Tasks: the poller's process lifecycle becomes as idempotent as its ledger (issue-159)

Phase 3 of 3. Derived from bugfix.md + design.md (both locked). TDD per task; each task names the ACs it delivers.

DAG

Task list

• [x] T1 — the_loop/runlock.py: the lock primitive (AC1.3, AC1.4, AC1.5). RunLock over a pidfile: acquire/release/holder/is_held/ wait_until_free, context manager, flock with a documented pid-liveness fallback. New cli/tests/test_runlock.py: acquire/refuse, pid recorded, stale file re-acquired, released on process death (real fork), wait_until_free both ways, corrupt/empty file.

• [x] T2 — poll start takes the lock (AC1.1, AC1.2). Acquire before building anything (config, providers, dependency checks, ttyd); refuse with holder pid + pidfile + remedy and poller.blocked; hold for --once too; release in finally (which is now what removes the pidfile).

• [x] T3 — poll stop verifies and waits (AC2.1, AC2.2, AC2.3). Stale ⇒ do not signal, remove the pidfile, exit 1. Held ⇒ SIGTERM, then wait_until_free(--timeout); new --timeout flag (default 30s); a holder that outlives it exits 1.

• [x] T4 — PollState.flush(ref) (AC3.1). Write one dirty record and clear its dirty flag; save() keeps flushing whatever is left.

• [x] T5 — flush per work item (AC3.1, AC3.2, AC3.3). _poll_provider flushes in a finally around _process_item, so a raising item persists the attempt it spent. Unit test: the record on disk is complete before the next item is processed.

• [x] T6 — cooperative shutdown inside a cycle (AC4.1, AC4.2, AC4.3). poll_once(stop_event=None) / _poll_provider(..., stop_event); check between items and between providers, never inside one; skip _reconcile_closures when the listing loop was cut short; PollSummary.interrupted; the cycle log line and poll.cycle carry it; run() passes its own stop event down.

• [x] T7 — Dispatcher.stop() reports what it abandoned (AC5.1). Drain the queues after the join and return the undelivered delivery ids; existing callers ignore the return.

• [x] T8 — Poller.release_abandoned + PollState releases (AC5.2, AC5.3). release_comment_attempt / release_spawn_attempt (decrement, drop at zero, never touch seenComments); the poller's {delivery_id: (ref, comment_id)} map, populated when an attempt is noted and dropped when a delivery resolves.

• [x] T9 — wire the shutdown (AC5.2). poll.py finally: poller.release_abandoned(dispatcher.stop()).

• [x] T10 — integration tests (Gherkin, testing.gherkinDocstrings): second start refuses and leaves the ledger byte-identical; an abandoned cycle leaves the finished item's record complete and does not re-forward it; an abandoned comment is retried next start with a full budget and is not baselined; an interrupted cycle closes no session.

• [x] T11 — documentation (docs-parity P1/P2 stay green). docs/cli/commands/poll.md: the stale --state-file in the synopsis, the single-instance rule, stop --timeout, the restart contract. docs/capabilities/webhook-triggers.md: behaviour + history row. docs/cli/state.md: what poll.pid now means.

• [x] T12 — execution log + make check. Append the progress entries, then lint / format / typecheck / validate / test all green.