Paths: File paths (references/, ../ln-*) are relative to this skill directory.

Runtime Lifecycle & Config Auditor (L3 Worker)

Type: L3 Worker

Specialized worker auditing runtime readiness, lifecycle, and startup configuration validation.

Purpose & Scope

• Audit runtime lifecycle and config validation (Category 12: Medium Priority)
• Check bootstrap, shutdown, signal handling, probes, resource cleanup, env/config sync, and fail-fast startup validation
• Emit FIX_BOOTSTRAP, ADD_CONFIG_VALIDATION, or FIX_SHUTDOWN
• Calculate compliance score (X/10)

Inputs

MANDATORY READ: Load references/audit_worker_core_contract.md. Tool policy: follow host AGENTS.md MCP preferences; load references/mcp_tool_preferences.md and references/mcp_integration_patterns.md only when host policy is absent or MCP behavior is unclear.

Receives contextStore with tech stack, deployment type, codebase root, output_dir.

Use hex-graph first when lifecycle tracing materially improves confidence. Use hex-line first for local code reads when available. If MCP is unavailable, unsupported, or not indexed, continue with built-in Read/Grep/Glob/Bash and state the fallback in the report.

Workflow

Detection policy: use two-layer detection (candidate scan, then context verification); load references/two_layer_detection.md only when the verification method is ambiguous.

1. Parse context + output_dir
2. Check lifecycle and config validation patterns (Layer 1: grep for SIGTERM, shutdown handlers, probes, env reads, settings validation)
3. Analyze context per candidate (Layer 2):
   • Bootstrap order: read main file -- trace actual init sequence, verify dependencies satisfied before use
   • Graceful shutdown: read signal handlers -- do they actually close all resources? Or just log and exit?
   • Resource cleanup: read shutdown handler -- are ALL opened resources (DB, Redis, queues) closed?
   • Probes: check deployment config (Dockerfile, k8s manifests) -- is this containerized?
   • Config validation: are required env/config values validated at startup, before serving traffic?
4. Collect confirmed findings
5. Calculate score
6. Write Report: Build full markdown report in memory per references/templates/audit_worker_report_template.md, write to {output_dir}/ln-629--global.md in single Write call
7. Return Summary: Return minimal summary

Audit Rules

1. Bootstrap Initialization Order

Detection:

• Check main/index file for initialization sequence
• Verify dependencies loaded before usage (DB before routes)

Severity:

• HIGH: Incorrect order causes startup failures

Recommendation: Initialize in correct order: config -> DB -> routes -> server

Effort: M (refactor startup)

2. Graceful Shutdown

Detection:

• Grep for SIGTERM, SIGINT handlers
• Check process.on('SIGTERM') (Node.js)
• Check signal.Notify (Go)

Severity:

• HIGH: No shutdown handler (abrupt termination)

Recommendation: Add SIGTERM handler, close connections gracefully

Effort: M (add shutdown logic)

3. Resource Cleanup on Exit

Detection:

• Check if DB connections closed on shutdown
• Verify file handles released
• Check worker threads stopped

Severity:

• MEDIUM: Resource leaks on shutdown

Recommendation: Close all resources in shutdown handler

Effort: S-M (add cleanup calls)

4. Signal Handling

Detection:

• Check handlers for SIGTERM, SIGINT, SIGHUP
• Verify proper signal propagation to child processes

Severity:

• MEDIUM: Missing signal handlers

Recommendation: Handle all standard signals

Effort: S (add signal handlers)

5. Liveness/Readiness Probes

Detection (for containerized apps):

• Check for /live, /ready endpoints
• Verify Kubernetes probe configuration

Severity:

• MEDIUM: No probes (Kubernetes can't detect health)

Recommendation: Add /live (is running) and /ready (ready for traffic)

Effort: S (add endpoints)

6. Startup Config Validation

Detection:

• Find env/config reads in startup path
• Check for validation frameworks or explicit fail-fast checks
• Compare required runtime vars from code with documented startup config when available

Severity:

• HIGH: Required config can be missing while app still starts
• MEDIUM: Defaults/desync can make local, CI, and deployed startup differ

Recommendation: Validate required config at boot and fail before accepting traffic

Effort: M

Scoring Algorithm

MANDATORY READ: Load references/audit_scoring.md.

Output Format

MANDATORY READ: Load references/templates/audit_worker_report_template.md.

Write JSON summary per references/audit_summary_contract.md. In managed mode the caller passes both runId and summaryArtifactPath; in standalone mode the worker generates its own run-scoped artifact path per shared contract.

Write report to {output_dir}/ln-629--global.md with category: "Runtime Lifecycle & Config" and checks: bootstrap_order, graceful_shutdown, resource_cleanup, signal_handling, probes, startup_config_validation.

Return summary per references/audit_summary_contract.md.

When summaryArtifactPath is absent, write the standalone runtime summary under .hex-skills/runtime-artifacts/runs/{run_id}/evaluation-worker/{worker}--{identifier}.json and optionally echo the same summary in structured output.

Report written: .hex-skills/runtime-artifacts/runs/{run_id}/audit-report/ln-629--global.md
Score: X.X/10 | Issues: N (C:N H:N M:N L:N)

Reference Files

• Audit output schema: references/audit_output_schema.md

Critical Rules

Apply the already-loaded references/audit_worker_core_contract.md.

• Do not auto-fix: Report only, lifecycle changes risk downtime
• Deployment-aware: Adapt probe checks to deployment type (Kubernetes = probes required, bare metal = optional)
• Effort realism: S = <1h, M = 1-4h, L = >4h
• Exclusions: Skip CLI tools and scripts (no long-running lifecycle), skip serverless functions (platform-managed lifecycle)
• Initialization order matters: Flag DB usage before DB init as HIGH regardless of context
• Unique angle: Audit runtime readiness and startup config validation only. Do not audit configuration architecture boundaries, package health, or diagnostic telemetry.
• Action required: Every finding uses FIX_BOOTSTRAP, ADD_CONFIG_VALIDATION, or FIX_SHUTDOWN.

Definition of Done

Apply the already-loaded references/audit_worker_core_contract.md.

• contextStore parsed (deployment type, output_dir)
• All 6 checks completed (bootstrap order, graceful shutdown, resource cleanup, signal handling, probes, startup config validation)
• Findings collected with severity, location, effort, action, recommendation
• Score calculated per references/audit_scoring.md
• Report written to {output_dir}/ln-629--global.md (atomic single Write call)
• Summary written per contract

Version: 3.0.0 Last Updated: 2025-12-23