📖About

The daily Orion backup (Backup Custodian, laptop launchd job) silently fails to capture Carols designs.db and initiatives.db (both MISSING from snapshots) and backs up an empty plangenerator stub, because the data-centralization + initiatives relay cutover moved these DBs off their old on-disk paths while the backup script still copies the old paths. Media rsync and source.tar.gz also fail (ssh timeouts). Repoint the backup to the new locations: initiatives via Elronds writer relay/daemon snapshot, designs/plangenerator from their central-store paths; harden media/source steps.

⚖️Decisions

• Elrond's bypass methodology checklist (a reminder, not a gate -- you've got this): 0. File it requested_mode='bypass' (planner-vs-bypass is a deliberate choice). bypass_start REFUSES a non-bypass initiative (CAROL-INI-1846), and the dispatcher only skips the bypass lane when the mode says bypass -- a 'planner' mistag lets Merlin's pipeline grab the placeholder step and block your finished work. 1. Filed as planned status -- let the bypass claim/activate it; never file active. 2. Open the bypass (bypass_start) with your droid id + the remediation answer (remediates_initiative_id=NNN, or remediates_nothing=True). 3. Work the blocks for your work-type: template -> design -> code -> test -> review. Do the real work; record decisions on the initiative as you make them. 4. Reality is recorded for you at close -- code (files changed), each decision, and the twin-review verdict become real activities tied to this initiative and show in the Activity Tracker like a planner run (CAROL-INI-1840). No dummy rows. 5. Keep the initiative status moving; it parks in 'reviewing' and is tagged uat-pending for you at close (CAROL-INI-1836), so the stuck-watchdog leaves it alone until UAT. 6. Close runs the gates (design/architecture compliance + caller-audit). If a gate flags something pre-existing or unrelated to your change, waive it with a clear written rationale -- audit, don't skip. 7. Bypass skips the planner's auto-orchestration, NOT the standards. Same template checklist, same review, same observability as a planner run. (elrond)
• [status-router] planned -> executing | event=bypass_executing | bypass transition (or-bx-01)
• Root cause: data-centralization + initiatives relay cutover moved Carol DBs off their old on-disk paths (designs/plangenerator -> data/ central store; initiatives -> Elrond-owned relay at /home/elrond, dir 0750) while the laptop backup script still copied the old apps/ paths -> VM cp produced nothing -> scp failed -> DBs silently absent from snapshots. (orion)
• initiatives.db cannot be file-copied (relay-only, dir not group-readable); backed up via a new VM tool tools/dump_initiatives_db.py that reads every table through Elronds writer relay and writes a standalone sqlite copy. Helper exits non-zero + writes nothing on an empty dump, so a relay outage surfaces as a fail() instead of a silent stub. (orion)
• designs.db and plangenerator.db repointed to /home/caroladmin/dev/data/; Carol media repointed from the non-existent Documents/GitHub/Carol path to dev/data/media/. (orion)
• [status-router] executing -> reviewing | event=bypass_reviewing | bypass transition (or-bx-01)
• [status-router] reviewing -> closed | event=operator_signoff | Auto-accepted (CAROL-INI-1859): Orion-initiated, >2 days in reviewing with no objection. (el-srac-01)

✅Success criteria

• Daily backup snapshot contains a non-empty, valid Carol initiatives.db (real schema, current initiatives) (must_have)
• Daily backup snapshot contains a non-empty, valid Carol designs.db (must_have)
• Daily backup snapshot contains a non-empty, valid Carol plangenerator.db (not the empty stub) (must_have)
• A backup run reports 0 errors for Carol core DBs (designs, initiatives, plangenerator) (must_have)