scripts/upgrade.sh already runs `npm ci`, so this is not for the normal path. It is
for the ways a box ends up with the wrong node_modules, both of which present as
"server will not start" with an error naming a file rather than the action needed:
ROLLBACK checking out an older tag to back out a bad release restores that
tag's package.json but not its packages. This branch removes
google-auth-library, so a rollback to main would not boot — and you
are rolling back because something else already broke.
NODE UPGRADE better-sqlite3 is compiled against one ABI. Upgrading Node makes every
boot fail with NODE_MODULE_VERSION, which reads like database
corruption and is not.
Runs as the FIRST statement in server.js, before any dependency is required, and uses
only Node builtins — anything it imported could be the thing that is missing. Repairs
with `npm install --omit=dev` (never `ci` on a partly-populated tree, which would
delete a working node_modules to fix one package) or `npm rebuild better-sqlite3`, and
exits with the command to run if it cannot. ST_SKIP_DEP_PREFLIGHT=1 opts out.
⚠️ The first version of the native check was WRONG and I caught it only by running it
under a real version mismatch: better-sqlite3's entry point is plain JavaScript that
loads the compiled binding lazily, so `require()` succeeds under a Node the binary was
never built for. It reported a genuinely broken install as healthy. It now opens an
in-memory database, which is what actually pulls the binding in. A test pins that,
because the failure is invisible — the check keeps passing on every machine where
nothing is wrong.
Verified: a deleted dependency is detected, installed and the server boots (200); the
ABI mismatch is detected under Node 18 against a module built for Node 20 and reported
clean under Node 20; a healthy tree costs 8ms and touches no network.
1609 tests pass.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Bvjey4FNam49MN7ybjcq6A
