Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · PersistenceBacklogError

budget needs ceilings and baseline_observation objects

Error message

budget needs ceilings and baseline_observation objects

What it means

Raised by validate_budget() when budget['ceilings'] or budget['baseline_observation'] is missing or not a JSON object. Both blocks are required: ceilings holds the one-way upper bounds for the five CEILING_FIELDS and baseline_observation holds the frozen macOS baseline those ceilings were derived from.

Source

Thrown at scripts/check-persistence-backlog-budget.py:260

def validate_budget(budget: dict[str, Any]) -> None:
    if budget.get("document_kind") != BUDGET_KIND:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError(f"budget document_kind must be {BUDGET_KIND}")
    if budget.get("schema_version") != SCHEMA_VERSION:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError("budget schema_version changed")
    fixture = budget.get("fixture")
    if not isinstance(fixture, dict) or set(fixture) != set(FIXTURE):
        raise PersistenceBacklogError("budget fixture no longer matches the frozen workload")
    for field, expected in FIXTURE.items():
        if type(fixture[field]) is not type(expected) or fixture[field] != expected:
            raise PersistenceBacklogError(
                f"budget fixture.{field} must remain {expected!r}"
            )
    if budget.get("baseline_receipt") != BASELINE_RECEIPT_REFERENCE:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError("budget baseline_receipt path changed")
    ceilings = budget.get("ceilings")
    baseline = budget.get("baseline_observation")
    if not isinstance(ceilings, dict) or not isinstance(baseline, dict):
        raise PersistenceBacklogError("budget needs ceilings and baseline_observation objects")
    for field in CEILING_FIELDS:
        ceiling = non_negative_integer(ceilings.get(field), f"ceilings.{field}")
        observed = non_negative_integer(
            baseline.get(field), f"baseline_observation.{field}"
        )
        if observed > ceiling:
            raise PersistenceBacklogError(
                f"baseline_observation.{field} exceeds its ceiling"
            )
    baseline_accepted = non_negative_integer(
        baseline.get("accepted_requests"), "baseline_observation.accepted_requests"
    )
    if baseline_accepted != FIXTURE["requests_attempted"]:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError(
            "baseline_observation.accepted_requests must equal requests_attempted"
        )
    baseline_applied = non_negative_integer(
        baseline.get("applied_version"), "baseline_observation.applied_version"

View on GitHub (pinned to 8880682c63)

Solutions

1. Restore both objects: ceilings with the five ceiling fields, baseline_observation with its observation fields plus provenance
2. Validate the file with python -m json.tool scripts/persistence-backlog-budget.json before running the checker
3. Copy the block structure from scripts/persistence-backlog-budget.json at git HEAD

Example fix

// before (budget.json)
{ "document_kind": "...", "schema_version": 2, "fixture": { ... },
  "ceilings": { ... } }

// after: both objects present
{ "document_kind": "...", "schema_version": 2, "fixture": { ... },
  "ceilings": { ... },
  "baseline_observation": { ..., "provenance": { ... } } }

def budget_blocks_ok(budget: dict) -> bool:
    return (isinstance(budget.get("ceilings"), dict)
            and isinstance(budget.get("baseline_observation"), dict))

When it happens

Trigger: Either key absent, set to null, an array, a scalar, or a typo such as 'ceiling' or 'baseline_observations'.

Common situations: Truncating the budget during hand-edits; a merge that dropped one block; generating a budget from a template that omitted baseline_observation.

Related errors

• budget document_kind must be {BUDGET_KIND}
• budget fixture no longer matches the frozen workload
• budget baseline_receipt path changed
• rss_during_delta_bytes is inconsistent
• rss_after_delta_bytes is inconsistent

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@8880682c63 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c8de3e97ab7b440b. Report an issue: GitHub.