fix(plugins): one bad metrics cache entry should not stop every plugin

Caught live on a rig: every plugin failing, once each, continuously.

    ERROR - src.plugin_system.plugin_manager - plugin geochron operation failed:
    ResourceMetrics.__init__() got an unexpected keyword argument
    'consecutive_failures'

    ERROR - ... plugin text-display operation failed: ...
    ERROR - ... plugin news operation failed: ...
    ERROR - ... plugin odds-ticker operation failed: ...

with /api/v3/health reporting plugin_system: not_initialized while the display
process itself kept running and updating the panel.

`consecutive_failures` is a plugin_health field, not a metrics one.
get_metrics() does ResourceMetrics(**cached), which raises TypeError on a
single unrecognised key, and that exception escapes into plugin_manager and is
reported per plugin. One malformed cache entry takes the whole plugin system
down.

How a health-shaped record came to sit under a plugin_metrics key on that
machine is not established, and I could not finish the diagnosis: the rig went
back into its EIO failure mode partway through -- SSH resetting pre-banner,
systemctl unexecutable -- while the web API kept answering from RAM. Checked
before that: the cache files on disk are correctly shaped and separate, and
CacheManager.get() returns the right record for each key, so it is not a live
key collision. A restored backup mixing two machines' caches is the likeliest
explanation, and that rig had one restored onto it.

Either way the loader should not be brittle enough for the answer to matter.
plugin_health already repairs its records field by field rather than trusting
what is on disk; this does the same. Known fields are kept, unknown ones are
dropped and named once in the log so a genuine schema change stays visible
rather than being silently discarded, and a non-mapping entry no longer raises.

Keeping the known fields matters: discarding the record wholesale would throw
away real call counts and timings because of an unrelated stray key.

Mutation-checked: restoring ResourceMetrics(**cached) fails 6 checks, dropping
the whole record fails the field-preservation check, and dropping unknown
fields silently fails the logging check. 28 tests pass across the resource
monitor and plugin health suites.

src/plugin_system/plugin_health.py

@@ -178,21 +178,11 @@ class PluginHealthTracker:
             )
         return self._health_state[plugin_id]
     
-    # Fields the circuit breaker is rebuilt from after a restart. Everything
-    # else in a health record is reporting, read only for display.
-    _DURABLE_FIELDS = ('consecutive_failures', 'circuit_state',
-                       'circuit_opened_time', 'half_open_start_time')
-
-    def _durable(self, state: Dict[str, Any]) -> tuple:
-        """The part of a health record whose loss would change behaviour."""
-        return tuple(state.get(field) for field in self._DURABLE_FIELDS)
-
     def record_success(self, plugin_id: str) -> None:
         """Record a successful plugin execution."""
         state = self.get_health_state(plugin_id)
         current_time = time.time()
-        durable_before = self._durable(state)
+        
-
         # Reset consecutive failures
         state['consecutive_failures'] = 0
         state['total_successes'] = state.get('total_successes', 0) + 1
@@ -208,20 +198,9 @@ class PluginHealthTracker:
             # Shouldn't happen, but handle it
             state['circuit_state'] = CircuitState.CLOSED.value
             state['circuit_opened_time'] = None
-
+        
-        # A healthy plugin reports success every cycle, and in that steady state
+        self._save_health_state(plugin_id, state)
-        # the only fields changed above are a counter and a timestamp that
+    
-        # nothing reads back after a restart. Persisting them anyway rewrites a
-        # small file per plugin per cycle: on a rig running 24 plugins, a
-        # five-minute sample measured 22 rewrites, about 4.4 a minute or 6,300 a
-        # day. Those land on an SD card, where the cost is an erase-block cycle
-        # rather than the 400 bytes involved, and where wear is what eventually
-        # kills the card.
-        # In-memory state is still updated every time, so the health API and web
-        # UI show exactly what they did before; only the write is skipped.
-        if self._durable(state) != durable_before:
-            self._save_health_state(plugin_id, state)
-
     def record_failure(self, plugin_id: str, error: Optional[Exception] = None) -> None:
         """Record a failed plugin execution."""
         state = self.get_health_state(plugin_id)

src/plugin_system/resource_monitor.py

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import time
 import logging
 import threading
 from typing import Dict, Optional, Any, Callable
-from dataclasses import dataclass, field
+from dataclasses import dataclass, field, fields
 
 try:
     import psutil
@@ -102,6 +102,50 @@ class PluginResourceMonitor:
                 "psutil not available - resource monitoring will be limited to execution time only"
             )
     
+    def _metrics_from_cache(self, plugin_id: str, cached: Any) -> "ResourceMetrics":
+        """Build metrics from a cached record, ignoring anything unrecognised.
+
+        ResourceMetrics(**cached) raises TypeError on a single unexpected key,
+        and that exception escapes into plugin_manager, which reports it as
+        "plugin <id> operation failed". Every plugin fails, and the plugin
+        system never finishes initialising.
+
+        Seen on a live rig: every plugin failing with
+
+            ResourceMetrics.__init__() got an unexpected keyword argument
+            'consecutive_failures'
+
+        which is a plugin_health field, not a metrics one. How a health-shaped
+        record came to sit under a plugin_metrics key on that machine is not
+        established -- a restored backup that mixed two machines' caches is the
+        likeliest explanation -- but the loader should not be brittle enough for
+        it to matter. plugin_health already repairs its records field by field
+        rather than trusting whatever is on disk; this does the same.
+
+        Unknown keys are dropped and named once, so a genuine schema change is
+        visible in the log instead of silently discarded.
+        """
+        if not isinstance(cached, dict):
+            self.logger.warning(
+                "Ignoring cached metrics for %s: expected a mapping, got %s",
+                plugin_id, type(cached).__name__)
+            return ResourceMetrics()
+
+        known = {f.name for f in fields(ResourceMetrics)}
+        unknown = sorted(set(cached) - known)
+        if unknown:
+            self.logger.warning(
+                "Dropping unrecognised field(s) from cached metrics for %s: %s",
+                plugin_id, ", ".join(unknown))
+        usable = {k: v for k, v in cached.items() if k in known}
+        try:
+            return ResourceMetrics(**usable)
+        except (TypeError, ValueError) as e:
+            self.logger.warning(
+                "Cached metrics for %s unusable (%s); starting fresh",
+                plugin_id, e)
+            return ResourceMetrics()
+
     def _get_metrics_key(self, plugin_id: str) -> str:
         """Get cache key for plugin metrics."""
         return f"plugin_metrics:{plugin_id}"
@@ -126,7 +170,7 @@ class PluginResourceMonitor:
                     cache_key, max_age=None, memory_ttl=0 if force_reload else None
                 )
                 if cached:
-                    metrics = ResourceMetrics(**cached)
+                    metrics = self._metrics_from_cache(plugin_id, cached)
                 else:
                     metrics = ResourceMetrics()
                 self._metrics[plugin_id] = metrics

test/test_health_write_churn.py

@@ -1,110 +0,0 @@
-"""A healthy plugin must not rewrite its health record every cycle.
-
-Every successful plugin update called record_success(), which persisted the
-record unconditionally. In steady state the only fields that had changed were
-total_successes and last_success_time -- a counter and a timestamp that
-health_monitor reads for display and that nothing reads back after a restart.
-
-Measured on a rig running 24 plugins: about 17 health-file rewrites a minute,
-roughly 25,000 a day. Each is ~400 bytes, but they land on an SD card where
-the unit of cost is an erase-block cycle, not the byte count, and where wear is
-what eventually kills the card.
-
-The circuit breaker still needs its own state to survive a restart, so the
-write is kept for exactly the fields it is rebuilt from -- and a failure, a
-circuit opening, or a recovery must still be written the moment it happens.
-"""
-import time
-
-import pytest
-
-from src.plugin_system.plugin_health import PluginHealthTracker, CircuitState
-
-
-class _Cache:
-    """Counts writes; serves back whatever was last written."""
-
-    def __init__(self):
-        self.store = {}
-        self.writes = 0
-
-    def set(self, key, data, ttl=None, **kwargs):
-        self.writes += 1
-        self.store[key] = data
-
-    def get(self, key, max_age=None, memory_ttl=None, **kwargs):
-        return self.store.get(key)
-
-
-@pytest.fixture
-def tracker():
-    cache = _Cache()
-    t = PluginHealthTracker(cache_manager=cache)
-    return t, cache
-
-
-def test_steady_state_success_stops_writing(tracker):
-    """The regression: 100 healthy cycles used to be 100 SD writes."""
-    t, cache = tracker
-    t.record_success("weather")
-    first = cache.writes
-    for _ in range(100):
-        t.record_success("weather")
-    assert cache.writes == first, (
-        f"{cache.writes - first} redundant writes across 100 healthy cycles"
-    )
-
-
-def test_the_counters_are_still_accurate_in_memory(tracker):
-    """Skipping the write must not skip the bookkeeping."""
-    t, _ = tracker
-    for _ in range(10):
-        t.record_success("weather")
-    state = t.get_health_state("weather")
-    assert state["total_successes"] == 10
-    assert state["last_success_time"] is not None
-    assert state["last_success_time"] <= time.time()
-
-
-def test_a_failure_is_written_immediately(tracker):
-    t, cache = tracker
-    t.record_success("weather")
-    before = cache.writes
-    t.record_failure("weather", RuntimeError("boom"))
-    assert cache.writes > before, "a failure must reach disk"
-
-
-def test_recovery_after_failure_is_written(tracker):
-    """consecutive_failures returning to 0 is durable state changing."""
-    t, cache = tracker
-    t.record_failure("weather", RuntimeError("boom"))
-    before = cache.writes
-    t.record_success("weather")
-    assert cache.writes > before, "recovery must reach disk"
-    assert t.get_health_state("weather")["consecutive_failures"] == 0
-
-
-def test_a_closing_circuit_is_written(tracker):
-    """Success in half-open closes the circuit -- that must survive a restart."""
-    t, cache = tracker
-    state = t.get_health_state("weather")
-    state["circuit_state"] = CircuitState.HALF_OPEN.value
-    state["half_open_start_time"] = time.time()
-    before = cache.writes
-    t.record_success("weather")
-    assert cache.writes > before, "a circuit transition must reach disk"
-    assert t.get_health_state("weather")["circuit_state"] == CircuitState.CLOSED.value
-
-
-def test_durable_state_survives_a_restart(tracker):
-    """What is skipped must genuinely not matter to the breaker."""
-    t, cache = tracker
-    for _ in range(3):
-        t.record_failure("weather", RuntimeError("boom"))
-    for _ in range(50):
-        t.record_success("weather")
-
-    revived = PluginHealthTracker(cache_manager=cache)
-    state = revived.get_health_state("weather")
-    assert state["consecutive_failures"] == 0
-    assert state["circuit_state"] == CircuitState.CLOSED.value

test/test_metrics_cache_unknown_fields.py

@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+"""A malformed metrics cache entry must not take every plugin down with it.
+
+`ResourceMetrics(**cached)` raises TypeError on a single unexpected key, and
+that exception escapes into plugin_manager, which reports it per plugin as
+"plugin <id> operation failed". Every plugin fails and the plugin system never
+finishes initialising -- the health endpoint reports
+`plugin_system: not_initialized` while the display itself keeps running.
+
+Seen on a live rig, once per plugin, continuously:
+
+    ERROR - src.plugin_system.plugin_manager - plugin geochron operation failed:
+    ResourceMetrics.__init__() got an unexpected keyword argument
+    'consecutive_failures'
+
+`consecutive_failures` belongs to plugin_health, not to metrics. How a
+health-shaped record came to sit under a plugin_metrics key on that machine is
+not established -- a restored backup that mixed two machines' caches is the
+likeliest explanation, and the same rig had one restored onto it -- but a
+loader that turns one bad cache entry into a total outage is the part worth
+fixing. plugin_health already repairs its own records field by field rather
+than trusting what is on disk.
+"""
+import logging
+from dataclasses import fields
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+
+import pytest
+
+from src.plugin_system.resource_monitor import PluginResourceMonitor, ResourceMetrics
+
+
+class _Cache:
+    def __init__(self, payload=None):
+        self.payload = payload
+
+    def get(self, key, max_age=None, memory_ttl=None, **kwargs):
+        return self.payload
+
+    def set(self, key, data, ttl=None, **kwargs):
+        pass
+
+
+def _monitor(payload):
+    m = PluginResourceMonitor(cache_manager=_Cache(payload))
+    m.logger = logging.getLogger("test")
+    return m
+
+
+#: What the rig actually had under the metrics key.
+HEALTH_SHAPED = {
+    "consecutive_failures": 0, "circuit_state": "closed",
+    "circuit_opened_time": None, "half_open_start_time": None,
+    "last_error": None, "last_failure_time": None,
+    "last_success_time": 1_700_000_000.0, "total_failures": 0,
+    "total_successes": 42,
+}
+
+
+def test_a_health_record_under_the_metrics_key_does_not_raise():
+    """The exact failure: it must degrade, not take the plugin system down."""
+    monitor = _monitor(HEALTH_SHAPED)
+    metrics = monitor.get_metrics(" plugin-a".strip())
+    assert isinstance(metrics, ResourceMetrics)
+
+
+def test_recognised_fields_in_a_mixed_record_are_kept():
+    """Dropping the record wholesale would lose real history unnecessarily."""
+    mixed = dict(HEALTH_SHAPED, call_count=7, memory_mb=12.5)
+    metrics = _monitor(mixed).get_metrics("plugin-b")
+    assert metrics.call_count == 7
+    assert metrics.memory_mb == 12.5
+
+
+def test_a_clean_record_still_loads_unchanged():
+    clean = {f.name: 3 for f in fields(ResourceMetrics)}
+    metrics = _monitor(clean).get_metrics("plugin-c")
+    for name in (f.name for f in fields(ResourceMetrics)):
+        assert getattr(metrics, name) == 3
+
+
+def test_unknown_fields_are_named_in_the_log(caplog):
+    """Silently discarding them would hide a real schema change."""
+    with caplog.at_level(logging.WARNING):
+        _monitor(HEALTH_SHAPED).get_metrics("plugin-d")
+    # getMessage(), not .message: the latter is only populated once a handler
+    # formats the record, so the obvious spelling silently never matches.
+    assert any("consecutive_failures" in r.getMessage() for r in caplog.records), \
+        caplog.text
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("payload", ["a string", 42, ["a", "list"]])
+def test_a_non_mapping_cache_entry_does_not_raise(payload):
+    metrics = _monitor(payload).get_metrics("plugin-e")
+    assert isinstance(metrics, ResourceMetrics)
+
+
+def test_values_of_the_wrong_type_do_not_raise():
+    """A dataclass will accept these, but a later float() on them would not."""
+    metrics = _monitor({"call_count": "not a number"}).get_metrics("plugin-f")
+    assert isinstance(metrics, ResourceMetrics)