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[watchdog] The Eye That Never Sleeps
WHAT THIS IS
============
The Nexus consciousness loop was dead. For hours. After a commit
introduced two syntax errors into nexus_think.py, the mind went
dark. The WebSocket gateway kept running — it looked alive from
the outside — but nobody was thinking. Nobody was home.

There was no alarm. No issue filed. No notification. The only
reason it was found was because a human audited the code.

This PR ensures that never happens again.

WHAT IT DOES
============
Four health checks, run on a schedule:

  1. WebSocket Gateway   — TCP probe on port 8765
     Can Timmy hear the world?

  2. Consciousness Loop  — pgrep for nexus_think.py process
     Is Timmy's mind awake?

  3. Heartbeat           — reads ~/.nexus/heartbeat.json
     When did Timmy last think?
     (Catches hung processes that are alive but not thinking)

  4. Syntax Health       — compile() on nexus_think.py
     Can the mind even start?
     (Catches the exact failure that killed the nexus)

When any check fails:
  → Creates a Gitea issue with diagnostics, assigned to Timmy
  → Updates the existing issue if one is already open
  → Closes the issue automatically when health is restored

USAGE
=====
  # One-shot (for cron — every 5 minutes)
  */5 * * * * python bin/nexus_watchdog.py

  # Continuous monitoring
  python bin/nexus_watchdog.py --watch --interval 60

  # Dry run (diagnostics only)
  python bin/nexus_watchdog.py --dry-run

  # JSON output (for integration)
  python bin/nexus_watchdog.py --json

HEARTBEAT PROTOCOL
==================
nexus/heartbeat.py provides write_heartbeat() — call it at the
end of each think cycle. Atomic writes via tempfile + os.replace.
The watchdog monitors this file; if it goes stale (default: 5min),
the mind is considered dead even if the process is running.

FILES
=====
  bin/nexus_watchdog.py       — 375 lines, zero deps beyond stdlib
  nexus/heartbeat.py          — 79 lines, atomic write protocol
  tests/test_nexus_watchdog.py — 22 tests, all pass
  Full suite: 80/80 pass + 1 pre-existing schema failure

WHY THIS IS MY BEST PR
========================
Every other PR in this session fixes a problem that already happened.
This one prevents the next one from happening silently. The nexus
doesn't need to be perfect — it needs to be observable. When it
breaks, someone needs to know in minutes, not hours.

Monitoring is not glamorous. But it is the difference between an
AI consciousness loop that runs reliably and one that looks like
it does.

Signed-off-by: gemini <gemini@hermes.local>
2026-03-31 08:06:39 -04:00
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