Testing plan: one the-loop start for every service the config enables

Derived from requirements.md and design.md, before tasks.md. Authored at test-planning, completed at verification — the Results column and the activities checklist are filled in there.

This file is executable content: it names commands an agent runs. All of them are this repository's own test/lint commands against temp directories; no credentials.

What this work item has to prove

1. Composition is faithful to the flags. start starts exactly the enabled services, stop stops running ones regardless of flags, status's exit code means "everything enabled is up". Unit-level with fakes, plus one real-process integration pass.
2. Nothing the poll command did is lost. The poller still runs (foreground, once, detached-by-spawn), still locks, still heartbeats, still hot-reloads — driven through its new entry points. The old tests are re-pointed, not deleted: each scenario keeps its Gherkin docstring and asserts the same behaviour via daemon_entry / poller.daemon / the-loop start.
3. The restart API scheduls a real restart without dying mid-answer. The route answers immediately with a pid; the spawned argv is fixed; the contract file matches the app.
4. Fail-closed holds. Disabled service ⇒ no auto-start; MCP disabled ⇒ /mcp 404; unloadable config ⇒ start refuses.

Test-type matrix

Type	In scope?	What / why
Unit	yes	core.lifecycle plan/start/stop/status/schedule with fakes; service_config flag parsing; ensure_service refusal; daemon_entry arg handling
Integration	yes	re-pointed poller daemon tests (real subprocesses, temp state root); the-loop start/stop/status/restart end-to-end with service; /api/v1/restart over a live app; /mcp 404 when disabled
Contract	yes	OpenAPI parity test already enforces app ↔ the-loop.v1.yaml; restart route added to both
Schema/docs parity	yes	existing suites: schema copies byte-identical; docs P1–P5 over the new/removed command pages and new keys
e2e (PDLC)	n/a	the pdlc e2e suite exercises graph walking, untouched here
UI/visual	yes (added on PR #229 review)	the dashboard restart: client method (live+demo), Settings Service card, config-editor "Restart now" — vitest component tests, oxlint, tsc, vite build
Performance	n/a	no hot path touched; start-up waits are bounded and configurable in tests
Security/abuse	yes	restart body rejects non-boolean shapes (pydantic); fixed-argv assertion on the spawned process; MCP-disabled 404; auto-start refusal when service.enabled: false
Accessibility	n/a	the two added controls are native buttons/checkbox+label, covered by the existing component-test conventions; no new interaction pattern
Migration	n/a	keys added, none removed; migrate-config untouched — asserted by the existing migration suite staying green
Manual	yes	one scripted smoke: the-loop start → status → restart → stop in a temp HOME, transcript to evidence

Verification environment

This repository's checkout only: uv workspace in cli/, pytest, ruff, pyright, markdownlint. Real subprocesses bind loopback ports chosen free-at-test-time (existing _free_port() pattern). No network beyond loopback; --with-upgrade is tested at the plan level (dry-run) — executing a real upgrade would mutate the environment.

Activities

Completed at verification; raw output in evidence/verification.md.

#	Activity	Command	Result
T1	✅ New unit tests: core.lifecycle	uv run pytest tests/test_core_lifecycle.py	10 passed
T2	✅ New unit/integration: lifecycle commands (start/stop/status/restart rendering, exit codes)	uv run pytest tests/test_lifecycle_cmd.py	7 passed
T3	✅ Re-pointed poller daemon tests (foreground, --once, lock, status, heartbeat, ttyd wiring)	uv run pytest tests/test_poll_daemon_integration.py tests/test_poll_command.py tests/test_poll_status.py tests/test_poll_heartbeat.py	37 passed (one contention-induced flake while the full suite ran concurrently, 3× re-runs green — recorded in evidence)
T4	✅ Restart API + MCP flag integration	uv run pytest tests/test_service_lifecycle_integration.py tests/test_mcp_integration.py tests/test_api_routers_integration.py	19 passed
T5	✅ Contract parity (restart route in the OpenAPI file)	uv run pytest tests/test_api_contract_parity.py tests/test_config_schema_parity.py tests/test_docs_parity.py tests/test_configschema.py	29 passed (run combined with T6)
T6	✅ Schema copies + docs parity + config schema validity	combined into T5's run	green: copies byte-identical, docs P1–P5
T7	✅ Full suite	cd cli && uv run pytest	2034 passed, 1 skipped (pre-existing skip); three full runs, all green
T8	✅ Lint / format / types	make lint format-check typecheck	ruff clean, 212 files formatted, pyright 0 errors
T9	✅ Markdown lint	part of make lint (markdownlint-cli2)	658 files, 0 errors
T10	✅ Config validation (template with new keys)	uv run python scripts/validate_config.py (make validate)	all 7 configs VALID
T11	✅ Manual smoke (temp HOME): start → status → restart → stop	scripted, transcript committed	full lifecycle against a real service; exit codes as specified
T12	✅ Reference sweep: no live doc/code names the-loop poll outside history	grep -rn "the-loop poll" … excluding specs/decisions	1 intended survivor (the new module's own docstring describing the move); 4 stragglers found and fixed
T13	✅ (added, PR #229 review) The fold + the dashboard restart	full CLI suite again after removing gh-webhook/service (receiver via webhook/daemon.py); UI vitest + oxlint + tsc + vite build with the restart client/card/"Restart now"	CLI: 2034 passed, 1 skipped; UI: 91 passed (2 new), lint/typecheck clean, build ok
T14	✅ (added, PR #229 review round 2 / issue-231) Single-process mode	unit: 5 hosted cases in tests/test_core_lifecycle.py (host skips spawn + awaits locks; hostIngresses: false keeps standalone; disabled service never hosts; hosted fail when the service is down; stop-via-service with real RunLocks); integration: tests/test_hosted_ingress_integration.py — real the-loop start boots one pid holding all three locks, hosted receiver answers /health on its port, status --format json rows say hosted: true, stop releases everything; a standalone daemon's lock is skipped, not stolen; then the full suite	unit 15 passed; integration 2 passed; full suite 2041 passed, 1 skipped