affaan-m/ECC · error · anyhow::Error

an active harness configuration already exists

Error message

an active harness configuration already exists

What it means

activate_initial_harness is one-shot: it requires that no row exists in active_harness_config for slot 'default'. A second initial activation is refused — subsequent harness changes must go through the promotion path, not re-initialization.

Source

Thrown at ecc2/src/session/store.rs:5416

    pub fn activate_initial_harness(&self, candidate_id: &str, evidence_ref: &str) -> Result<()> {
        if candidate_id.len() != 64 || evidence_ref.trim().is_empty() || evidence_ref.len() > 4096 {
            anyhow::bail!(
                "valid candidate id and bounded activation evidence reference are required"
            );
        }
        let tx = self.conn.unchecked_transaction()?;
        let stored_candidate_id = Self::resolve_harness_candidate_id(&tx, candidate_id)?;
        if tx
            .query_row(
                "SELECT candidate_id FROM active_harness_config WHERE slot = 'default'",
                [],
                |row| row.get::<_, String>(0),
            )
            .optional()?
            .is_some()
        {
            anyhow::bail!("an active harness configuration already exists");
        }
        let now = chrono::Utc::now().to_rfc3339();
        tx.execute("INSERT INTO active_harness_config (slot, candidate_id, updated_at) VALUES ('default', ?1, ?2)", rusqlite::params![stored_candidate_id, now])?;
        tx.execute("INSERT INTO harness_eval_audit (event_type, candidate_id, evidence_ref, legacy_unverifiable, created_at) VALUES ('initial_activation', ?1, ?2, 0, ?3)", rusqlite::params![stored_candidate_id, evidence_ref, now])?;
        tx.commit()?;
        Ok(())
    }

    #[cfg(test)]
    pub fn active_harness_id(&self) -> Result<Option<String>> {
        let stored = self
            .conn
            .query_row(
                "SELECT candidate_id FROM active_harness_config WHERE slot = 'default'",
                [],
                |row| row.get(0),
            )
            .optional()?;

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

Use promote_harness (the compare-and-swap path) for any change after the first activation.
If you genuinely need to re-initialize, drop the active_harness_config 'default' row first as an explicit, audited reset.
Guard activation behind an 'is this the first activation?' check that queries active_harness_config.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn has_active_harness(conn: &rusqlite::Connection) -> Result<bool> {
    let row: Option<String> = conn.query_row(
        "SELECT candidate_id FROM active_harness_config WHERE slot = 'default'",
        [], |r| r.get(0)).optional()?;
    Ok(row.is_some())
}

if has_active_harness(&conn)? {
    // do not call activate_initial_harness; use promote_harness instead
    return Err(anyhow::anyhow!("harness already active; use promote path"));
}

Type guard

fn initial_activation_allowed(conn: &rusqlite::Connection) -> bool {
    !has_active_harness(conn).unwrap_or(true)
}

Try / catch

match store.activate_initial_harness(&candidate_id, &evidence_ref) {
    Ok(()) => { /* first activation done */ }
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("active harness configuration already exists") => {
        // switch to the promotion flow instead of re-initializing
    }
    Err(e) => return Err(e),
}

Prevention

Treat activate_initial_harness as bootstrap-only; gate it behind a setup phase that runs once.
In tests, reset active_harness_config between cases so activation is reproducible.
Make deployment scripts idempotent by checking for an active config before calling activate.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling activate_initial_harness when SELECT candidate_id FROM active_harness_config WHERE slot='default' already returns a row.

Common situations: Re-running setup/bootstrap on an already-initialized store; calling activate twice in a test without resetting the DB; a deployment script that re-runs initialization idempotently.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dc76d9cc2e3d86fc. Report an issue: GitHub.