The --detach-runs flag is scaffolding that gates all HA behaviors. Operators must know to pass it to get run durability. The flag name doesn't communicate what it does, and the behaviors it controls should be automatic based on the deployment stack.

With startup validation shipped (#1488), serve already resolves its durability mode (local vs durable) at startup based on the datastore and vault configuration. The system knows its capabilities. The flag is redundant.

Approach

Stop checking the flag. Enable HA behaviors based on what the infrastructure supports — the mode resolution from #1488 determines what activates:

Filesystem datastore → Phase 1+2 behaviors

Always active, no flag needed:

ActiveRunRegistry always created (detached runs, run.attach)
Detached task handlers always used (runs survive disconnection)
Pending run hooks wired to SQLite (durable intake)
reapDeadProcessRuns at boot
interrupt() instead of cancel() in reapOrphanedWorkflowRuns
Pending run replay from SQLite

Remote datastore with control-plane → Phase 1+2+3 behaviors

Activates automatically when the datastore supports it (syncService.capabilities().controlPlane), no flag needed:

Everything from Phase 1+2 above, plus:
Control-plane store created from sync service
Instance heartbeat started
Durable pending runs dual-written to SQLite + control-plane store
reconcileRemoteInterruptedRuns at boot
Continuous reconciliation timer
Startup cache hydration
Pending run replay merged from SQLite + remote

This is exactly how it works today WITH --detach-runs. The change is: remove the flag gate so it happens automatically.

Flag deprecation

If --detach-runs is passed, log a deprecation warning:

[WRN] serve: The --detach-runs flag is deprecated and has no effect. HA mode is determined automatically by your datastore configuration. See startup mode log for details.

Keep the flag on the CLI definition so existing scripts, systemd units, and Kubernetes manifests don't break on the next upgrade. If detach-runs: true appears in serve.yaml, accept it with the same deprecation warning. Remove the flag entirely in a later release.

What NOT to change

Do NOT remove the fallback code paths (the if (!registry) branches in the handlers). They become dead code but removing them is a separate cleanup once the always-on behavior is proven in production.
Do NOT change any HA behavior — this is purely about removing the flag gate, not changing how the features work.
Do NOT change the mode resolution logic from #1488 — reuse it as-is.

Testing

Verify serve starts with Phase 1+2 behaviors active on filesystem datastore WITHOUT --detach-runs
Verify serve starts with Phase 1+2+3 behaviors active on S3 datastore WITHOUT --detach-runs
Verify --detach-runs logs deprecation warning
Verify all existing tests pass without the flag
Run all three binary verification suites (normal serve, detached runs, safe restarts) — all should pass regardless of whether --detach-runs is provided
Verify the mode log output matches the activated behaviors

Files to modify

src/cli/commands/serve.ts — remove all if (detachRuns) gates, replace with capability-based checks where needed. Add deprecation warning when flag is present.
src/cli/commands/serve.ts — the --detach-runs option stays in the CLI definition but is ignored.
src/serve/handlers/workflow_handlers.ts — the if (!registry) fallback paths become dead code but are NOT removed.
src/serve/handlers/model_handlers.ts — same.

Parent issue: #1448

02Bog Flow

Shipped

8/4/2026, 9:10:42 PM

Click a lifecycle step above to view its details.

03Sludge Pulse

stack72 assigned stack728/4/2026, 6:58:43 PM

Document --restricted-commands flag for swamp serve

vault put: pass tags through to extension provider CreateSecret/setSecret calls

Docs: update manual for 23 new --server commands

Update VaultProvider interface in @systeminit/swamp-testing to support optional tags in put()

Docs: document --grants-file flag for swamp serve

Docs: document --server support for serve reload

Docs: add --tag flag to vault put reference

Docs: update manual for --detach-runs deprecation and HA auto-detection

Document the Codex plugin in swamp docs

Add --server support to CLI commands missing it

Document the swamp Claude Code plugin in the swamp documentation

Make --server a global CLI option

Add --server support to model cancel (server-side run cancellation)

Load grants from external source on swamp serve startup

swamp vault put should support tags for secret governance

Improve hot reload of the deamon, include extension source/bundle changes

Authenticated users must re-login after swamp serve restart

Add --server support to serve reload

Harden queue claim semantics: atomic claims + status-guarded markDelivered/markFailed across app queues

Auto-detect HA mode and deprecate --detach-runs flag

version-drift check (from #236) is a raw string-inequality, false-positives on multi-model manifests and metadata-only bumps

Resend newsletter audience sync: contacts, segments, backfill, unsubscribe sync-back

Move per-login token secrets from vault to encrypted control-plane store

Docs: document macOS TLS trust limitation and SSL_CERT_FILE workaround

Validate swamp serve deployment stack on startup

Docs: serve config file (.swamp/serve.yaml) and --config flag

Serve config file — read swamp serve configuration from YAML

Deno runtime does not trust ISRG Root YR — extensions fail with valid Let's Encrypt certs

Docs: update hot-reload reference to include trust list refresh

Cross-instance client re-attach for multi-instance swamp serve

vercel codegen: inline rawSyncResult in non-unwrap sync path

vercel codegen: unused listAll import blocks extension publish for 4 models

vercel codegen: add round-trip idempotency test for the pipeline

Operatives button on Collectives page does nothing

Track active runs in the control-plane store for cross-instance visibility

validateGlobalArgInputRefs checks step-level inputs but step schema rejects 'inputs' key

Docs: document continuous reconciliation and multi-instance serve flags

Docs: update workflow guard skip output to include guardExpression and guardResult

Make it aware hot reload on the deamon does not take into account trust list changes, or do take into account the trust list for the hot reload.

workflow validate: new 'GlobalArgument input references' check resolves model-definition ${{ inputs.* }} against workflow inputs, false-failing steps that supply the input

Continuous reconciliation for multi-instance swamp serve

Split the score-read circuit breaker so leaderboard pressure can't blank profile scores

oauth_sign_in telemetry records provider as the literal ":id" for every event

Ghost profile bypasses the score-read seam and 500s on a slow ledger

Profile score section blocks the render on a ClickHouse read

Council: set the scoring balance — command tiers, farm-decay parameters, cross-category ratio

Scoring coverage gaps: instrument drop-off, score ripples/mentions, reward invite-converts

Push down the two cheap leaderboard scans: ghost-gate dictionary and eventCounts owner filter

Materialize an active-days-by-id table for the streak board

score-rollup-projector: O(all-time ledger) closure + per-pod fan-out saturates prod ClickHouse CPU

Startup cache hydration for swamp serve instance replacement

Output a log line for steps skipped due to guards

extension quality scorer misreads a template-literal import specifier in generated code as an unresolvable bare import, hard-erroring the whole extension as UNSCORABLE

Add @swamp/kubernetes/statefulset model type

Docs: access token commands reference says plaintext is 'shown once'

Document --restricted-model-types flag for swamp serve

swamp auth server-login ignores SWAMP_SERVE_URL

s3-datastore extension: pullChanged writes namespace-stripped paths to local cache

serve oauth: an unrecognized device-token error kills the whole serve process instead of the bootstrap

s3-datastore: bidirectional sync pull writes namespace-stripped copies to cache root, wedging push with no supported recovery

CLI reports 'HTTP/2 not supported by this client' when the server actually returned 401 — masks auth failures as a transport error

access token mint: allow reusing a revoked token name

extension quality --json exits 1 with 'rubric factors missing' even when a full score was computed (unearned factor, not uncomputable)

serve oauth: startDeviceGrant discards the OAuth error field, making device-code failures undiagnosable

access token rotate: add --vault flag to override inherited vault

Extensions without a repository can't receive issues — including the issue asking them to add one

serve oauth bootstrap: device flow rate-limited to a 45-second window by validateClient counter, shared globally across tenants

workflow edit: after saving an invalid workflow, re-running edit reports "Workflow not found"

Authentication via Google Broken

Plus-addressed emails stripped on invite acceptance, breaking collective join and quest reward

Profile edit broken on Safari

Configurable write paths for object-creating commands (repo-relative swamp root)

Docs: document rollbackOnFailure with safety guidance for external-dependency models

Remote execution tutorial: sample runner output is missing the stdout line that #1462 restored

seadex-latent-bugs: latent product bugs pinned by the wave-2b test backfill

Remote step stdout is not streamed to the workflow runner (log artifact is transferred correctly)

Redactor false positives: HH:MM:SS timestamps masked as IPs, SHA-256 digests masked as secrets (both inside code fences)

Remote execution tutorial: worker token list output and inline workflow-summary block no longer match CLI output

Add rollbackOnFailure for method-level write atomicity

docs: working-with-data tutorial uses removed depends_on step key, blocking the tutorial