ADR 0026: Status reads a branch where its records last saw it

Status: accepted · Date: 2026-10-16

Deciders: the user, reviewing how fast sluice’s reads are on a busy branch, 2026-10-16. Sources: agentplot/blueprints:design/sluice/requirements.md clauses 26, 49, 61; ADR 0023; rules core.11, core.14, core.15.

Context and problem statement

sluice status <branch>, sluice status <id>, the text of sluice submit --status and every loop of sluice run read a branch’s queue through the core’s status, which read the branch’s revision from the branch seam. For a branch on a remote, that read is a fetch: on this repository’s main, about 0.75 s of every sluice status main’s 0.9 s. sluice overview reads the same branch at the revision its records last saw, base, and never fetches (ADR 0023). Must a status read fetch?

Considered options

1. status reads the branch at base, the revision its records last saw, and reads the branch itself only for a branch whose records have seen no revision.
2. status keeps fetching, and a flag skips the fetch.
3. status keeps fetching.

Decision outcome

Option 1. A status read is a read of the records (26, 49, 61): its state and the verdicts read for it, which a fetch does not change. The revision it names is the one the queue was formed on, the same one sluice overview names, so the two never disagree. A commit the branch has taken since is seen by the next round, which reads the branch as it always has; nothing a round, a gate or a landing decides reads status (rule core.15). The parallel shown is read from the policy at base, as the overview’s is, and decides nothing.

Option 2 makes the slow read the default for every agent that does not know the flag. Option 3 costs a network request for every status read, on every loop of sluice run.

Consequences

• sluice status <branch> on this repository’s main reads in about 0.03 s where it took 0.9 s.
• A branch with no records yet, or none that have seen a revision, is still read from the branch, which is how status tells a branch with no records from no branch at all.
• The revision status names can be behind the remote’s branch until the next round reads it.