hyperhive/docs/agent-lifecycle/persistence.md

# Persistence + retention

Where state lives, what survives what, and how it's bounded.

## For operators

The short answer to "will I lose anything": **destroying an agent
keeps its state, purging it doesn't.**

- **`DESTR0Y`** (the default action) stops and removes the container
  but keeps everything on disk — config history, claude login, `/state/`
  notes, harness data. The agent shows up as a tombstone (K3PT ST4T3 on
  the C0R3 page); `swarmctl agent create` with the same name and hive
  recreates it from the kept state, **no re-login needed**.
- **`PURG3`** (opt-in, from the dashboard or `hivectl agent <name>
  destroy --purge`) is `DESTR0Y` plus wiping all of it — config
  history, claude credentials, `/state/` notes, everything. **No
  undo.** Only reach for this when you actually want the agent gone
  for good. The agent's matrix encryption keys go with the state dir,
  but an account whose key backup is on (see
  [matrix](../integrations/matrix.md)) gets them back from its
  homeserver when it next comes up, so its encrypted history stays
  readable.

Beyond that:

- **Broker messages**: acked ones vacuum after 30 days; anything
  undelivered or delivered-but-not-yet-acked is always kept, however
  old.
- **An agent's own `/state/` notes and claude login survive every
  restart and rebuild** — only an explicit purge (or a hive
  `--purge`-style host operation, or the agent's own choices) touches
  them.
- The **root/bootstrap agent is special**: it isn't really destroyable
  in practice — hive-c0re recreates it automatically on its next
  startup if it's ever gone.

Everything below this point is implementation detail: exact table
schemas, file layouts, and internal migration mechanics.

## Sqlite databases

### `/var/lib/hyperhive/db/broker.sqlite` (host)

Three tables, all in one file — the message queue, a small key/value
table, and the per-agent power-intent registry:

- `messages` — every inter-agent / operator-authored message.
  `sender / recipient / body / sent_at / delivered_at / acked_at /
  in_reply_to / priority`. `in_reply_to` links a reply to its parent
  row id; the dashboard and per-agent inbox render these as threaded
  rows.
- `kv` — small persistent key/value store (`key PK / value`) for
  host-side bookkeeping that doesn't warrant its own table.

  ⚠️ The `mcp__hyperhive__remind` queue lives in a harness-local,
  per-agent store — see [`/harness/` contents
  below](#state-dirs-per-agent) for where reminders (and todos)
  live.
- `agent_power` — one row per agent: `agent PK / wanted (up |
  offline) / updated_at`, owned by `hive-c0re/src/stores/power.rs`.
  This is the durable power *intent* the job queue reconciles the
  observed container state against; intent survives hive-c0re
  restarts even though in-flight queue work doesn't. See
  [`docs/scheduler/coordinator.md`'s Desired-state
  section](../scheduler/coordinator.md#desired-state-spec-vs-status) for who
  writes and reads it and how reconciliation works.

On a host whose hive-c0re once kept scheduled prompts, the file also
holds `scheduled_prompts` and `scheduled_prompt_targets`. Nothing opens
them; scheduled prompts live at swarm level
([`swarm/schedules.md`](../swarm/schedules.md)). They're safe to drop by
hand.

Retention:

- `Broker::vacuum_delivered` runs hourly via a tokio task in
  `hive-c0re::main`. Drops acked message rows older than 30 days
  (`acked_at IS NOT NULL`). Undelivered + delivered-but-not-acked
  rows are always kept — the harness `ack_turn`s only after a
  successful turn, so `requeue_inflight` can still requeue
  an unacked row on a crash.
- `agent_power` rows live until the operator destroys the agent (one row per
  agent — nothing to vacuum).

### `/harness/hyperhive-events.sqlite` (per agent)

Lives inside each container's bind-mounted `/harness/` dir (host
path: `/var/lib/hyperhive/agents/<name>/harness/hyperhive-events.sqlite`).
One table:

- `events(id, ts, kind, payload_json)` — every `LiveEvent` the
  harness emits during turn loop execution.

<!-- vale write-good.Passive = NO -->
The harness both writes and vacuums it. Cleanup runs in-container
because hive-c0re runs as the unprivileged `hive-core` user under
privsep and can't delete agent-owned files (host-side deletes hit
`PermissionDenied` on the bash-task trio and a readonly database error
here). `hive-agent`'s `vacuum::run`
(`hive-agent/src/vacuum.rs`) sweeps hourly. Retention is
**type-scoped**: it deletes only the verbose `stream` rows (the raw
claude `stream-json` deltas — one per text chunk / tool use, the bulk
of the file's size) older than 14 days, and keeps every other kind
(`turn_start`, `turn_end`, `note`, `status_changed`, `model_changed`,
`token_usage_changed`, `turn_state_changed`) indefinitely — those are
small and carry the semantic per-turn history the operator scrolls
back through when debugging a regression. Age-only within the
`stream` kind — no row cap — so a chatty turn doesn't lose its stream
history sooner than a quiet one. The trade-off (accepted): a
misbehaving harness can skip its own cleanup — but a compromised harness is
already inside the container trust boundary
([`docs/trust-boundary/security.md`](../trust-boundary/security.md)), and these are ephemeral local
artifacts, so cleaning them up where they live is the honest fix.
<!-- vale write-good.Passive = YES -->

Path overridable via `HYPERHIVE_EVENTS_DB` (for dev / no-`/harness`
setups). On open failure the `Bus` falls back to no-store mode
rather than crashing the harness — events still broadcast over SSE,
just nothing persisted.

### `/harness/hyperhive-turn-stats.sqlite` (per agent)

Per-turn analytics sink. One row per claude turn captures
identity (`model`, `wake_from`, `result_kind`), timing
(`started_at`, `ended_at`, `duration_ms`), cost (input / output /
cache_read / cache_creation token counts), behaviour
(`tool_call_count` + `tool_call_breakdown_json`), and post-turn
snapshot metrics (`open_threads_count`,
`open_reminders_count` — fetched via the same socket the harness
already uses for `GetOpenThreads` + `CountPendingReminders`).
Bin-loop helpers `build_row` + `record` land each row at
`turn_end`; writes are best-effort, a sqlite hiccup logs + lets
the turn loop continue.

The `hive-bash-daemon` (not the harness) writes a sibling
`bash_commands(ts INTEGER, head TEXT)` table in the same
file: one row per executed bash task recording the normalised command head -
the basename of the first real command, looking past `cd repo &&`
prefixes, env-assignments, and prefix-runners like `sudo`/`env`. It
backs the "favorite tools" view on the /stats page (aggregated
host-side). Best-effort and created on first write
(`CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS`), so it's absent until a bash
task runs.

turn-stats.sqlite has **no vacuum** — it's one small row per turn
(~hundreds of KB even over months), read directly by the `/stats` page
and the hive-wide stats view, so pruning it would only lose trend
history for no space gain.

### `/state/hyperhive-harness.json` (per agent)

Consolidated harness state file written atomically (`.tmp` + rename) by
`Bus::emit_status` whenever rate-limited or login-failed flags change.
Shape:

```json
{ "rate_limited": false, "needs_login": false, "active_model": "…" }
```

- `rate_limited` — set when the harness detects a 429 from the Claude
  API; cleared by any subsequent status emit. Drives
  `ContainerView.rate_limited` on the dashboard.
- `needs_login` — set when a turn hits 401 (expired OAuth credentials);
  cleared by `"online"` status (re-auth completed). Drives the
  `needs_login` flag alongside the `claude_has_session` check.
- `active_model` — the resolved Claude model for the dashboard badge.

The turn loop is the only writer today, but it still goes
read-modify-write under a shared in-process lock and merges into the
existing object rather than reconstructing it — so a second writer
would preserve fields it doesn't own, and the lock closes the
lost-update window between a writer's read and its rename. The lock
is in-process only, so it wouldn't serialise a writer running as a
separate process; none of today's writers are.

hive-c0re reads this file on each `build_all` sweep (~10s) via
`container_view::read_harness_flags`. Falls back to the individual
sentinel files (`hyperhive-rate-limited`, `hyperhive-needs-login`) when the
JSON is absent.

### `/var/lib/hyperhive/db/build_logs.sqlite` (host)

Full stdout + stderr capture for every `nixos-container` / `nix
build` invocation the lifecycle layer fires. One row per invocation;
the row accumulates lines as the child runs.

Capturing the full stream (rather than a short tail buffer) matters
because real eval errors routinely run long — "tried alternatives"
blocks alone are often 30+ lines — so a truncated tail would cut off
the actual failure and leave only the host journal holding the
complete output. With this table the dashboard can surface the entire
log.

Three indices:
- `(agent, started_at)` — backs the per-agent latest-N lookup used
  by the agent card chip.
- `(status, finished_at)` — backs the retention sweep that runs
  as part of the existing hourly vacuum.
- `(node_id)` — added by a later migration so a build log row can be
  looked up by the job-queue node it belongs to (a `hive_jobq` node is
  immutable after insert, so hive-c0re records the link on the log row
  instead); `node_id` is nullable.

Writes are best-effort: `append_stdout` / `append_stderr` / `finish`
log a warning on sqlite error and let the build continue. A failed
log row never blocks a rebuild.

A row is open (`finished_at IS NULL`) only while its child runs. At startup
`Coordinator::open` closes every row still open as `fail` and appends a
line saying hive-c0re stopped: the previous process died mid-build, and
the retention sweep never deletes open rows.

### `/harness/hyperhive-model` (per agent)

Single-line text file holding a claude model name. The harness only
reads it, at boot in `Bus::new` and again when the swarm clears the
model it set. It holds the model the agent runs when neither the swarm nor
`HIVE_DEFAULT_MODEL` (agent.nix) names one. Nothing in the harness
writes it. Path overridable via `HYPERHIVE_MODEL_FILE`. Survives
destroy/recreate, gone on `--purge`.

### `/harness/paused` (per agent)

Empty marker file. Its presence parks the agent's turn loop: the
harness keeps serving its web UI and MCP daemons but drives no turns,
and inbox messages queue unacked until it's removed (see
[turn loop](../turn-loop/README.md#the-loop)).

<!-- vale write-good.Passive = NO -->
Unusually, it's read and written from **both** sides of the harness
bind-mount, and that's the whole design: the harness stats it
in-container via `hive-agent`'s `paths::paused_marker`, while hive-c0re
stats it on the host (`Coordinator::is_paused`) to populate the
`paused` field on the agent card, and creates/removes it
(`Coordinator::set_paused`) for `hivectl agent <name> pause|resume` and the
dashboard toggle. Because the file itself is the only shared state
there's no protocol between them, no round-trip into the container, and
pause keeps working when the harness is wedged or the container is
stopped.
<!-- vale write-good.Passive = YES -->

It lives in `/harness/` rather than `/state/` deliberately: `/state/`
is the agent's own space to fill, and this is harness control state.
Survives destroy/recreate, gone on `--purge` — so a paused agent comes
back paused after a restart, which is the intended behaviour rather
than an accident of storage.

## State dirs (per agent)

Under `/var/lib/hyperhive/agents/<name>/`:

- `config/` — the proposed nix repo (root-agent-editable). Bind-mounted
  **read-only** to `/agents/<name>/config` inside the sub-agent's own
  container so the agent can inspect what defines it and request
  precise changes from the root agent; RW into the root agent via the
  `/agents` tree bind.
- `claude/` — claude OAuth credentials, bind-mounted RW to
  `/home/<name>/.claude` inside the container.
- `state/` — durable notes and `hyperhive-harness.json`. Bind-mounted
  to `/agents/<name>/state` inside the container (uniform for
  all agents). The `$HYPERHIVE_STATE_DIR` env var exposes
  the same path to in-container scripts. Notable files written here
  by the harness:
  - `hyperhive-status` — single-line free-text status string written
    by `set_status`; cleared on explicit `set_status("")`. Read by
    hive-c0re and the per-agent `/api/dashboard-state` endpoint to
    surface the status chip on the dashboard. Absent when no status
    has a value.
  - `hyperhive-harness.json` — rate-limited / needs-login flags read
    by the dashboard's async container-state fetch. See
    `docs/web-ui/dashboard.md::Container row`.
- `harness/` — harness-internal ephemeral state; not intended for
  agent consumption. Bind-mounted to `/agents/<name>/harness`
  inside the container (`$HYPERHIVE_HARNESS_DIR`). Contents:
  - `bash-tasks/` — task JSON + stdout/stderr files for
    background `mcp__bash__run` jobs. JSON files are
    `<id>.json` (status + tails), `<id>.out` / `<id>.err`
    (full captured output). The harness's own hourly sweep
    (`hive-agent`'s `vacuum::run`, same one that ages out `stream`
    event rows above) deletes terminal task trios older than 48
    hours; non-terminal (still-running) tasks are never deleted. This
    sweep runs in-container, for the same privsep-ownership reason as
    the events vacuum above.
  - `hyperhive-state.sqlite` — consolidated loose-ends-v2 store: todos
    and reminders, one small table each in a single file (in-container
    daemons — `hive-bash-daemon`, `hive-matrix-daemon`,
    `hive-forge-notify` — upsert keyed todos here over the harness's
    in-agent socket, `HIVE_AGENT_SOCKET`; the harness merges them into
    `get_loose_ends` output and clears a row on `mark_todo_done`).
    At boot, `db_migrate::run` creates this file from
    `hyperhive-todos.sqlite` and `hyperhive-reminders.sqlite` when those
    are present. Also backs the `mcp__hyperhive__remind` queue.

    The harness itself is also a producer, not just the socket server:
    boot wiring's `spawn_todo_socket` starts `todo_server::run` (the
    socket the out-of-process daemons above dial) alongside
    `disk_watch::run` — an *in-process* todo producer that shares the
    store + wake `Notify` directly rather than dialling its own socket.
    `disk_watch` raises a keyed `disk` todo when the filesystem backing
    this agent's state gets tight, naming the agent's own biggest
    directories; it buckets the summary and carries no raw byte
    counts, so an unchanged situation re-upserts as `changed == false`
    and never re-wakes.

    Retention, same hourly `hive-agent::vacuum::run` sweep as
    `hyperhive-events.sqlite` below: it reaps delivered (soft-deleted) reminder
    rows 14 days after delivery, kept that long only to serve
    the trailing-window `ReminderRollup` stats, and reaps acked todo rows
    30 days after acking (long enough that only a genuinely quiet
    month triggers the "one spurious re-announcement" fallback a
    reconciled producer like `disk_watch` relies on — see `todos.rs`'s
    module doc). Un-acked todos and undelivered reminders are never
    swept — same "audit trail, not cache" treatment as the c0re-side
    tables above.
  - `hyperhive-events.sqlite` — turn-loop event log.
  - `hyperhive-turn-stats.sqlite` — per-turn timing stats.
  - `hyperhive-model` / `hyperhive-effort` — single-line model name and
    effort level files, read-only fallbacks.
- `work/` — the agent's working space for git worktrees, build dirs
  and other large working data. Bind-mounted RW to
  `/agents/<name>/work` inside the container and owned by the agent
  user. It sits outside `state/` so a claude or subagent started under
  `work/` doesn't walk up into `state/CLAUDE.md` and load the agent's
  own identity. Survives `destroy`/recreate, gone on `--purge`. Counted
  in the per-agent disk metric (`measure_agent_disk`) together with
  `state/` and the container rootfs. The dashboard doesn't serve it:
  the state-file endpoint reads `state/` only.

### Cross-agent access to state

An agent holding the `manage_root_agent` permission gets every other
agent's `state` dir bind-mounted **read-write** and its `config` dir
**read-only** (`bind_child_agent_dirs` in `lifecycle/host_config.rs`).
The RW on `state` is deliberate, not an oversight: the holder recovers
other agents, which includes writing into their state (for example
seeding notes, clearing a stuck sentinel) as well as reading it.

This is the **only** cross-agent mount. An agent without that permission
sees its own dirs and nothing else.

**`harness` isn't mounted at all.** It holds that agent's own runtime
material — `bash-tasks/`, the turn-stats and event sqlite dbs — and
nothing argues for anyone else reading it, let alone writing it.
hive-c0re reads a harness dir **directly on the host** when it wants
those stats, which needs no mount into another container.

<!-- vale write-good.Passive = NO -->
**`config` is read-only, including for the holder.** A config change is
a PR on that agent's config repo, made from a clone and merged after
review — so the bind-mounted `config` dir is a *copy to read*, never a
tree anyone edits in place. Mounting it writable would leave a second
path to the same file that skips the review entirely, which makes the
boundary a convention rather than a permission.
<!-- vale write-good.Passive = YES -->

<!-- vale write-good.Passive = NO -->
⚠️ Don't confuse it with the config-repo seeding hive-c0re does at
spawn (`lifecycle::setup_proposed`): that writes the agent's initial
config repo as **hive-c0re, against the host path**, and `read_only` on a bind
constrains writers *inside* a container only. The two are unrelated —
conflating them can lead you to reason your way into thinking this
mount should be writable when it shouldn't.
<!-- vale write-good.Passive = YES -->

Isolation still holds by default: a container has its *own* dirs and,
unless it holds the permission, nothing else.

Under `/var/lib/hyperhive/applied/<name>/` — the hive-c0re-only
applied repo. Tracks `flake.nix` (module-only boilerplate; never
edited after first spawn) + `agent.nix` (the actual config; edits land
here from merged config PRs) + any other files those PRs commit.
`.git/` carries the proposal / approved / building / deployed / failed /
denied tag history.

Under `/var/lib/hyperhive/meta/` — the swarm-wide deploy flake plus
system-level config files. Single git repo for the whole host; hive-c0re
commits every mutation that should survive a restart here.
Contents:

- `flake.nix` — declares one `nixpkgs` input per agent + one
  `nixosConfigurations.<n>` output per agent. `flake.lock` is the
  canonical "what's deployed where." The git log is the deploy
  audit trail (one commit per successful deploy or hyperhive bump).
- `topology.json` — the agent roster (`["alice", "bob", "ruth"]`).
  Written by `topology::reconcile` on every meta sync; read by
  `topology::all_agents`, which is the set the `manage_root_agent`
  permission grants mounts over. The reader also accepts a map-shaped
  file carrying a `parent` per agent, and keeps its keys.
- `swarm-resource-limits.json` — the caps the swarm sets for this
  hive's agents
  (`{ "sock": { "cpu_quota": "400%", "memory_max": "8G" } }`).
  Written only by `workers::swarm_limits`, which copies each agent's key of
  the swarm's `agent-limits` bucket here every 30 seconds. Read where
  `lifecycle::write_dropins` generates the systemd drop-in, **not** injected
  into the container — these are host-side caps on the container, so
  the capped party never sets them. It sees only the resulting memory cap,
  as a byte count or `infinity` in its runtime dir (below). Fallback is per
  *field*: an absent file, absent agent, or absent field falls back to the
  hive-wide `services.hyperhive.c0re.agentCpuQuota` / `agentMemoryMax`,
  so an agent can have only its memory capped and still track the hive
  default for CPU. Every value passes the validators first, and one bad
  value makes the worker change nothing here. The `CPUWeight=` / `IOWeight=`
  shares in the same drop-in have **no** per-agent setting — they're
  hive-wide only and come straight off `HiveEnv`, so this file has no field
  for them.
- `resource-limits.json` — retired. Per-agent overrides set on the hive used
  to live here; nothing reads or writes it now. An old copy in the meta repo
  is harmless and you can delete it.

The root agent has the meta dir RO-mounted at `/meta/`.

Outside the meta repo, `/var/lib/hyperhive/swarm-agent-permissions.json`
holds the permissions the swarm grants this hive's agents, as
`workers::swarm_permissions` last read them from the swarm's
`agent-permissions` bucket (every 30 seconds): a copy, not the
record, which `swarmctl agent permissions` sets. `set_nspawn_flags`
reads it at every container start for `manage_root_agent`.

hive-c0re renders containers onto `meta#<n>` at creation.

## Destroy vs purge

See [For operators](#for-operators) above for what each action does to
an agent's state. The mechanics, for completeness:

- `DESTR0Y` also drops the systemd drop-in; reviving the agent is
  `swarmctl agent create` with the same name and hive, which reuses the
  kept state.
- `PURG3` wipes `/var/lib/hyperhive/{agents,applied}/<name>/` — the
  union of everything `DESTR0Y` left behind.

`actions::destroy` implements the root/bootstrap agent's specialness as a soft policy
guard that refuses to destroy it, backstopped by
`auto_update::ensure_root_agent`, which recreates it on the next
hive-c0re startup if it's ever absent — so even without the guard,
destroying it would only be transient.

### btrfs subvolumes for `/var/lib/hyperhive/agents/<name>`

On a btrfs host, `lifecycle::ensure_agent_state_subvolume` creates a brand-new agent's state root as a
**btrfs subvolume** instead of a plain directory (progressive
enhancement). This is a no-op fallback on
non-btrfs hosts and for any agent whose root already exists, so
hive-c0re automigrates nothing: existing agents keep their plain dirs
until an explicit opt-in upgrade.

- **Creation:** `lifecycle::ensure_agent_state_subvolume` runs before
  hive-c0re creates the per-agent subdirs (spawn / rebuild).
  It skips the work when the root already exists; otherwise it asks
  hive-priv (`EnsureAgentSubvolume`) to `btrfs subvolume create` the
  root when the FS is btrfs (`statfs` magic gate) and chown it to the
  `hive-core` user so the normal `state/` `claude/` `harness/` mkdirs
  succeed inside it.
- **DESTR0Y keeps the subvolume** exactly like a plain dir — revival
  reuses it untouched.
- **PURG3 deletes it correctly:** `rmdir`/`remove_dir_all` can't remove
  a subvolume root, so purge first calls hive-priv
  (`DeleteAgentSubvolume`) which `btrfs subvolume delete`s it iff it's
  actually a subvolume, then the normal `remove_dir_all` sweep covers
  plain-dir agents + the applied dir.

Per-subvolume disk-usage accounting and optional quotas have since
landed as the qgroup work: `hivectl quota-enable` turns on btrfs
qgroup accounting hive-wide (opt-in, no-op on non-btrfs hosts), and
`hivectl agent <name> quota show|set` reads/limits one agent's
subvolume usage through the same hive-priv-mediated path as
subvolume creation/deletion above.

This is the same subvolume `hivectl agent <name> subvol snapshot push`
sends to the swarm's snapshot store — see
[`docs/networking/snapshot-store.md`](../networking/snapshot-store.md) for what a pushed
snapshot contains and how the store authenticates a sender.

The subvolume is the whole agent state root, so `work/` is part of every
snapshot and migration of it and can make them much larger.

## `/var/lib/swarm-controller/` (swarm-controller host only)

Only present on the one host running
`services.hyperhive.deploy.swarm-controller.enable`. systemd `StateDirectory=`,
so it survives restarts and redeploys.

- `webhook-secret` — the HMAC key Forgejo signs the swarm's forge webhooks
  with. **Keep it.** It's handed to Forgejo when swarm-controller registers a hook,
  so replacing the file means every subsequent delivery fails
  verification until the hook is re-registered with the new value. It's
  generated automatically on first start; there's nothing to configure.

<!-- vale write-good.Passive = NO -->
If the file is unreadable at startup the daemon still starts and logs
`webhook secret unavailable`; the webhook endpoint then answers 503
rather than accepting deliveries it can't verify. Everything else the
controller serves is unaffected.
<!-- vale write-good.Passive = YES -->

- `operator-matrix-admins.json` — the matrix user ids the operator admin
  sync has made homeserver admin, a JSON array. The sync revokes admin
  only from these, so deleting the file leaves every current admin in
  place; a missing file is an empty set. A file the controller can't
  read or parse stops the sync, grants included, and the controller logs
  `operator matrix admin: pass failed` on every pass. See
  [`docs/integrations/matrix.md`](../integrations/matrix.md#operators-are-homeserver-admins).

## Run-time dirs

`/run/hyperhive/` is tmpfs-backed (systemd `RuntimeDirectory=`) but
preserved across hive-c0re restarts via `RuntimeDirectoryPreserve=yes`.
Without that, every restart wipes bind sources and existing
containers can't start.

- `/run/hyperhive/host.sock` — admin socket (host-side CLI).
- `/run/hyperhive/agents/<name>/mcp.sock` — per-agent socket
  (bind-mounted into the container as `/run/hive/mcp.sock`).
- `/run/hyperhive/agents/<name>/memory-max-bytes` — the agent's effective
  `MemoryMax=` as a byte count (a percentage resolved against the host's
  physical memory) or `infinity`, written by `lifecycle::write_dropins`
  before every start. Absent only when hive-c0re can't tell the cap. The
  container reads it at boot as `/run/hive/memory-max-bytes`
  (`nix/agent-modules/memory-cap.nix`).

On startup, `Coordinator::register_agent` drops any prior socket
task before rebinding — idempotent so a hive-c0re restart followed
by `rebuild alice` recreates the agent's socket without a clean
reinstall.

## First-boot agent-user migration

The harness runs as a per-agent unix user inside the container
(`services.hyperhive.agent.user.name`, defaults to the agent's logical label so each
container has a uniquely named user). The activation script below
moves root-owned state to the agent user so the claude session survives.

`system.activationScripts.hive-agent-user-migrate` (in
`nix/agent-modules/user.nix`) runs on every activation,
marker-guarded so the substantive moves only happen once per
container lifetime:

1. **`${homeDir}` exists with the right ownership** — covers the
   the first boot before `useradd`'s `createHome` has had a
   chance to chown. Also re-applies on every rebuild in case the
   meta-flake's per-agent name evolves (rare).
2. **Migrate any leftover `/root/.claude` content into
   `${homeDir}/.claude`.** Marker
   (`/var/lib/hive-agent-user-migrated`) guards single-shot; it's
   only written once there's nothing left to migrate, so a `cp`
   failure leaves it absent and the next boot retries.
   `cp -an` (no-clobber) so any pre-existing files at the new
   location win — never blow over data already there, and so a
   retry after a partial copy is as safe as the first attempt.
3. **Chown the bind-mounted state dir** (`/agents/*/state`)
   recursively so the agent user can read/write it. Wildcard
   matches the single agent that container sees; `-h` skips
   symlinks the agent might have planted.
4. **Chown the `~/.claude/` bind-mount** recursively. The harness reads
   `~/.claude/` as the agent user to decide Online vs NeedsLogin in
   `login::has_session`. Without the chown, credentials owned by
   another uid get silently treated as "no session" and the operator
   re-prompts every boot.
5. **Hand the socket dir `/run/hive-agent/<name>` to the agent
   user**, `0751`, not recursive. hive-priv creates it `0751 root`
   on the host before every start; the harness binds its sockets
   there as the agent user. Why the mode matters:
   [`boundary.md`](../trust-boundary/boundary.md#the-per-agent-socket-dir).

## Matrix per-agent daemon + token-arrival trigger

`hive-matrix-daemon` is a long-running matrix-sdk Client + sync
process per agent. Serves its MCP tools directly over
streamable-http (`services.hyperhive.agent.mcp.matrixHttpPort`, no stdio bridge —
same shape as `hive-bash-daemon`), emits hyperhive wake signals
on incoming room events via `/run/hive/mcp.sock`. Conditional on the
agent having at least one `services.hyperhive.agent.matrixAccounts`
entry — there is no separate enable switch, and the same condition gates
the daemon, its path watcher AND the autoinjected
`extraMcpServers.matrix` entry. The module declares the hive-internal
`main` entry whenever `services.hyperhive.agent.matrix.url` is non-null,
so on a real hive (where hive-c0re renders that URL per agent) every
agent has one; a `null` URL with no operator-declared account is the
"this agent has no matrix" state.

**First-boot ordering**: a token can arrive after the container comes
up — a declared token file, or a token the swarm mints into the store.
Without the path-trigger sibling
(`systemd.paths.hive-matrix-daemon`, `PathExistsGlob =
<this agent's state dir>/matrix-token*` — the trailing `*` also catches
a declared secondary token file like `matrix-token-ccc`), the daemon
would exit 0 quietly the first time it ran and the MCP would have no
daemon until the next restart. The `.path` unit makes the appearance
of the token re-fire the service so the daemon comes alive in the
same boot cycle as
provisioning. A token in the store changes no file, so a store-backed agent
also gets a timer that restarts the daemon five minutes after it last
exited. A running daemon re-lists its linked accounts in the store
every two minutes and, when the set changed, exits with status
75, which the unit's `RestartForceExitStatus` restarts. On the same
two-minute tick it tries again each secondary account that didn't come
up — a declared account with no token yet, a token the homeserver
rejected, or a homeserver that
was down — waiting two minutes after its first failure and twice as long
after each further one, up to sixteen minutes. It tries one account at a
time and counts a try that hasn't finished after two minutes as a failure,
so one hung account doesn't hold the others back. One that comes up joins
the running daemon; the primary and the other accounts aren't
restarted. The same token watcher also drives avatar setting: on a
restart the daemon re-runs each account's bring-up, which sets the
avatar (see below).

### matrix avatar (set by the daemon over the live Client)

`hive-matrix-daemon` itself publishes the agent icon (`services.hyperhive.agent.icon`, an SVG) as each matrix
account's profile avatar
(`hive-matrix-mcp::client::sync_avatar`), not a separate oneshot. After
the daemon builds + restores an account's `Client` (authenticated,
pointed at that account's resolved homeserver), it calls matrix-sdk's
`account().upload_avatar()` — one call that uploads the media and sets
`avatar_url`. Because it reuses the live Client, there is no hardcoded
homeserver URL, no token re-read, and no token-file globbing: the daemon
already iterates every configured + dashboard-discovered account in its
bring-up loop, so it sets the avatar for **every** account.

Nix rasterizes the SVG to a 512x512 PNG at build time (`iconPng`, via
librsvg) and forwards its store path as `HIVE_ICON_PNG` on the daemon
unit, gated on `services.hyperhive.agent.icon != null`. No icon configured → the env is
unset → `sync_avatar` returns early and sets no avatar.

<!-- vale write-good.Passive = NO -->
Idempotency is **per-account**: an `avatar-icon-hash` file in each
account's matrix-sdk `state_dir`. The daemon hashes the PNG bytes and
skips the upload when unchanged, because every upload mints a fresh
`mxc://` URI that emits a profile state event in every joined room —
re-uploading identical bytes is timeline spam. A swarm-UI-linked
account gets its avatar when the daemon restarts on a changed account
listing (exit 75, which re-runs the per-account bring-up), so no separate
avatar trigger is needed. The daemon swallows avatar failures
(logged, non-fatal) so they never break account bring-up or sync.
<!-- vale write-good.Passive = YES -->