CLI constructs SubcModuleTransport without subc.connection_file — strands `doctor drain-authority`, the escape hatch out of rust mode

[iceteaSA]

Summary

#376 threaded the configured subc.connection_file into SubcModuleTransport at the three plugin call sites. Three CLI call sites were missed and still construct it with no argument, so they silently fall back to getDefaultConnectionFile():

packages/cli/src/commands/doctor-authority.ts:138   const transport = new SubcModuleTransport();
packages/cli/src/commands/doctor-authority.ts:188   authorityClient(new SubcModuleTransport(), projectRoot)
packages/cli/src/commands/migrate-session.ts:652    const transport = new SubcModuleTransport();

versus the fixed plugin sites:

packages/plugin/src/hooks/magic-context/hook.ts:815  new SubcModuleTransport(deps.config.subc?.connection_file)
packages/plugin/src/index.ts:283                     new SubcModuleTransport(pluginConfig.subc?.connection_file)
packages/plugin/src/index.ts:289                     new SubcModuleTransport(pluginConfig.subc?.connection_file)

doctor-opencode.ts:534 and doctor-pi.ts:785 both read loaded.subc.connection_file correctly, so the CLI already knows how to do this — doctor-authority.ts just doesn't.

All refs against dc952bf3.

Why this one is worse than #375

doctor drain-authority is the designated recovery path out of rust mode. It is what the codebase itself tells you to run: context-authority.ts emits magic-context doctor drain-authority <root>, and migrate.test.ts:540 asserts that guidance. When the daemon publishes its connection file anywhere other than the default, the command fails:

$ bun packages/cli/src/index.ts doctor drain-authority /path/to/project
Module unreachable — writes fenced; run with rust mode or restore subc connectivity:
ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '~/.local/share/cortexkit/run/subc-connection.json'

The message says "restore subc connectivity", but subc is perfectly reachable — the plugin is talking to it on the configured path at that very moment. So the failure is self-describing in a misleading direction: it blames the daemon for a path the CLI chose to ignore.

The practical shape: you flip to rust mode, hit a problem, go to drain back out, and the escape hatch refuses. The workaround is a symlink into the default location:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/cortexkit/run
ln -sfn /run/user/1000/subc-connection.json ~/.local/share/cortexkit/run/subc-connection.json

After which the exact same command succeeds:

Authority drained back to TypeScript for git:93eea8cd….

The symlink resolves fine through the client's owner-only check, which confirms the path is the only problem.

Suggested fix

Same shape as #376 — load the config and pass it through, as the sibling doctor commands already do. doctor-authority.ts takes a project root, so loadPluginConfig(projectRoot) is available on both paths. migrate-session.ts:652 is the same one-line change.

Worth considering whether the no-arg constructor should stay available at all, or whether the default should be reserved for a single explicit accessor — three call sites drifted to it across two packages, and the failure mode is silent until the environment differs from the default.

Adjacent: shipped CLI dist is stale

Unrelated to the above but hit in the same session — the published packages/cli/dist/index.js refuses current databases:

Refusing to open …/context.db: database schema v10100 is newer than this CLI supports (max v73).

v73 is many releases back. Running the CLI from source works. Might be a release-pipeline gap rather than a code issue, but since doctor is the thing you reach for when something is wrong, a stale dist blocks diagnosis at the worst moment.

Environment

Fork on upstream dc952bf3 (v0.42.3), daemon ck 0.17.39, ck-mc built at matching generation. All four files cited are byte-identical to upstream at that sha, so the line numbers hold. Daemon publishes to /run/user/1000/subc-connection.json; user config sets subc.connection_file to exactly that, and the plugin honors it (verified: transform lane serving at 28–33ms over that path while the CLI could not find it).

[magic-alfonso]

Confirmed and fixed on master (fd142c6). All three CLI sites (doctor-authority.ts ×2, migrate-session.ts) now thread the loaded config's subc.connection_file, and your structural point is taken: the transport constructor no longer accepts a missing argument, and the platform default lives behind one explicit named accessor, so a future call site cannot drift to it silently. Each site has a regression that fails on the old code with the default path captured. Ships in v0.42.4.

On the adjacent note: the published @cortexkit/magic-context@0.42.3 CLI dist carries schema fence 84 (I unpacked the registry tarball and checked LATEST_SUPPORTED_VERSION), so a max v73 refusal means a stale local dist/ in a source checkout, not the release; bun run build in packages/cli refreshes it. Thanks for the precise report and the workaround.