fix(cli): os migrate apply refuses before writing any DDL on an unloadable host config (#13383)

* fix(cli): os migrate apply refuses before any DDL on an unloadable host config (#13118)

Maintainer ruling 2026-08-29, verbatim 「同意」, option 2: refuse first, write
no DDL, exit non-zero. #12953 had ruled only the exit status, so the same run
reconciled the operator's schema against a set it had just called UNMEASURED.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01TvqBFLRzXdSPcbusDoED9k

* test(cli): type the sqlite catalog probe structurally so TEST_DEBT stays at 144

`check:type-check-debt --re-measure` measured @objectstack/cli at 145 raw
errors against a frozen 144: the knex handle was reached through
`{ knex: (t: string) => unknown }`, so `.select()` on it was TS2571. The
ratchet is shrink-only, so the fix is the error, never the entry.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01TvqBFLRzXdSPcbusDoED9k

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: os-trump

.changeset/migrate-apply-refuses-before-ddl.md

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/cli": minor
+---
+
+fix(cli): `os migrate apply` refuses BEFORE writing any DDL when the host config exists but could not be loaded (#13118)
+
+#12953 ruled the exit STATUS on that path and said nothing about the mutation.
+So `apply` went on flushing its deferred schema work and applying drift over the
+reduced object set, and THEN exited non-zero — one run saying both "this result
+is UNMEASURED, not in sync" and "…and I changed your schema on that basis".
+Measured on this change's own fixture before the fix: the refused run created
+**9 tables** (`sys_metadata`, `sys_metadata_activation`, `sys_metadata_audit`,
+`sys_metadata_commit`, `sys_metadata_history`, `sys_migration`,
+`sys_migration_journal`, `sys_secret`, `sys_view_definition`), none of them the
+deployment's, and exited 1.
+
+Maintainer ruling 2026-08-29, verbatim 「同意」, option 2: 采**选项 2**：
+`os migrate apply` 在 host config 存在但不可加载时，**先拒绝、不写任何 DDL**，退出非零。
+`os migrate apply` now returns above `flushSchemaDdl()` and
+`applyMigrationEntries()` on that path — the two calls in the command that
+write — and the refusal on stderr reuses the ruled #12953 wording and
+**additionally states that no DDL was executed**, so an operator does not have
+to guess whether the database was touched. Under `--json` the document carries
+`message: "refused_unloadable_host_config"` with `created: []` and
+`applied: []`.
+
+**BEHAVIOUR CHANGE to a mutating command**, shipped as `minor` for the same
+reason #12953's exit-status half was: the repo's launch-window convention treats
+a deliberate change to a published command's observable behaviour as `minor`
+rather than `patch`, and this one additionally adds a new `--json` `message`
+value that a consumer can branch on.
+
+Scoped to exactly one shape; the ruling pinned the neighbours as hard as the
+changed one, and all three are measured in
+`packages/cli/test/migrate-apply-refuses-before-ddl.e2e.test.ts` on both halves
+— exit status *and* what the database holds afterwards:
+
+- host config **present and unloadable** → non-zero **and zero tables created**
+  (this change);
+- host config **absent** → unchanged: exit 0, platform floor still created;
+- host config **present and loadable** → unchanged: exit 0, the deployment's own
+  tables still created.
+
+⛔ **No flag, env var or other escape hatch.** Option 3 was refused in the same
+ruling — this repo does not add a published surface before the need for it is
+measured.
+
+`os migrate plan` is untouched: it never wrote to the database, its refusal
+message is byte-identical to #12953's, and the no-DDL sentence is opt-in per
+call site rather than deduced from the command.
+
+**Recoverability, measured for the ruling.** A partial apply over the reduced
+set DOES converge: after repairing the config, a full `apply` on the same
+database produces a schema identical to one a never-degraded database gets from
+a single full run (verified with a positive control — the same comparison
+detects a deliberately introduced one-column difference). So this change is
+contract honesty rather than data rescue; the ruling holds either way, and the
+cost is simply low.
+
+**Migration.** A CI step that runs `os migrate apply` against a project whose
+config needs environment it was not given already failed (#12953); it now also
+leaves the database untouched instead of reconciling it against a fraction of
+the deployment. Supply that environment to the run (the error names the missing
+variable), or fix the config, then re-run.

packages/cli/src/commands/migrate/apply.ts

@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import {
 } from '../../utils/schema-migrate.js';
 import { exitOneShotCommand } from '../../utils/one-shot-exit.js';
 import {
+  describeUnloadableHostConfig,
   refuseWhenHostConfigUnloadable,
   type SchemaMigrationComposition,
 } from '../../utils/schema-migration-plugins.js';
@@ -56,6 +57,14 @@ async function confirm(question: string): Promise<boolean> {
  * 2. **A database somebody else is using is not migrated by accident.** The
  *    SQLite target is probed for other attached connections before boot, and a
  *    busy database refuses without `--force`.
+ *
+ * A third, added by #13118 (maintainer ruling 2026-08-29, verbatim 「同意」):
+ *
+ * 3. **An UNMEASURED run does not write.** When the host
+ *    `objectstack.config.{ts,js,mjs}` exists and could not be loaded, the object
+ *    set this command can see is the data stack plus the platform floor — not
+ *    the deployment's. #12953 made that run exit non-zero; it still applied its
+ *    DDL first. It now refuses above every write, and says so in the refusal.
  */
 export default class MigrateApply extends Command {
   static override description =
@@ -99,7 +108,13 @@ export default class MigrateApply extends Command {
     // reconcile an operator confirms has to be judged the same way as the plan
     // they read. Applied after `apply()` for the same reason it is there: the
     // report is already written and must survive the non-zero exit.
-    if (this.composition) refuseWhenHostConfigUnloadable(this.composition);
+    // [#13118] `noDdlExecuted` is true because `apply()` above RETURNS on this
+    // path before `flushSchemaDdl()` / `applyMigrationEntries()` — see the
+    // refusal gate there. The two must move together: the sentence is a claim
+    // about this run, not a label on the command.
+    if (this.composition) {
+      refuseWhenHostConfigUnloadable(this.composition, { noDdlExecuted: true });
+    }
     await exitOneShotCommand(typeof process.exitCode === 'number' ? process.exitCode : 0);
   }
 
@@ -253,6 +268,61 @@ export default class MigrateApply extends Command {
         }
       }
 
+      // ── [#13118] REFUSE BEFORE ANY DDL ──────────────────────────────
+      //
+      // Maintainer ruling 2026-08-29, verbatim 「同意」, option 2: when the host
+      // config EXISTS and could not be loaded, `os migrate apply` refuses
+      // WITHOUT writing DDL, and exits non-zero. #12953 had ruled only the exit
+      // status, so until this gate the same run said "this result is UNMEASURED,
+      // not in sync" and reconciled the operator's schema against that very
+      // set — nine platform/data-stack tables, none of them the deployment's.
+      //
+      // Placement is the whole change, and it is exact:
+      //
+      //   • BELOW the report. Everything above this line is read-only — the
+      //     boot deferred its DDL (#3917), `detectManagedDrift()` only reads the
+      //     catalog — and #12953 pinned that the refusal replaces the STATUS,
+      //     not the document. The plan and the `--json` payload still reach
+      //     their reader, `composition.hostConfigLoaded` included.
+      //   • ABOVE the confirmation gate. An operator must not be asked to
+      //     confirm a reconcile this command has already decided to refuse.
+      //   • ABOVE `flushSchemaDdl()` and `applyMigrationEntries()` — the two
+      //     calls in this file that write. That is what makes `run()`'s
+      //     `noDdlExecuted: true` a true sentence rather than a hopeful one.
+      //
+      // ⛔ No flag, env var or escape hatch: option 3 was refused in the same
+      // ruling ("需求未测不加面"). The path back to a working apply is to fix the
+      // config — which is also the only path back to a bootable deployment, as
+      // `os serve` refuses the identical shape.
+      //
+      // Convergence, measured for the ruling before this gate was written: a
+      // partial apply over the reduced set then a repaired full apply DOES
+      // converge to the schema a never-degraded run produces. So this refusal
+      // is contract honesty, not data rescue — which is exactly the outcome the
+      // ruling said to implement anyway, at low cost.
+      if (describeUnloadableHostConfig(stack.composition) !== null) {
+        if (flags.json) {
+          // `skipped`/`pending` carry what was NOT done, in the vocabulary the
+          // other "we did not apply" payloads above already use. `created` and
+          // `applied` are empty because nothing was created or applied — a
+          // consumer must be able to read "no DDL" off the document too, not
+          // only off stderr.
+          await emitJson({
+            database: stack.dbLabel,
+            created: [],
+            applied: [],
+            skipped: drift,
+            pending,
+            message: 'refused_unloadable_host_config',
+            ...compositionPayload,
+          }, 0, { compact: true });
+          return;
+        }
+        // The refusal sentence itself is printed once, on stderr, by `run()`'s
+        // shared choke point — not duplicated here.
+        return;
+      }
+
       const totalIntended = intended.length + pending.length;
       if (totalIntended === 0) {
         if (flags.json) { await emitJson({ applied: [], skipped: deferred, created: [], message: 'nothing_safe_to_apply' }, 0, { compact: true }); return; }

packages/cli/src/utils/schema-migration-plugins.test.ts

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import {
   buildSchemaMigrationPlugins,
   measureComposedCoverage,
   describeUnloadableHostConfig,
+  NO_DDL_EXECUTED_NOTICE,
   type SchemaMigrationComposition,
 } from './schema-migration-plugins.js';
 
@@ -288,6 +289,86 @@ describe('describeUnloadableHostConfig (#12953)', () => {
   });
 });
 
+/**
+ * #13118 — the MUTATING command additionally says it wrote nothing.
+ *
+ * Maintainer ruling 2026-08-29, verbatim 「同意」, option 2: `os migrate apply`
+ * refuses on the unloadable-config path WITHOUT touching the database, and the
+ * refusal must say so — "an operator reading it must not have to guess whether
+ * the database was touched".
+ *
+ * The zero-DDL behaviour itself is pinned over a real child process and a real
+ * `sqlite_master` read in
+ * `packages/cli/test/migrate-apply-refuses-before-ddl.e2e.test.ts`; this file
+ * owns the WORDING, and the two things the option must not do:
+ *
+ *  • it must not leak into `os migrate plan`, whose message the ruling pinned
+ *    unchanged (`plan` 行为不变) — so the default spelling is byte-identical to
+ *    the #12953 text;
+ *  • it must not widen the predicate. An option that made the untouched
+ *    populations answer non-null would turn every config-less and every
+ *    healthy project red, and direction 1 would keep passing while it did.
+ */
+describe('describeUnloadableHostConfig — the no-DDL notice (#13118)', () => {
+  function composition(over: Partial<SchemaMigrationComposition>): SchemaMigrationComposition {
+    return {
+      plugins: [], hostConfigPath: null, hostConfigLoaded: false, hostConfigError: null,
+      notes: [], coverage: null, ...over,
+    };
+  }
+
+  const unloadable = composition({
+    hostConfigPath: '/srv/app/objectstack.config.ts',
+    hostConfigLoaded: false,
+    hostConfigError: 'Missing required environment variable AUTH_SECRET',
+  });
+
+  it('states that no DDL ran when the caller asserts it', () => {
+    const said = describeUnloadableHostConfig(unloadable, { noDdlExecuted: true });
+    expect(said).toContain(NO_DDL_EXECUTED_NOTICE.trim());
+    // ⭐ And it is an ADDITION, not a replacement: the ruling said to REUSE the
+    // #12953 wording and add to it, so every element that ruling required is
+    // still there.
+    expect(said).toContain('/srv/app/objectstack.config.ts');
+    expect(said).toContain('Missing required environment variable AUTH_SECRET');
+    expect(said).toContain('UNMEASURED');
+    expect(said).toMatch(/Remedy:/);
+  });
+
+  it("says nothing about DDL by default — `plan`'s message is byte-identical to #12953's", () => {
+    // The default spelling and the explicit-false spelling are the same
+    // string, and neither carries the notice. `plan` passes no options at all,
+    // so this is the exact text it emits.
+    const byDefault = describeUnloadableHostConfig(unloadable);
+    expect(byDefault).not.toContain('NO DDL');
+    expect(byDefault).toBe(describeUnloadableHostConfig(unloadable, {}));
+    expect(byDefault).toBe(describeUnloadableHostConfig(unloadable, { noDdlExecuted: false }));
+  });
+
+  it('the notice is the only difference the option makes', () => {
+    // Written as a subtraction rather than as a second copy of the sentence:
+    // a test that re-spells the message is a test that stops holding it.
+    const withNotice = describeUnloadableHostConfig(unloadable, { noDdlExecuted: true })!;
+    expect(withNotice.replace(NO_DDL_EXECUTED_NOTICE, '')).toBe(
+      describeUnloadableHostConfig(unloadable),
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('⛔ does not widen the predicate — the untouched populations stay null', () => {
+    // Both with the option set: an option that could turn "no config" or
+    // "config loads fine" into a refusal is the failure #12953 already named,
+    // and direction 1 above passes identically while it happens.
+    expect(describeUnloadableHostConfig(
+      composition({ hostConfigPath: null, hostConfigLoaded: false }),
+      { noDdlExecuted: true },
+    )).toBeNull();
+    expect(describeUnloadableHostConfig(
+      composition({ hostConfigPath: '/srv/app/objectstack.config.ts', hostConfigLoaded: true }),
+      { noDdlExecuted: true },
+    )).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
+
 /**
  * #13028 — the plan reports its own BOUNDARY.
  *

packages/cli/src/utils/schema-migration-plugins.ts

@@ -392,9 +392,56 @@ export async function buildSchemaMigrationPlugins(opts: {
  *
  * The message names the three things the ruling requires of it: the config
  * file, the underlying failure, and the remedy.
+ *
+ * ## The mutation half (#13118), and why it is a caller's claim
+ *
+ * #12953 ruled the exit STATUS and said nothing about the mutation, so `apply`
+ * shipped writing its DDL over the reduced object set and THEN exiting
+ * non-zero — the same run saying "this result is UNMEASURED" and "…and I
+ * changed your schema on that basis". Maintainer ruling 2026-08-29, verbatim
+ * 「同意」, option 2: `os migrate apply` refuses on this path **without touching
+ * the database**, and the refusal must say so explicitly, so an operator
+ * reading it does not have to guess.
+ *
+ * That extra sentence is opt-in ({@link UnloadableHostConfigRefusalOptions})
+ * rather than automatic. It is a claim about what a particular run did, and the
+ * only site that can honestly make it is one that returned before its own
+ * mutating work.
  */
+export interface UnloadableHostConfigRefusalOptions {
+  /**
+   * Say, in the refusal itself, that this run performed **no DDL** (#13118).
+   *
+   * ⛔ Not a default, and deliberately not deduced from the command name. The
+   * sentence is a claim about what THIS run did to the operator's database,
+   * and only a call site that has actually returned before its mutating work
+   * can make it. `os migrate apply` passes `true` because #13118 moved its
+   * refusal above `flushSchemaDdl()` / `applyMigrationEntries()`; a future
+   * caller that refuses AFTER writing must say nothing here and get the
+   * #12953 wording unchanged, rather than inherit a false all-clear by
+   * omission.
+   *
+   * `os migrate plan` never passes it: `plan` writes nothing on ANY path, so
+   * the sentence would be noise there — and its message is pinned unchanged by
+   * the ruling's "plan 行为不变".
+   */
+  noDdlExecuted?: boolean;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The sentence #13118 requires of the MUTATING command's refusal, verbatim.
+ *
+ * Exported so the pin and the message have one source: an operator reading the
+ * refusal "must not have to guess whether the database was touched", and a
+ * test that re-spells the sentence stops holding it the day the wording moves.
+ */
+export const NO_DDL_EXECUTED_NOTICE =
+  'NO DDL WAS EXECUTED: this run refused before touching the database, so the physical '
+  + 'schema is exactly as it was before the command ran. ';
+
 export function describeUnloadableHostConfig(
   composition: SchemaMigrationComposition,
+  options: UnloadableHostConfigRefusalOptions = {},
 ): string | null {
   if (composition.hostConfigPath === null || composition.hostConfigLoaded) return null;
   const cause = composition.hostConfigError ?? 'the load threw without a message';
@@ -403,6 +450,7 @@ export function describeUnloadableHostConfig(
     + 'This run therefore covered ONLY the objects the data stack registered — a fraction of '
     + 'what this deployment serves — so its result is UNMEASURED, not "in sync", and it is '
     + 'reported as a FAILURE rather than as success. '
+    + (options.noDdlExecuted === true ? NO_DDL_EXECUTED_NOTICE : '')
     + 'Remedy: supply the environment this config needs (the failure named above says which), '
     + 'or fix the config, then re-run.'
   );
@@ -426,12 +474,15 @@ export function describeUnloadableHostConfig(
  * time this runs and must survive. `migrate/plan.ts`'s `run()` wrapper reads
  * `process.exitCode` and hands it to `exitOneShotCommand`.
  *
+ * @param options see {@link UnloadableHostConfigRefusalOptions} — `apply`
+ *   passes `noDdlExecuted: true` (#13118); `plan` passes nothing.
  * @returns `true` when this run was the refused shape.
  */
 export function refuseWhenHostConfigUnloadable(
   composition: SchemaMigrationComposition,
+  options: UnloadableHostConfigRefusalOptions = {},
 ): boolean {
-  const line = describeUnloadableHostConfig(composition);
+  const line = describeUnloadableHostConfig(composition, options);
   if (line === null) return false;
   // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
   console.error(`[migrate] ✗ ${line}`);