetDefaultPage(), false); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("SetViewVisible hid the launch page, want an error")
+	}
+
+	if err := c.Save(); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("Save() failed after a refused view visibility change: %v", err)
+	}
+}
+
+// columnIDs renders a column list for comparison in the table above.
+func columnIDs(cols []tracklist.Column) string {
+	ids := make([]byte, 0, len(cols)*8)
+
+	for i, col := range cols {
+		if i > 0 {
+			ids = append(ids, ',')
+		}
+
+		ids = append(ids, col.ID...)
+	}
+
+	return string(ids)
+}

lefthook.yml

@@ -38,10 +38,14 @@ pre-commit:
       glob: "*.go"
       run: ./scripts/bindings-check.sh
 
-    # .pi/ documents make targets; a stale one sends an agent off a
-    # cliff with total confidence.  Instant.
+    # The docs document make targets; a stale one sends an agent — or a
+    # contributor reading CONTRIBUTING.md — off a cliff with total
+    # confidence.  The glob is the script's own scanned set, because a
+    # hook that does not fire on a file the check reads is the drift the
+    # check exists to prevent: it was `{Makefile,.pi/**/*.md}` while the
+    # script already read CLAUDE.md.  Instant.
     skill-check:
-      glob: "{Makefile,.pi/**/*.md}"
+      glob: "{Makefile,.pi/**/*.md,AGENTS.md,CLAUDE.md,README.md,CONTRIBUTING.md}"
       run: ./scripts/skill-check.sh
 
     frontend-typecheck:

scripts/skill-check.sh

@@ -14,6 +14,11 @@
 # missing: CLAUDE.md names 27 targets and nothing verified one of them,
 # so the file the agents trust most was the file least checked.
 #
+# README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md are in it too, and the header sentence
+# above is why: a person who has *not* read the Makefile goes looking in
+# the contributor-facing doc, so a renamed target sends them off the
+# same cliff it sends an agent off.  CONTRIBUTING.md names 21 targets.
+#
 # **AGENTS.md is a symlink to CLAUDE.md.**  This repo is worked on by
 # two agent harnesses that read different files by convention — Claude
 # Code reads CLAUDE.md, others read AGENTS.md — and two harnesses
@@ -43,7 +48,19 @@ if [ -e AGENTS.md ] || [ -L AGENTS.md ]; then
 	fi
 fi
 
-[ -d .pi ] || exit 0
+# The scan is over the docs that are actually there: a checkout without
+# .pi/ still has README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md to check, and gating the
+# whole run on .pi/ would have made the human-facing half conditional on
+# the agent-facing one.  This list is used twice — once to read the
+# mentions out and once to say which file a missing target came from —
+# because a second list is a second thing to forget.
+# `ls` exits non-zero when *any* of its arguments is missing while still
+# printing the ones that are there, and under `set -e` that would sink
+# the assignment rather than scanning what exists, so swallow it.
+docs="$({ find .pi -name '*.md' 2>/dev/null
+	ls CLAUDE.md README.md CONTRIBUTING.md 2>/dev/null || true; })"
+
+[ -n "$docs" ] || exit 0
 
 # `make -pq` prints the database including every rule, without running
 # anything.  It exits non-zero when a target is out of date, and under
@@ -68,7 +85,7 @@ targets="$({ make -pqRr 2>/dev/null || true; } |
 # AGENTS.md is deliberately not in this list: it is a symlink to
 # CLAUDE.md, asserted above, so scanning it would report every failure
 # twice under two names.
-mentioned="$({ find .pi -name '*.md' 2>/dev/null; echo CLAUDE.md; } |
+mentioned="$(printf '%s\n' "$docs" |
 	xargs awk '
 		FNR == 1 { fence = 0 }
 		/^```/   { fence = !fence; next }
@@ -93,10 +110,10 @@ for t in $mentioned; do
 done
 
 if [ -n "$missing" ]; then
-	echo "skill-check: the agent docs name make targets that do not exist:" >&2
+	echo "skill-check: the docs name make targets that do not exist:" >&2
 	for t in $missing; do
 		echo "  make $t" >&2
-		grep -rln "make $t" .pi CLAUDE.md --include='*.md' | sed 's/^/      /' >&2
+		printf '%s\n' "$docs" | xargs grep -ln "make $t" | sed 's/^/      /' >&2
 	done
 	echo "Fix the docs, or restore the target." >&2
 	exit 1