sillsdev / sillsdev/harmony

[claude] Sync: duplicated ClientId causes silent, permanent divergence — add detection and reconciliation

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Data bug
Dominant language
C#
Stars
14
Forks
4
Avg merge
3d 21h
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

[Claude-drafted]

Sync exchanges commits purely on (ClientId → latest commit timestamp) (SyncState, QueryHelpers.GetMissingCommits). This assumes each ClientId is a single writer with append-only history. If two replicas ever write under the same ClientId (copied SQLite file, restored device backup), their histories fork and commits are permanently stranded in both directions — each side believes the other already has everything below its head. Nothing detects this: commit hashes never cross the wire ([JsonIgnore]), hash only id + parentHash, and are rewritten locally.

Repro: copy a project DB to a second client, edit + sync on both. The project eventually becomes unsyncable: an edit arrives for an entity whose creating commit is stranded, and SnapshotWorker throws on every subsequent sync.

Proposal (layered):

  1. Tripwire: in AddRangeFromSync, receiving a commit authored by the local ClientId that isn't already in the local DB proves the ID is duplicated → surface loudly; the app should switch to a fresh ClientId so the fork stops growing.
  2. Detect: extend SyncState entries with a commit count + order-independent digest of that client's commit IDs, compared over the shared range (≤ the lower head). Mismatch ⇒ divergence, even when heads differ. Must stay compatible with timestamp-only clients.
  3. Repair: on divergence for a ClientId, exchange that client's full commit-ID list, diff, send missing commits both ways. AddRangeFromSync already handles past-insertion (dedup, hash rewrite, snapshot replay), so the merge converges. Open question: auto-repair with loud logging vs. requiring user attention.

Prevention (keeping writer identity out of the copyable DB) is the app's job: sillsdev/languageforge-lexbox#2431.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading SyncState and QueryHelpers.GetMissingCommits to understand timestamp-based exchange, then trace AddRangeFromSync and SnapshotWorker through the reported failure. The issue proposes detection and reconciliation for duplicated ClientIds, but leaves the repair policy open; done requires an agreed behavior that detects divergence and prevents the stranded-commit failure.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp, sqlite
Domain
databases, distributed-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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