ALAI Self-Healing Architecture

ALAI Self-Healing Architecture

Document Date: 2026-06-19
Coverage Audit: MC #103940
lightrag-watchdog Upgrade: MC #103939 (Proveo PASS)

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1. Self-Healing Posture Overview

ALAI's infrastructure uses a layered self-healing approach across two operational tiers:

VM-Side (Azure vm-alai-lightrag, RG-ALAI-LIGHTRAG)

Container-level crashes are handled by Docker's restart:unless-stopped policy:

Container	Image	Restart Policy	Notes
lightrag	sbnb/lightrag:latest	unless-stopped	Real heal — Docker engine auto-restarts on crash
lightrag-llm-router	python:3.11-slim	unless-stopped	Real heal
ollama	ollama/ollama	unless-stopped	Real heal
lightrag-neo4j	neo4j:5.15-community	unless-stopped	Real heal

Tunnel failures are handled by systemd:

Service	Restart Policy	RestartSec	Notes
cloudflared-lightrag	Restart=always	10s	Real heal for tunnel crashes

VM verdict: Container crashes and tunnel failures self-heal automatically. Application-level hangs (container up but /health returns non-200) require host-side watchdog intervention.

Host-Side (ANVIL Mac Studio)

37 LaunchAgent watchdogs monitor and remediate host-level failures. Classification:

• AUTO-REMEDIATES: Detects failure and executes corrective action (restart daemon, unload model, prune disk, kill zombie process, restart Docker).
• ALERT-ONLY: Detects failure and notifies via Slack/HiveMind/email, but does not auto-restart or fix.

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2. lightrag-watchdog Self-Healing Upgrade (MC #103939)

Previous State (BROKEN)

The watchdog was alert-only and probed the NSG-blocked raw IP 20.240.61.67:9621, resulting in 683 consecutive false failures. Zero VM-side remediation. All "failures" were timeouts caused by network security group (NSG) blocking the raw IP — the service was actually healthy but unreachable via this path.

Upgrade Implementation

Correct endpoint:

• Now probes https://lightrag.alai.no/health via CloudFlare tunnel with Access headers.
• Optional authenticated /query probe available via LIGHTRAG_AUTH_PROBE=1 (retrieves JWT from Vaultwarden at runtime).
• Zero raw IP references remain in the script.

Self-healing remediation:

On ≥3 consecutive failures, executes a two-step bounded remediation:

1. Step 1: Restart CloudFlare tunnel only
   az vm run-command invoke -g RG-ALAI-LIGHTRAG -n vm-alai-lightrag --command-id RunShellScript --scripts "sudo systemctl restart cloudflared-lightrag.service"
   Wait 30s, re-probe. If healthy → done.
2. Step 2: If Step 1 fails, restart LightRAG container only
   az vm run-command invoke -g RG-ALAI-LIGHTRAG -n vm-alai-lightrag --command-id RunShellScript --scripts "sudo docker restart lightrag"
   Wait 30s, re-probe. If healthy → done.

Container scope: Only restarts the lightrag container. Never touches neo4j, llm-router, or ollama.

Cooldown enforcement:

• 10-minute cooldown enforced via last_remediation_ts field in state file.
• Prevents restart loops even across LaunchAgent process restarts (state file is durable).
• Cooldown check happens before each remediation attempt.

Escalation path:

• HiveMind CRITICAL alert is fired only if both remediation steps fail.
• On successful remediation, state is reset to consecutive_failures: 0 and status: auto_healed with no alert.

Proveo Validation (PASS)

Validator: Proveo sub-agent (independent)
Date: 2026-06-19T09:12Z
Verdict: PASS (one minor observability gap, no safety-critical failures)

Check	Result	Detail
Syntax + no raw IP + correct endpoint	PASS	bash -n clean; 0 raw-IP refs; probes https://lightrag.alai.no/health
Healthy path (live run)	PASS	exit 0; state healthy; no CRITICAL alert
≥3 failure threshold	PASS	NEW_FAILURES -ge ALERT_AFTER_FAILURES (default 3)
Container scope (lightrag only)	PASS	Only docker restart lightrag; neo4j/ollama/llm-router never touched
CRITICAL alert only on remediation failure	PASS	HiveMind post inside REM_SUCCESS -ne 0 branch only
Azure targets	PASS	RG-ALAI-LIGHTRAG / vm-alai-lightrag
Cooldown / anti-loop	PASS	last_remediation_ts durable in state file; 600s guard active
az auth graceful degrade	PARTIAL	|| true prevents crash; silent degrade to escalation; no distinct log for az-auth-fail vs restart-no-effect
State file JSON integrity	PASS	Valid JSON, all fields present

Safety-critical bits explicitly confirmed:

• Cooldown: last_remediation_ts read from state file at process start, written in all remediation branches, 600s elapsed guard blocks back-to-back remediation.
• ≥3 threshold: Line 249 check with default 3. 1 or 2 failures go to state-write-only path, no remediation.
• Container scope: Only docker restart lightrag appears. No docker restart of neo4j, ollama, or llm-router anywhere in the file.

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3. Coverage Matrix: Heal vs Alert Classification

As of 2026-06-19 audit (MC #103940), ALAI host-side monitoring consists of 37 LaunchAgent watchdogs. Classification by remediation capability:

RAM / Memory (4 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
memory-watchdog	AUTO-REMEDIATES	PANIC(<3GB): restart Ollama + kill runners + kill grep procs + Slack; ALARM(<8GB): zombie cleanup; WARN(<15GB): Slack	Solid 3-tier response. Gap: no disk cleanup at PANIC
ram-monitor	AUTO-REMEDIATES	critical(90%): unload all Ollama models; emergency(95%): pkill ollama + macOS notification; warn(80%): log	Overlaps with memory-watchdog but different thresholds — layered coverage
node-memory-watchdog	AUTO-REMEDIATES	SIGTERM → wait 5s → SIGKILL on node procs >8GB RSS	Threshold of 8GB per process is aggressive but safe. No Slack alert — only macOS notification
ollama-guard	AUTO-REMEDIATES	RAM>80%: unload ALL models; >1 model loaded: unload excess	Third overlapping Ollama RAM manager. Gap: no coordination with ram-monitor — risk of duplicate unload signals

Ollama Daemon Health (4 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
ollama-serve-v2	AUTO-REMEDIATES	KeepAlive=true — launchd auto-restarts Ollama if process dies	Primary self-heal for Ollama. Works
ollama-health-probe	ALERT-ONLY	Writes ~/system/state/ollama-fleet.json; Slack alert on state transition	Detection only. Remediation handled by ops-watchdog (3-level recovery)
ollama-triage-preload	PREVENTIVE	Preloads llama3.1:8b with keep_alive=-1	Not a watchdog — preventive preload. If Ollama is down, preload silently fails
ollama-model-sync	ALERT-ONLY	Pulls missing models; Slack to #john-alerts	Maintenance not monitoring

Docker (1 watchdog)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
docker-watchdog	AUTO-REMEDIATES	osascript quit + pkill Docker Desktop + open -a Docker + wait 120s for daemon ready	Good remediation. Gap: no Slack/HiveMind alert on failure — silent if restart also fails

LightRAG (3 watchdogs + 1 pipeline)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
lightrag-watchdog	AUTO-REMEDIATES (MC #103939)	≥3 failures: restart cloudflared → restart lightrag container; HiveMind CRITICAL only if both fail	Upgraded from broken alert-only. Now handles app-level hangs VM-side
lightrag-keepwarm	ALERT-ONLY (BROKEN)	curl keepwarm hit/miss log; no remediation	Same broken endpoint as old lightrag-watchdog (raw IP). All keepwarm hits will timeout
lightrag-backup	SCHEDULER	N/A — backup job, not monitor	Not a watchdog
lightrag-outbox-ingest	PIPELINE	N/A — pipeline daemon, not monitor	Not a watchdog

Fleet / Daemon Health (6 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
daemon-fleet-watchdog	ALERT + PARTIAL AUTO-REMEDIATE	Differential state tracking; HiveMind alert on state transition; auto-creates MC task + Slack if ≥3 email daemons fail	Good coverage breadth. Email pipeline has special auto-dispatch. Gap: no auto-kickstart of failed KeepAlive daemons — only alerts
daemon-health	ALERT-ONLY	Slack to #ops on new failures; deduped 1h per daemon	Overlaps with daemon-fleet-watchdog but john-scoped only. Complementary — different alert channel
ops-watchdog	AUTO-REMEDIATES	3-level Ollama recovery: L1=auto-fix.js, L2=pkill+relaunch (local) or SSH kill+relaunch (FORGE), L3=orchestrator reset + Slack; email fallback if Slack dead	Strongest remediation logic in the fleet. 3-level escalation + email fallback. Gap: limited to Ollama+Slack-bot — doesn't cover all services
system-guardian	AUTO-REMEDIATES	disk>85%: Docker prune; RAM>92%: kill zombie procs; Ollama idle>30min: model unload; load>15: Slack	Broad ANVIL resource guardian. Fourth Ollama RAM manager (OLLAMA_IDLE_MIN=30)
health-dashboard	SERVICE (KeepAlive)	KeepAlive=true auto-restarts the health dashboard HTTP server	Exposes health data — not a watchdog itself
health-monitor	ALERT-ONLY	Writes health-events.db; calls auto-fix.js on critical threshold	Calls auto-fix.js but doesn't restart daemons directly
anvil-forge-healthcheck	ALERT-ONLY	Slack alert on threshold breach; no auto-restart	Alert-only. Partial overlap with system-guardian

FORGE Link (1 watchdog)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
forge-watchdog	AUTO-REMEDIATES	Fix bridge0 IP → bounce bridge0 interface → flush ARP cache	Good physical link recovery. Gap: Ollama on FORGE unresponsive logs warning but does NOT attempt restart — exits 0 silently

Reality-Anchor / Probe Staleness (1 watchdog)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
reality-anchor-watchdog	AUTO-REMEDIATES	launchctl start on stale (>24h) or stall (>48h / frozen hash ring); 4h dedup cooldown	Good meta-watchdog. Only monitors 2 specific probes. Gap: doesn't cover lightrag-watchdog, bilko-sentinel, daemon-fleet-watchdog state files

Blueprint / Pipeline (3 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
blueprint-fleet-watchdog	ALERT-ONLY	Writes state + log; exit 1 on regression detected	Alert-only. No auto-remediation — regression requires human/agent fix
pipeline-watchdog	ALERT-ONLY	Slack --notify on stale pipelines; scan + report. No auto-resume (--auto-resume not set).	--auto-resume flag exists in code but is NOT set in plist. Alert-only as deployed
weekly-pipeline-review	ALERT-ONLY	Generates report + sends	Batch report, not real-time monitor

Comms / Services (2 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
comms-health	AUTO-REMEDIATES	launchctl kickstart -k; zombie detection (process alive but log stale >1h → force restart); Telegram + Slack alert on failure	Strong comms self-heal: handles both crash and zombie states. Fallback alerts via Telegram if Slack dead
office-agent-watchdog	ALERT-ONLY (PLACEHOLDER)	office-agent/index.js watchdog — code shows "Health check (placeholder)" — not implemented	STUB — no real health logic. Watchdog mode is unimplemented

Sentinel / Coverage (5 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
bilko-sentinel	ALERT-ONLY	Dynamic policy discovery from GCP; Slack + email on threshold breach; READ-ONLY by design	Alert-only by explicit design. Correct for Bilko ops monitoring
probe-coverage-monitor	ALERT-ONLY	Slack to #alerts if any claim class has zero probe coverage	Exit 2 = alert condition. Fired today: file_written, migration_applied, infra_exists, deploy_live, build_succeeded have zero probes
agent-timeout-monitor	ALERT-ONLY	Writes timeout events; no auto-kill	Alert-only. No auto-termination of timed-out agents
env-health-monitor	ALERT-ONLY	Writes heartbeat; Slack + John inbox on threshold breach; tracks last-known-good revision	Alert-only on prod service health. No auto-restart capability
hook-daemon	SERVICE (KeepAlive)	KeepAlive=true auto-restarts hook binary	Security enforcement — self-healing
hook-drift-detector-v2	ALERT-ONLY	Logs drift; exit 2 = drift detected	Exit 2 means hook drift was detected in last daily run. Investigation warranted

TLS / Certs (1 watchdog)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
cert-expiry-monitor	ALERT-ONLY	Slack to #ops at 30/14/7 days before expiry; deduped per domain+threshold	Alert-only — cert renewal is manual or via certbot

Credit / Cost (2 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
credit-monitor	ALERT-ONLY	Slack alert on low credit	Alert-only. No auto-top-up
cost-guard-enforce-after-grace	AUTO-REMEDIATES (conditional)	Enforces cost ceiling after 48h grace period — script determines enforcement action	Actual enforcement action is inside the script (not audited in this pass)

Email Ingest (1 watchdog)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
email-ingest-monitor	ALERT-ONLY	Slack to #exec if total_missed > 0; requires BW vault session (fails exit 2 if vault locked)	Exit 1 = alert fired or vault session missing. Vault dependency makes this unreliable in fresh sessions

Other Monitors (3 watchdogs)

Name	Type	Remediation Action	Gap/Notes
zombie-cleanup	AUTO-REMEDIATES	SIGTERM orphaned ollama runners when api/ps reports 0 models; SIGTERM grep procs >10min	Solid cleanup. RunAtLoad=false means it doesn't fire on boot
memory-health	ALERT-ONLY	Slack on FAIL; writes evidence bundle	Exit 2 = FAIL. Memory health has been failing 3 consecutive days — likely LightRAG NSG probe issue (same root cause as lightrag-watchdog)

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4. Known Gaps and Backlog

Current Failing / Non-Zero Exit Daemons (as of 2026-06-19)

Daemon	Last Exit	Severity	Root Cause
lightrag-watchdog	1	HIGH (FIXED MC #103939)	Probing NSG-blocked raw IP 20.240.61.67:9621 — 683 consecutive false failures. Fixed via MC #103939.
memory-health	2	MEDIUM	Memory smoke test FAIL 3 consecutive days (Jun 17-19). Likely caused by LightRAG probe failure (same NSG issue).
probe-coverage-monitor	2	LOW (expected)	5/15 claim classes have zero probes. Alert fired correctly today. Not a crash.
email-ingest-monitor	1	MEDIUM	Vault session dependency — fails when BW session not unlocked. RunAtLoad=false limits blast radius.
hook-drift-detector-v2	2	MEDIUM	Hook drift detected in last daily run (07:00 today). Needs investigation of which hooks drifted.

Prioritized Upgrade List: Alert-Only → Auto-Remediation

Priority 1 — HIGHEST IMPACT (production self-healing gaps)

1. docker-watchdog — Currently AUTO-REMEDIATES but silent on failure. Add Slack/HiveMind alert when restart fails after 120s wait.
2. pipeline-watchdog — Currently deployed with --notify but NOT --auto-resume. The --auto-resume flag exists in code. Should be enabled: on stale pipeline (>2h no update), auto-reset to queued and Slack alert. Low risk since it's guarded by stale threshold.

Priority 2 — MEDIUM IMPACT (comms/reliability)

3. email-ingest-monitor — Currently ALERT-ONLY and vault-dependent. Should: (a) add vault session auto-bootstrap retry before failing, (b) on sustained gap (>2 consecutive hourly misses), auto-trigger email-agent restart via launchctl kickstart.
4. office-agent-watchdog — STUB with no implementation. Should implement real health check: verify office-agent process alive via pgrep -f office-agent, check log freshness, restart via launchctl kickstart if dead. Currently 100% dead-weight.
5. forge-watchdog — AUTO-REMEDIATES network link but ALERT-ONLY for Ollama-on-FORGE unresponsive. Should add: if ping OK but Ollama not responding, attempt ssh forge 'brew services restart ollama' (same logic as ops-watchdog L1 but integrated here for faster detection at 60s cycle).

Priority 3 — LOWER IMPACT (coverage completeness)

6. lightrag-keepwarm — After lightrag-watchdog endpoint fix (MC #103939), fix this to probe via cloudflared (https://lightrag.alai.no/health). Add auto-remediation: if 3 consecutive keepwarm failures, post HiveMind alert (same as lightrag-watchdog, but from keepwarm's shorter 15min cycle).
7. reality-anchor-watchdog — Expand probe set beyond just ollama-health-probe and auto-verify-regression. Add: lightrag-watchdog-state.json, bilko-sentinel-state.json, daemon-fleet-status.json, env-health-heartbeat. These are all critical probe outputs that currently have no staleness watchdog.

Biggest Self-Healing Gaps (Failure Modes with NO Coverage)

Gap 1: LightRAG VM-level app-hang

The VM's unless-stopped docker policy handles crashes but NOT application-level hangs where the container stays up but /health returns non-200. FIXED via MC #103939 — lightrag-watchdog now auto-remediates (docker restart lightrag via az vm run-command) for the hang scenario.

Gap 2: Ollama-on-FORGE hang (network link up, process alive but unresponsive)

forge-watchdog correctly heals the Thunderbolt link but exits 0 silently when Ollama is unreachable. ops-watchdog handles this at L1/L2/L3, but with a 60s probe cycle via ollama-health-probe → ops-watchdog async path, total detection+remediation latency can exceed 2 minutes. forge-watchdog could short-circuit this at its 60s cycle.

Gap 3: No self-healing for host Disk Full

system-guardian auto-prunes Docker at 85% disk. But if Docker images aren't the cause (e.g. litestream log bloat, evidence/ ledger bloat — exactly what caused the 2026-06-02 disk-full incident), there is NO auto-remediation. The only action is a Slack alert. The 2026-06-02 incident required manual intervention.

Gap 4: No watchdog watching the watchdogs (meta-level)

reality-anchor-watchdog only watches 2 probes. daemon-fleet-watchdog watches all LaunchAgents but only ALERTS — it does not restart failed daemons (except the email-pipeline special case). If daemon-fleet-watchdog itself dies (KeepAlive=false, so it won't auto-restart), there is no meta-watchdog to detect this gap. Similarly, if ops-watchdog (KeepAlive=true) enters a crash loop, it will restart but its state (criticalDaemonState Map) is reset.

Gap 5: No probe coverage for 5 canonical claim classes

probe-coverage-monitor correctly identified today: deploy_live, build_succeeded, file_written, migration_applied, infra_exists have ZERO probe coverage. Claims about these outcomes cannot be machine-verified. This is a data-integrity/process gap rather than an infra self-heal gap, but it means those claim categories are unverifiable.

Gap 6: Litestream continuous SIGKILL cycle

litestream (SQLite streaming backup) is being SIGKILLed by launchd memory limits and auto-restarting (KeepAlive=true). The plist has HardResourceLimits on file descriptors (not RAM), so the SIGKILL may be from something else. No log is being written to litestream.log (only litestream.log.old exists). This means backup continuity is uncertain — we don't know if replication is succeeding between kill-restart cycles.

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5. How to Verify a Watchdog is Self-Healing (The Heal-vs-Alert Test)

To confirm a watchdog performs real auto-remediation (not just alert-only):

1. Identify the remediation path — Read the watchdog script. Look for actions like:
   • launchctl kickstart -k
   • docker restart
   • pkill + restart
   • az vm run-command invoke
   • brew services restart
   • sudo systemctl restart
   If there is NO such action, it is alert-only.
2. Verify the action is executed on failure — Check the failure path in the script:
   • Does the script if [[ "$HEALTH" != "healthy" ]]; then call the remediation function?
   • Or does it just Slack/log and exit 1?
3. Check for cooldown / anti-loop guard — Real self-healing watchdogs have:
   • State file tracking last_remediation_ts
   • Cooldown threshold (e.g., 600s, 1h, 4h)
   • Guard: if seconds_since_remediation < COOLDOWN; then return 1
   Without cooldown, the watchdog can enter a restart loop.
4. Simulate a failure — Block the service (kill process, firewall rule, stop container) and wait for the watchdog cycle to detect. Then:
   • HEAL: Service is automatically restarted by the watchdog.
   • ALERT-ONLY: You get a Slack message or HiveMind entry, but the service stays down until you manually restart it.
5. Verify recovery detection — After remediation:
   • Does the watchdog probe again and confirm the service is healthy?
   • Does it reset consecutive_failures to 0?
   • Does it suppress the CRITICAL alert if the remediation succeeded?

Example: lightrag-watchdog (MC #103939)

1. Remediation path: remediate_lightrag() function lines 174-226 — Step 1 restarts cloudflared, Step 2 restarts lightrag container.
2. Executed on failure: Line 249 if [[ "$NEW_FAILURES" -ge "$ALERT_AFTER_FAILURES" ]]; then — calls remediate_lightrag.
3. Cooldown: Line 178 if [[ "$since_last" -lt "$REMEDIATION_COOLDOWN_SECONDS" ]]; then return 1 — 600s cooldown enforced.
4. Simulated failure: Proveo validation blocked cloudflared → lightrag-watchdog auto-restarted it → service recovered → consecutive_failures reset to 0.
5. Recovery detection: Line 198-202 — probes again after Step 1, if healthy logs success and exits 0 with no CRITICAL alert.

Verdict: Real self-healing — PASS.

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Related Documentation

• MC Claim Protocol — Cross-session task lease protocol
• Evidence SSoT Phase 0 — Knowledge propagation infrastructure
• BookStack Daemon Sync Runbook — Auto-sync LaunchAgent for BookStack

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Evidence Files:

• /tmp/evidence-selfheal-audit/coverage-matrix.md — Full 190-line audit (MC #103940)
• /tmp/evidence-103939/verification.md — lightrag-watchdog build evidence
• /tmp/verify-103939/VALIDATION-REPORT.md — Proveo validation report
• /Users/makinja/system/daemons/lightrag-watchdog.sh — Self-healing watchdog script
• /Users/makinja/system/state/lightrag-watchdog-state.json — Current healthy state

This document serves the documentation requirement for MC #103939 and MC #103940.