---
id: engine-postgres-fleet
name: postgres engine-state clause families — the fleet host's full seam
status: completed
depends_on: [engine-postgres]
scope: moderate
risk: medium
impact: component
level: implementation
tags: [wave-4, engines, postgres, gc]
---

## Description

Implement the engine-state companion seam's **full clause families** on
the postgres backend (`src/postgres.rs` or its seam module): the
`EngineWindowState` impl **and** the `EngineFleetState` impl per
ADR-012 §5's postgres row — every family **yes** (postgres is the
fleet host, ADR-012 §4). This is the seam implementation pattern
pg-lo's window family reuses (wave 5) and the fleet wave's mechanics
ride (wave 6).

- **`EngineWindowState`** (the window family — active durably
  single-node, fleet-active when declared):
  - **`ensure_gc_schema`** — creates **`gc_pins` + `gc_window`** (the
    fleet host's both-tables row; unconditionally — the applicability
    row does not condition on the fleet declaration):
    `gc_pins (key bytea, owner bytea, expiry bigint)` and
    `gc_window (key bytea, visible_after bigint)` per ADR-010 §2's
    schema. `owner` is the store-instance id (ADR-011's vocabulary);
    the pin row's identity is `(key, owner)` — protection composes by
    row. The embedder's liveness table is never created here (ADR-008's
    schema-ownership rule — the sweep reads it and never owns it).
    Called at store construction by the store core
    (`store-postgres-construction` wires the call); the clause body is
    engine-side.
  - **`window_stage`** — stage candidates into the durable window,
    **idempotent per `(key, deadline)`** (the upsert discipline — a
    same-deadline re-stage is idempotent, a new-deadline re-stage
    updates the row; the sqlite engine's recorded semantics).
  - **`window_take(now)`** — take overdue candidates
    (`visible_after <= now`, the `<=` boundary the seam doc pins): the
    rows **leave the window table and return as keys** — one atomic
    step (selected rows removed and returned together; a row is never
    handed out twice). Empty when nothing is overdue; virgin store:
    empty.
  - **Timestamp encoding** (recorded design point): the sqlite
    engine's signed i64 nanosecond count from the Unix epoch, carried
    as `BIGINT` — the seam's crate-wide encoding (sub-second precision
    for the test tunings, pre-epoch negatives, full i64 range); the
    sqlite engine's `time_to_nanos`/`nanos_to_time` helpers are
    reference, not a dependency (per-engine bodies, one encoding).
- **`EngineFleetState`** (the fleet family — the postgres host's
  alone; **fleet activation is wave 6**: under `fleet: false` the
  store core never calls these — the clause bodies exist and are
  contract-tested per applicability):
  - **`JointTx`** — the pg transaction the pooled client carries
    (recorded design point: the concrete pooled-transaction type and
    how it keeps its connection checked out for the tx's life; `Send`
    per the trait bound). **Ownership rule, pinned in the signature**:
    the store core holds the tx from `begin_joint_tx` until
    `pin_commit` consumes it; the engine contributes mechanics and
    never owns it (ADR-010 §2's ruling).
  - **`begin_joint_tx`** — open the tx on a pooled connection,
    uncommitted until `pin_commit`.
  - **`joint_put`** — the entry half: the engine's put mechanics (the
    `ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING` CAS clause) executed **inside the held
    tx**, same first-writer-wins semantics as the public `put`.
  - **`pin_commit(tx, entries)`** — the joint terminal step: the
    pin-row inserts **and** the commit — publish and protection land
    in one step (ADR-005's pin-before-publish, fleet form). On any
    failure the entire tx aborts: no pin rows, no published entry,
    zero residue — the stage-hygiene invariant's tx form. Consumes the
    tx.
  - **`pin_renew(key, owner)`** — `true` when a **live** (un-expired)
    `(key, owner)` row existed and its expiry moved to this call's
    successor time; an expired or absent row is never resurrected:
    `false`, nothing updated (ADR-012 §2's expiry semantics verbatim).
    **Named design point — the successor-time source**: the clause
    signature carries no expiry (ADR-010 §2: the TTL lives with the
    store's renewal schedule, the engine owns only the SQL) while the
    row update needs the new expiry — decide the wiring consistent
    with the seam doc's reading (the natural shape: the engine
    computes `expiry = now + TTL` from the shipped pin-TTL constant —
    ADR-008's default 60 s, constructor-tunable when wave 6's fleet
    constructor lands — and the store owns the TTL/3 cadence, i.e.
    *when* renewal is called) and record it.
  - **`pin_check(key)`** — classify against un-expired pin rows: any
    un-expired `(key, *)` row exists → `PinState::Protected`; else
    `Unprotected`. The engine never decides deletion — it only
    classifies.
  - **`arbitrate(key)`** — the full delete-time arbitration (ADR-008):
    the un-expired pin rows **plus the embedder's registered liveness
    tables**, under the `SELECT … FOR UPDATE` finger-lock keyed at
    delete time, folded into one answer — `true` = liveness protects
    the key at this instant. The engine-side **registration of named
    liveness-table references** is part of this body (ADR-012 §6.6:
    the fleet form of `register_liveness_source` registers a named
    table reference *in the shared engine*) — a crate-internal
    engine-side mechanism the store core's fleet registration verb
    forwards to (the facade verb itself is wave 6). The engine holds
    table *references*, never liveness semantics; the referenced
    tables are never created by the engine (the schema-ownership
    rule). Contract tests use a test-owned embedder table.
  - **`sweep_lock_acquire()` / `sweep_lock_release()`** — the sweep
    lease's shipped provider: the **pg advisory lock** with ADR-013
    §2's named exclusive semantics — atomic test-and-set
    (`pg_try_advisory_lock`), one sweeper per pool, `Ok(true)` = held,
    `Ok(false)` = contention (the second sweeper's sweep aborts with
    `GcAbortCause::SweeperLock` as report data — the store core's
    reading, wave 6). **Named design points**: session-scoped vs
    transaction-scoped (session-scoped — ADR-013 §2's holdership rule
    requires holdership to end at owner death/session loss, which only
    the session scope provides); the lock key (a fixed key,
    schema-qualified or namespaced so co-tenant engines on one
    instance never collide); and **acquire/release on the same pooled
    connection** (advisory locks are per-session — the lease must hold
    its client for its duration; the release-on-another-connection
    hazard is the recorded pitfall).
- **Contract tests** per the applicability row (ADR-012 §5's table is
  the contract-test matrix): the schema creates both tables (and the
  embedder's liveness table never); stage idempotence per
  `(key, deadline)` incl. the re-stage-at-new-deadline form; take
  returns exactly the overdue set, removes it, leaves future rows; the
  `<=` boundary; the joint tx atomicity (a forced failure → no pin
  rows, no entry, zero residue); `pin_renew`'s live/expired/absent
  semantics; `pin_check`'s two-variant classification; `arbitrate`
  folding pin rows + a registered test-owned liveness table under the
  finger-lock; the advisory lock's acquire/contention/release shape
  and the session-loss reaping semantics (a dropped client's lock is
  gone — testable by dropping the lease's connection).
- **Tests need a live server** — the alkstore harness convention:
  env-driven (`ALKBLOBS_PG_*`), skip cleanly server-less, acceptance
  requires green against the harness server (`pglo-poc`, :15432, db
  `blobs`, `postgres`/`poc`).

The store core drives these clauses in wave 6 (fleet mode); the
non-fleet store construction consumes `ensure_gc_schema` only
(`store-postgres-construction`). This task ships the clauses and their
engine-level contract tests.

## Acceptance Criteria

- [ ] The postgres backend implements `EngineWindowState` and
      `EngineFleetState` completely — every clause family of ADR-012
      §5's postgres row
- [ ] `ensure_gc_schema` creates `gc_pins` + `gc_window`; the
      embedder's liveness table is never created by the engine
      (contract-tested)
- [ ] `window_stage` idempotent per `(key, deadline)`; `window_take`
      returns exactly the overdue set (`<= now` boundary), removes it
      atomically, leaves future rows; empty on none/virgin
- [ ] The joint tx atomicity holds: `pin_commit` publishes entry +
      pin rows in one step; any failure aborts with zero residue
      (contract-tested)
- [ ] `pin_renew` never resurrects an expired/absent row;
      `pin_check` classifies per the two-variant `PinState`;
      `arbitrate` folds pin rows + registered liveness-table
      references under the `FOR UPDATE` finger-lock (contract-tested
      with a test-owned embedder table)
- [ ] The advisory lock: atomic test-and-set, contention →
      `Ok(false)`, release no-op-safe, session-loss reaping; the
      same-connection acquire/release discipline recorded
- [ ] Named design points recorded: the `JointTx` concrete type, the
      `pin_renew` successor-time source, the timestamp encoding, the
      lock key + scope, the lease's connection holding
- [ ] Contract tests env-driven, skipping cleanly server-less; green
      against the harness server at acceptance
- [ ] `cargo test --features postgres` green server-less (skipping);
      `cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings` and
      `cargo fmt --check` green (default + `--features postgres`)

## References

- src/gc.rs (`EngineWindowState` + `EngineFleetState` — the seam
  contracts and their clause docs)
- docs/architecture/decisions/010-backend-io-seams-and-fleet-state-home.md
  §2 (the clause bodies; the tx-ownership ruling; the advisory lock)
- docs/architecture/decisions/012-pre-decomposition-consistency-rulings.md
  §3 (fleet activation is a declaration), §4 (the GC-state host), §5
  (the applicability table — postgres all-yes), §6.6 (the liveness
  registration's API home), §6.7 (the executor)
- docs/architecture/decisions/008-trait-size-probe-fleet-gc-and-large-engines.md
  §2 (the fleet mechanism: pin rows, expiry, TTL 60 s, the advisory
  lock, the staged window)
- docs/architecture/decisions/013-family-composition-reactive-boundary-and-feature-graph.md
  §2 (the sweep lease's named exclusive semantics)
- src/sqlite.rs (the window family's reference implementation — same
  semantics, different dialect)
- tasks/engine-postgres.md (the pool/schema/driver posture this rides)

## Notes

> Implemented in `src/postgres.rs` (wave 4, this task's only code
> change; both impls sit behind the pre-existing `#[cfg(feature =
> "postgres")]` module gate). Named design points, as resolved:
>
> - **`JointTx`** — a crate-internal `PgJointTx`: the deadpool checkout
>   (`deadpool_postgres::Object`) held for the tx's life, with the
>   transaction opened as an explicit session-level `BEGIN` and closed
>   by `COMMIT`/`ROLLBACK` in the clause bodies. tokio-postgres's
>   `Transaction` borrows its client (`&mut`), so it cannot be
>   co-owned with the checkout behind one `Send` field; the exclusive
>   checkout *is* what "the pooled client carries the tx" means
>   (nothing else can interleave on the session), and ownership stays
>   with the store core from `begin_joint_tx` to `pin_commit` per the
>   trait's pinned ruling. Every `pin_commit` failure path rolls the
>   tx back before surfacing `Err` (zero residue); dropping a tx
>   mid-flight is outside the seam contract (the store core holds it).
> - **`pin_renew` successor time** — the engine computes
>   `expiry = now + DEFAULT_PIN_TTL` from the shipped 60 s constant
>   (`DEFAULT_PIN_TTL_SECS`, a backend field, constructor-tunable when
>   wave 6's fleet constructor lands); the store owns the TTL and the
>   TTL/3 cadence (`pin_commit`'s rows carry the store-resolved
>   expiry). The update's predicate requires un-expired rows only, so
>   expired/absent rows are never resurrected.
> - **Timestamp encoding** — signed i64 nanos from the Unix epoch,
>   `time_to_nanos`/`nanos_to_time` mirrored as per-engine bodies (the
>   sqlite helpers are reference, one encoding).
> - **Sweep lease** — session-scoped pg advisory lock
>   (`pg_try_advisory_lock`/`pg_advisory_unlock`): the only scope whose
>   holdership ends at owner death/session loss (ADR-013 §2). Lock key
>   = FNV-1a over `alkblobs:sweep:{schema}` folded to positive i64 —
>   the fleet's shared schema is one lock domain (one sweeper per
>   pool), co-tenant schemas derive distinct keys. **Connection
>   holding**: the acquired checkout is stored under a
>   `parking_lot::Mutex<Option<Object>>` until release, so
>   acquire/release ride the same session (the recorded pitfall);
>   a second acquire answers `Ok(false)` from the mutex before any
>   pool checkout; release is no-op-safe and never errors (an unlock
>   failure is the session-loss reaping case itself).
> - **Pin rows** — `gc_pins` carries `PRIMARY KEY (key, owner)` (the
>   row identity) and `pin_commit` inserts with `ON CONFLICT (key,
>   owner) DO UPDATE SET expiry`: a re-put by the same instance
>   upsert-renews its row (ADR-010 §4), protection composes by row.
> - **`arbitrate`** — one `BEGIN … COMMIT` fold: un-expired pin rows
>   first, then each registered liveness-table reference, all
>   `SELECT … FOR UPDATE LIMIT 1` keyed at delete time, one bool
>   answer. The registration list (a `parking_lot::Mutex<Vec<String>>`
>   behind an `Arc`, shared with clones) is snapshotted before the
>   server round trip.
> - **Liveness-table registration** —
>   `PostgresBackend::register_liveness_source(ref)` is the engine-side
>   home of ADR-012 §6.6's fleet registration: every dot-component of
>   the reference rides `quote_identifier` at registration (hostile
>   names safe, malformed refs error), re-registration is idempotent,
>   the engine holds references only and never creates the tables.
> - **Virgin tolerance asymmetry** — `window_take` maps SQLSTATE 42P01
>   to empty (the sqlite twin's read parity); the fleet clauses carry
>   no tolerance — they run in fleet mode where store construction has
>   ensured the GC schema.
> - **Error mapping** — new `pg_err` for the clause bodies surfaces
>   the `DbError` message + SQLSTATE (plain `Display` is just "db
>   error"); the landed engine's sites keep the original mapping.
> - **Contract tests (13 new; 28 postgres tests total)** — the
>   both-tables schema + the never-created embedder column probe,
>   stage idempotence/re-stage, take's exact set / atomic re-take /
>   future rows / `<=` boundary / pre-epoch encoding / virgin shapes,
>   the joint publish-together path with CAS dedup + upsert renewal,
>   the injected joint-failure zero-residue abort, `pin_renew`'s
>   live/expired/absent trio, `pin_check`'s two variants, arbitrate
>   folding pins + a test-owned embedder table plus the live
>   finger-lock-blocks-concurrent-renewal proof, and the advisory
>   lock's acquire/contention/release + foreign-session-loss reaping.
>   Harness server verified live 2026-10-12.

## Summary

> Completed 2026-10-12 (wave 4). `src/postgres.rs` implements
> `EngineWindowState` (the fleet host's both-tables `ensure_gc_schema`,
> idempotent `window_stage`, atomic `DELETE … RETURNING`
> `window_take` with the `<=` boundary) and `EngineFleetState`
> (PgJointTx joint entry+pin tx, `pin_commit` with rollback-on-failure
> and upsert-renewal pin-row inserts, `pin_renew`'s no-resurrection
> expiry semantics, two-variant `pin_check`, the `FOR UPDATE`
> finger-lock `arbitrate` folding pin rows + registered liveness-table
> references, and the session-scoped advisory sweep lease with its
> same-connection holding discipline) — every clause family of
> ADR-012 §5's postgres row, contract-tested in-module with the
> established env-driven harness convention (skip cleanly server-less,
> green against the live pglo-poc server). 13 new tests; fleet
> activation remains wave 6 (the store core never calls the fleet
> clauses under `fleet: false`), and the `ensure_gc_schema`
> constructor wiring remains `store-postgres-construction`. Verified:
> `cargo test` (69/19/3 ok), `cargo test --features postgres`
> server-less (97 ok, 28 skips; with server 97 ok, all live),
> `cargo test --all-features` (152/54/4 ok), `cargo clippy
> --all-targets -- -D warnings` and `--all-features --all-targets`
> green, `cargo fmt --check` green, `cargo doc --no-deps` clean.