| name | ck-failure-archaeology |
| description | Use when checking whether a Ck failure, workaround, rejected design, or stalled branch has prior history before retrying, removing, or resurrecting it. |
ck-failure-archaeology — the chronicle of dead ends, reverts, and workarounds
Overview
This is the Ck suite's incident chronicle: investigations, dead ends, rejected fixes, and reverts,
each reduced to SYMPTOM → ROOT CAUSE → EVIDENCE → STATUS → LESSON. Its job is to stop you from
re-running an experiment that already failed, deleting a workaround that is secretly load-bearing,
or "improving" a design whose shape is the scar tissue of a documented incident. Every SHA and
file:line below was re-verified against the repos on 2026-07-02.
When NOT to use this skill
| You are… | Load instead |
|---|
| Triaging a live bug / build break / red test right now | ck-debugging-playbook (come back here if the symptom matches an entry) |
| Deciding what to build next | ck-feature-frontier |
| Asking why the architecture is shaped this way (invariants, not incidents) | ckecs-architecture-contract |
| Working the teardown/unbind lifecycle campaign | ck-lifecycle-teardown-campaign |
How to re-verify an entry
Cwd = the BusterBlock superproject root (the plugins are git submodules there; under a different
host, substitute its plugin paths). Git Bash or PowerShell — commands are identical:
git -C Plugins/CkFoundation show --stat --format='%h %ad %s' <sha> # entries 1-10, 13
git -C Plugins/CkTests show --stat --format='%h %ad %s' <sha> # entry 11
git -C Plugins/CkGameplayDebugger show --stat --format='%h %ad %s' <sha> # entry 12
Tooling caveat: the Grep/Glob tools are blind under Plugins/CkFoundation/Script, docs/,
Content/ (superproject .ignore). Use rg --no-ignore -n or Read with exact paths there.
Reference files — load only what the task needs
Section numbers cited elsewhere in this skill point into these files.
| Topic | Read |
|---|
| The chronicle | references/chronicle.md |
Stalled-branch registry — DO-NOT-RESURRECT
Maintainer ruling 2026-07-02 (recorded in .claude/reports/DECISIONS.md #25): stalled/outdated
remote branches are do-not-resurrect. If a listed idea is wanted again, it goes through
ck-feature-frontier as new work — do not rebase or cherry-pick these lines. All in the
CkFoundation repo; tip dates/subjects re-verified 2026-07-02 via
git -C Plugins/CkFoundation log -2 origin/<branch>.
Branch (origin/…) | Last commit | What it attempted (tip subject, verbatim or tight paraphrase) |
|---|
feature/dependency-injection-entity-script | 2026-05-26 | "feat, wip: Dependency Injection for entty script" [sic] — parked WIP, the youngest fossil |
feature/entity-script-as-script-struct | 2026-04-02 | "refactor: migrate EntityScript spawn params from UUserDefinedStruct to UScriptStruct" — INFERRED superseded by the AS-generator spawn-params pipeline |
upgrade/ue5.7 | 2026-03-27 | "fix: Update InstancedStruct includes for UE 5.7 (StructUtils path change)" — parked engine line; its tip has a dev twin (565e85ae5 IS on dev), i.e. pieces were cherry-picked back, the line itself is parked |
dev-bb-5.7 | 2026-04-06 | UE 5.7 compatibility line (attribute/utils fixes for 5.7) — parked with upgrade/ue5.7 |
dev-bb | 2026-03-27 | "feat: register attribute handle type traits for handle-level concept enforcement" — the pre-5.7 BB-integration line, parked alongside the 5.7 pair |
backup/before-reverting-f8a3a55 | 2024-01-11 | insurance snapshot taken before a revert ("added Processors for all Attributes' OverrideBaseValue processors") — a fossil, not work |
backup/pre-exporter-rewrite-2026-05-28 | 2026-05-22 | insurance snapshot before the asset-exporter rewrite — a fossil, not work |
bugfix/test/investigate-cheat-in-build | 2025-02-19 | "test: Traces for cheats in build" — investigation branch, outcome unrecorded |
feature/entity-replication-channel | 2025-01-23 | "Ecs Replication Channel (Actors) tied to the Transient entity … 'dangling' entity" — superseded by ActorRelay channels (INFERRED: same problem shape; ActorRelay is the shipped answer, cf. entry 7) |
feature/flow-graph-module | 2025-01-04 | "feat, wip: Initial commit for the flow graph module" — abandoned module skeleton |
feature/message-without-name | 2025-05-26 | "wip, refactor: Working on having messages no longer require a gameplay tag" — abandoned experiment |
Dead pointer in live code: Source/CkEcs/Public/CkEcs/Registry/CkRegistry.h:289 —
"// TODO: exposing the storage like this is temporary - see branch feature/registry-handle-storage-support for what we really want to do" — that branch does not
exist on origin (verified 2026-07-02: git -C Plugins/CkFoundation branch -r --list '*registry-handle*' → empty). Treat the comment as intent-without-a-design; do not go hunting
for the branch.
Note: many other undeleted remote branches are NOT stalled — they landed on dev via
rebase/cherry-pick and just weren't pruned (twin subjects on dev). Check
git -C Plugins/CkFoundation log --grep "<tip subject>" origin/dev before classifying a branch
as dead.
Common mistakes when using this chronicle
- Deleting a "temporary" workaround because the commit called it temporary.
in_place_delete
(entry 8; settled design per DECISIONS.md §45) and the FireIfPayloadInFlight policies (entry 9)
are load-bearing. Check DECISIONS.md/ADJUDICATIONS.md before removing anything a commit body
apologized for.
- Trusting a plan doc's status table over git.
CkNavigation/PLAN.md has said "Gates 2–7
Pending" since 2026-04-29 while the work landed (entry 5). Dev history wins.
- Re-proposing a dead design without new evidence. Typed WorldState (entry 3), executor
discovery (entry 7), descriptor-driven AS regen (entry 4 Rev 9) each died for a mechanism, not
taste. To re-open one, first state what changed about the mechanism.
- Citing this file without re-verifying. Entries are snapshots of 2026-07-02; a later fix may
have closed an "open" entry. Run the
git show line before repeating a STATUS.
Provenance and maintenance
- Campaign date: 2026-07-02. Verified at heads: CkFoundation
7330c1bab, CkTests b89f110,
CkGameplayDebugger d607751 (all contained in their origin/dev).
- Every SHA above re-verified via
git -C Plugins/<repo> show -s --format='%h %ad %s' <sha>;
subjects quoted exactly. File:line claims read from disk the same day.
- Re-verification one-liners for the volatile facts:
- Entry statuses / new fixes since:
git -C Plugins/CkFoundation log --oneline --since=2026-07-02 -- Source/<Module>
in_place_delete still present: rg -n 'in_place_delete' Plugins/CkFoundation/Source/CkEcs/Public/CkEcs/Signal/CkSignal_Fragment.h- Dead branch pointer still in code:
rg -n 'registry-handle-storage-support' Plugins/CkFoundation/Source/CkEcs/Public/CkEcs/Registry/CkRegistry.h
- Branch registry still accurate:
git -C Plugins/CkFoundation for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format='%(refname:short) %(committerdate:short)' refs/remotes
- PLAN.md staleness: compare
last_updated in Plugins/CkFoundation/Source/CkNavigation/PLAN.md against git -C Plugins/CkFoundation log -1 --format=%ad -- Source/CkCrowd
- SM campaign count:
git -C Plugins/CkFoundation log --oneline --since=2026-05-01 --until=2026-06-26 -- Source/CkStateMachine | wc -l (66 at verification)
- A3 is resolved (DECISIONS.md §45); for the still-open items (A1/A2/A4) read
.claude/reports/ADJUDICATIONS.md (an item may have moved to DECISIONS.md with a ruling)
- Adding an entry: keep the strict format (SYMPTOM → ROOT CAUSE → EVIDENCE (SHA/file:line) →
STATUS → LESSON), quote commit subjects exactly, and mark anything you could not re-confirm
INFERRED — a wrong SHA in this file poisons every future search that trusts it.
