Codex root-cause consult confirmed: the CLI-session cache (_CLI_SESSIONS_CACHE,
5s TTL) and session-list cache were keyed on (st_mtime_ns, st_size) of state.db
+ WAL sidecars. Under WAL-mode writes those stamps collide (same mtime-ns bucket
+ WAL frame size after checkpoint), serving a stale cache -> freshly-committed
gateway/CLI session intermittently absent from /api/sessions (the recurring
test_gateway_sync flake AND a real up-to-5s sidebar delay for gateway writes).
PRAGMA data_version is NOT usable here (fresh per-request connection always
reports its own initial value, never advances — verified). Fix = a cheap
content fingerprint (COUNT/MAX(rowid) over sessions+messages) read on a fresh
connection, which DOES advance on every commit and is immune to mtime
granularity. Wired into _sqlite_file_stat_cache_key (models) + the routes-layer
source stamp. + 3 regression tests + corrected the earlier false root-cause
comments.
nesquena-hermes
f8d5ad2b1e