Physical AI Action-Outcome Experiment 019 Server Lifecycle

Date: 2026-06-23

Status: Experimental validation complete

Classification: Experimental runtime path

Goal

Move the Physical AI edge/fleet connector from standalone replay-tool ownership toward server-managed lifecycle ownership.

Hypothesis

ZeptoDB can safely expose an experimental admin lifecycle for the edge/fleet connector before adding the background SQL polling worker:

• admins can configure, enable, inspect, disable, and clear connector state,
• invalid bounded-capacity settings are rejected,
• auth-enabled deployments enforce admin-only access,
• /metrics exposes lifecycle and connector counters,
• missing checkpoint files start from empty ACK state.

Procedure

1. Add a feed-layer lifecycle manager around EdgeFleetFeedConnector.
2. Add admin endpoints to HttpServer.
3. Add lifecycle metrics to /metrics.
4. Add focused unit tests for manager behavior.
5. Add HTTP endpoint tests for happy path, invalid input, 401, 403, and admin success.
6. Keep the feature marked experimental because no server background worker is attached yet.

Acceptance Criteria

• zepto_tests, zepto_http_server, and zepto_edge_fleet_replay build.
• Runtime manager tests pass.
• HTTP lifecycle endpoint tests pass.
• Endpoint docs mark the feature experimental.
• Backlog narrows from lifecycle controls to background worker and persistence.

Result

Verification:

cd build && ninja -j$(nproc) zepto_tests zepto_http_server zepto_edge_fleet_replay

./build/tests/zepto_tests \
  --gtest_filter='EdgeFleetFeedConnectorTest.*:EdgeFleetConnectorRuntimeTest.*'

./build/tests/zepto_tests \
  --gtest_filter='MetricsProviderTest.EdgeFleetConnector*:EdgeFleetConnectorAdminAuthTest.*'

Result: PASS.

Check	Status
Runtime manager start/stop/metrics	pass
Invalid limit rejection	pass
Missing checkpoint starts empty	pass
Clear removes config	pass
HTTP configure/enable/metrics/delete	pass
HTTP invalid limit	pass
HTTP missing auth	401
HTTP writer credential	403
HTTP admin credential	200

Interpretation

Experiment 019 establishes the server control plane for the connector. It does not yet make edge-to-fleet transfer automatic; instead it creates the bounded, observable, admin-gated lifecycle surface needed before adding a background worker.

Next Product Or Research Step

Devlog 205 supersedes the generic worker portion of this step by adding a bounded runtime worker hook/loop. The remaining product step is the built-in SQL/HTTP adapter that reads the configured edge outbox table, applies fleet sink rows, persists ACK state, and keeps /metrics updated without a standalone tool or embedding-only hooks.