# NousResearch/hermes-agent · WAL split-brain and sidecar corruption in state.db

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These items address WAL split-brain conditions in state.db, where journal-mode probes, sibling connection teardown, or stray lock cancellations corrupt or unlink WAL/SHM sidecar files. Coverage spans single-process scenarios, hosted-room TUI gateway cases, and cross-runtime survivability.

## TL;DR

- 3 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 1 merged PR(s), 1 PR(s) closed without merging.
- A fix was merged to main in PR #110544. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #110544 (and any competing PRs below) before filing. Confirm the merged change covers your symptom.

## Maintainer resolution verdict

- Internal-tracker verdict over this cluster's issue members: `unresolved`. This is distinct from the fix status above. Weigh it yourself.

## How this cluster was grouped

- Link evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.
- Pairwise link density `0.67`: the share of member pairs that carry a link, counting a structural link in full and a relevance-only link at 0.36. `1.00` means every pair is linked.

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #104596: state.db WAL split-brain inside a SINGLE process: apply_wal_with_fallback runs the set-pragma when the journal-mode probe fails (unlinks sibling connections -wal/-shm)

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#110544: state.db WAL survives sibling closes and stray lock cancellation on every runtime (Desktop chat dies after update; salvage #109758)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `hermes_state.py`, `hermes_state_dbfile.py`, `hermes_state_lockguard.py`, `tests/hermes_state/test_deleted_wal_generation_guard.py`, `tests/hermes_state/test_wal_lock_guard.py`
- **#104632: fix(tui-gateway): prevent hosted-room WAL sidecar split-brain**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `3e43cee5050f`, `#110544`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #110544 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-09-14`.