fix(hooks,foraging,mcp): surface silent catch failures

.changeset/fix-silent-catch-blocks.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+"@colony/hooks": patch
+"@colony/foraging": patch
+---
+
+Surface silent `catch {}` failures to stderr (rule #9).
+
+Every empty catch in `session-start`, `scanner`, and the foraging MCP tool now either logs a `[colony] <site>: <message>` line to stderr or carries a one-line comment explaining why silence is intentional (fs-stat races, missing-directory guards, best-effort cleanup). Previously a whole session's 43/43 MCP call failures could vanish with no trace.

apps/mcp-server/src/tools/foraging.ts

@@ -95,7 +95,14 @@ function enrichForagingHits(
   const rows = store.storage.getObservations(hits.map((h) => h.id));
   const metadataById = new Map<number, Record<string, unknown>>();
   for (const row of rows) {
-    metadataById.set(row.id, parseMeta(row.metadata));
+    if (!row.metadata) continue;
+    try {
+      metadataById.set(row.id, JSON.parse(row.metadata) as Record<string, unknown>);
+    } catch (err) {
+      process.stderr.write(
+        `[colony] enrichForagingHits: observation ${row.id} metadata parse failed: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}\n`,
+      );
+    }
   }
   return hits.map((h) => {
     const md = metadataById.get(h.id);

packages/foraging/src/scanner.ts

@@ -295,7 +295,9 @@ export function scanExamplesFs(opts: ScanFsOptions): ScanFsResult {
   let names: string[];
   try {
     names = readdirSync(examplesDir);
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    // examples/ directory may not exist on repos that haven't set up foraging yet.
+    process.stderr.write(`[colony] scanExamplesFs: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}\n`);
     return { scanned: [] };
   }
   names.sort();
@@ -307,7 +309,9 @@ export function scanExamplesFs(opts: ScanFsOptions): ScanFsResult {
     let isDir = false;
     try {
       isDir = statSync(abs_path).isDirectory();
-    } catch {}
+    } catch {
+      // Tolerant: entry disappeared between readdir and stat (race or dangling symlink); skip it.
+    }
     if (!isDir) continue;
 
     if (example_name === COCOINDEX_EXAMPLE_NAME && isLargeCocoindexExample(abs_path)) {
@@ -441,7 +445,9 @@ function compactExistingPaths(abs_path: string, paths: readonly string[]): strin
     try {
       const st = statSync(abs);
       out.add(st.isDirectory() ? `${p.replace(/\/$/, '')}/` : p);
-    } catch {}
+    } catch {
+      // Tolerant: path listed in spec does not exist in this repo's working copy; omit it.
+    }
   }
   return Array.from(out).sort();
 }
@@ -460,7 +466,9 @@ function computeRufloContentHash(
     let st: Stats | null = null;
     try {
       st = statSync(abs);
-    } catch {}
+    } catch {
+      // Tolerant: filetree path may not exist in all repo variants; skip for hash contribution.
+    }
     if (!st) continue;
     hash.update(`${rel}\t${st.size}\n`);
     if (st.isFile()) {
@@ -476,6 +484,7 @@ function fileExists(abs: string): boolean {
   try {
     return statSync(abs).isFile();
   } catch {
+    // Tolerant: stat failure (ENOENT, EACCES) means file is absent from this working copy.
     return false;
   }
 }
@@ -484,6 +493,7 @@ function directoryExists(abs: string): boolean {
   try {
     return statSync(abs).isDirectory();
   } catch {
+    // Tolerant: stat failure (ENOENT, EACCES) means directory is absent from this working copy.
     return false;
   }
 }

packages/hooks/src/handlers/session-start.ts

@@ -146,9 +146,10 @@ function kickForagingScan(store: MemoryStore, input: HookInput): void {
   if (!claimForagingSessionStartScan(settings, cwd)) return;
   try {
     spawnNodeScript(cli, ['foraging', 'scan', '--cwd', cwd]);
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
     releaseForagingSessionStartScan(settings, cwd);
     // Best-effort. Foraging is not load-bearing for the hook's primary job.
+    console.error(`[colony] kickForagingScan: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`);
   }
 }
 
@@ -180,7 +181,9 @@ function releaseForagingSessionStartScan(settings: Settings, cwd: string): void
   const markerPath = foragingSessionStartMarkerPath(settings, cwd);
   try {
     if (existsSync(markerPath)) unlinkSync(markerPath);
-  } catch {}
+  } catch {
+    // Tolerant: marker cleanup is best-effort; a stale marker just delays the next scan.
+  }
 }
 
 function foragingSessionStartMarkerPath(settings: Settings, cwd: string): string {
@@ -194,6 +197,7 @@ function readForagingSessionStartMarker(markerPath: string): number | null {
     const value = parsed.last_started_at;
     return typeof value === 'number' && Number.isFinite(value) ? value : null;
   } catch {
+    // Tolerant: missing or malformed marker is treated as no prior scan; scan will proceed.
     return null;
   }
 }
@@ -237,7 +241,8 @@ export function buildReadyClaimNudgePreface(
   let plans: ReturnType<typeof listPlans>;
   try {
     plans = listPlans(store, { repo_root: detected.repo_root, limit: 50 });
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(`[colony] buildReadyClaimNudgePreface: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`);
     return '';
   }
   let unclaimed = 0;
@@ -276,7 +281,8 @@ export function buildAttentionBudgetSection(
       agent,
       repo_root: detected.repo_root,
     });
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(`[colony] buildAttentionBudgetSection: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`);
     return '';
   }
   const budget = applyAttentionBudget(inbox);
@@ -378,7 +384,8 @@ export function buildTaskPreface(
       repo_root: detected.repo_root,
       include_stalled_lanes: false,
     }).unread_messages;
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(`[colony] buildTaskPreface unreadMessages: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`);
     unreadMessages = [];
   }
   const others = thread.participants().filter((p) => p.session_id !== input.session_id);
@@ -506,7 +513,8 @@ export async function buildSuggestionPreface(
   let queryEmbedding: Float32Array;
   try {
     queryEmbedding = await embedder.embed(suggestionQuery(input, detected.branch));
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(`[colony] buildSuggestionPreface embed: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`);
     return '';
   }
 
@@ -518,7 +526,10 @@ export async function buildSuggestionPreface(
       exclude_task_ids: [thread.task_id],
       min_similarity: thresholds.SIMILARITY_FLOOR,
     });
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(
+      `[colony] buildSuggestionPreface findSimilarTasks: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`,
+    );
     return '';
   }
   const top = similarTasks[0];
@@ -527,7 +538,10 @@ export async function buildSuggestionPreface(
   let payload: unknown;
   try {
     payload = core.buildSuggestionPayload(store, similarTasks);
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(
+      `[colony] buildSuggestionPreface buildSuggestionPayload: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`,
+    );
     return '';
   }
   if (!isSuggestionPayload(payload)) return '';
@@ -668,7 +682,8 @@ async function resolveSuggestionEmbedder(store: MemoryStore): Promise<Embedder |
     cachedSuggestionEmbedder = await embeddingModule.createEmbedder(store.settings, {
       log: () => {},
     });
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(`[colony] resolveSuggestionEmbedder: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`);
     cachedSuggestionEmbedder = null;
   }
   return cachedSuggestionEmbedder;
@@ -689,7 +704,8 @@ async function loadSuggestionCore(): Promise<SuggestionCore | null> {
       findSimilarTasks: core.findSimilarTasks,
       buildSuggestionPayload: core.buildSuggestionPayload,
     };
-  } catch {
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.error(`[colony] loadSuggestionCore: ${(err as Error)?.message ?? err}`);
     return null;
   }
 }