ngit-grasp/docs/explanation/purgatory-design.md

Purgatory: In-Memory Holding Area for Events Awaiting Git Data

Status: ✅ Implemented
Implementation: src/purgatory/
Related: docs/explanation/architecture.md - System architecture overview

---

Overview

Purgatory is an in-memory holding area that solves two related problems in GRASP:

Problem 1: "Which arrives first?" (State and PR events)

Either nostr events or git pushes can arrive in any order:

• Event first: Event waits in purgatory until git data arrives
• Git first: Placeholder waits in purgatory until event arrives

When both halves arrive, they are processed together and saved to the database.

Spec Reference: GRASP-01 Purgatory Section

Accepted repo state announcements, PRs and PR Updates SHOULD be accepted with message "purgatory: won't be served until git data arrives" and kept in purgatory (not served) until the related git data arrives and otherwise discarded after 30 minutes.

Problem 2: Misleading empty repository announcements

When a repository announcement arrives, we must create the bare git repo immediately so pushes can succeed. But if no git data ever arrives, we would serve an empty repo and its announcement indefinitely—clients see the announcement, try to clone, and get nothing.

Solution: New announcements go to announcement purgatory instead of being immediately accepted:

1. Announcement arrives → Create bare repo immediately, add announcement to purgatory
2. Git data arrives → Promote announcement from purgatory to active (now served to clients)
3. No git data before expiry → Delete bare repo, discard announcement (never served)

This ensures we only serve announcements for repos that actually have content.

---

Key Design Principles

1. Crash-Safe Checkpoint Persistence

Purgatory state is atomically checkpointed every 60 seconds, saved once more on graceful shutdown, and restored on startup. This preserves in-flight work across planned restarts and bounds state lost to an abrupt process or machine stop to the checkpoint interval.

The restored file remains in place until a complete newer snapshot is durable; restore never consumes the only crash-safe copy. Snapshot replacement writes a temporary file, syncs it, renames it over the checkpoint, and syncs the parent directory. On SIGINT / Ctrl-C, RelayServer first stops background mutation and then writes the final checkpoint before exiting.

What is persisted:

Store	Persisted?	Notes
announcement_purgatory	✅ Yes	Non-soft-expired entries only (bare repo must exist)
state_events	✅ Yes	All active entries
pr_events	✅ Yes	Both events and placeholders
expired_events	✅ Yes	Prevents re-sync loops after restart
sync_queue	❌ No	Rebuilt automatically after restore

Unclean shutdown: mutations after the most recent 60-second checkpoint can be lost. The previous complete checkpoint remains valid even if the process is terminated while its replacement is being written.

State file location: <git_data_path>/purgatory-state.json

Downtime accounting: Expiry deadlines are stored as duration offsets from the save timestamp. On restore, elapsed downtime is subtracted from each deadline. Entries that expired during downtime are immediately swept by the next cleanup tick.

Soft-expired announcements are excluded: Their bare repos have already been deleted, so they cannot be meaningfully restored. They will be re-fetched via background sync if needed.

2. Separate Storage for Each Event Type

Store	Index	Purpose
announcement_purgatory	(PublicKey, String) — (owner, identifier)	Announcements awaiting git data
state_events	identifier (d tag)	State events awaiting git data
pr_events	event_id (hex string)	PR events awaiting git data

Announcement purgatory uses (pubkey, identifier) because identifier alone is not unique across different owners.

3. Late Binding for State Events

Critical: Do NOT extract refs from state events at arrival time. Extract and match refs at git push time.

Why? Multiple state events might be in purgatory with different target states. An older state event's git data might arrive after a newer one is received. By waiting until push time:

• Compare pushed refs against each purgatory state event's expected state
• Handle out-of-order git data arrival correctly
• Only release events when their specific target state is achieved

See src/purgatory/helpers.rs:can_satisfy_state for implementation.

4. Bidirectional Waiting for PR Events

For PR events, either side can arrive first:

Scenario	What Happens
Event first	PR event waits in purgatory for git push to refs/nostr/<event-id>
Git first	Push creates placeholder entry waiting for PR event

Placeholders are identified by PrPurgatoryEntry.event == None.

5. Authorization During Push (Not After)

Critical for avoiding deadlock: Authorization checks both database and purgatory during push validation.

Without this, we'd have a deadlock:

1. State event arrives → No git data → Goes to purgatory (not database)
2. Git push arrives → Authorization checks database only → No state found → REJECTED ❌

With purgatory checking during authorization:

1. State event arrives → No git data → Goes to purgatory
2. Git push arrives → Checks database + purgatory → State found → AUTHORIZED ✅
3. After push succeeds → Save event to database → Remove from purgatory

See src/git/authorization.rs for implementation.

6. Announcement Purgatory: Bare Repo Created Immediately

Decision: Create the bare git repo when announcement enters purgatory.

Why: Git pushes may arrive at any time. Without a repo, pushes fail.

Consequence: We allocate disk space for repos that may expire unused. Must delete repos on expiry.

7. Replacement Announcements Skip Purgatory

Decision: Announcements replacing an existing active (database) announcement are accepted immediately.

Why: The repository is already proven active with content.

How: Check if active announcement exists for (pubkey, identifier) before routing to purgatory.

---

Data Structures

Core Types

/// A reference name and its target object
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Hash, Eq, PartialEq)]
pub struct RefPair {
    pub ref_name: String,    // e.g., "refs/heads/main"
    pub object_sha: String,  // commit or annotated tag SHA
}

/// A ref update in a git push
#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
pub struct RefUpdate {
    pub old_oid: String,
    pub new_oid: String,
    pub ref_name: String,
}

Announcement Purgatory Entry

pub struct AnnouncementPurgatoryEntry {
    /// The kind 30617 announcement event
    pub event: Event,

    /// Repository identifier from 'd' tag
    pub identifier: String,

    /// Event author pubkey
    pub owner: PublicKey,

    /// Path to the bare git repo on disk (created immediately on entry)
    pub repo_path: PathBuf,

    /// Relay URLs from 'relays'/'clone' tags — for sync registration
    pub relays: HashSet<String>,

    /// When added to purgatory
    pub created_at: Instant,

    /// Expiry deadline (30 min from creation, may be extended)
    pub expires_at: Instant,

    /// Whether the bare repo has been deleted (soft expiry phase)
    pub soft_expired: bool,
}

Indexed by (pubkey, identifier) because identifier is not unique across different owners.

State Purgatory Entry

pub struct StatePurgatoryEntry {
    /// The nostr state event (kind 30618) awaiting git data
    pub event: Event,

    /// Repository identifier from 'd' tag
    pub identifier: String,

    /// Event author pubkey
    pub author: PublicKey,

    /// When added to purgatory
    pub created_at: Instant,

    /// Expiry deadline (30 min from creation, may be extended)
    pub expires_at: Instant,
}

Note: Refs are NOT extracted at creation time. They're extracted at push time for late binding.

PR Purgatory Entry

pub struct PrPurgatoryEntry {
    /// The nostr PR event, if received (None = git data arrived first)
    pub event: Option<Event>,

    /// Expected commit SHA from 'c' tag (if event exists)
    /// or actual commit pushed (if git arrived first)
    pub commit: String,

    /// When added to purgatory
    pub created_at: Instant,

    /// Expiry deadline (30 min from creation)
    pub expires_at: Instant,
}

Key: event: None indicates a placeholder (git-data-first scenario).

Purgatory Stores

pub struct Purgatory {
    /// Announcement events indexed by (owner, identifier)
    announcement_purgatory: DashMap<(PublicKey, String), AnnouncementPurgatoryEntry>,

    /// State events indexed by identifier (d tag)
    /// Multiple state events per identifier allowed (different authors)
    state_events: DashMap<String, Vec<StatePurgatoryEntry>>,

    /// PR events indexed by event_id (hex string)
    /// Single entry per event ID
    pr_events: DashMap<String, PrPurgatoryEntry>,

    /// Sync queue for background git data fetching
    sync_queue: DashMap<String, SyncQueueEntry>,

    /// Events that previously expired without git data (prevents re-sync loops)
    expired_events: DashMap<EventId, Instant>,
}

Persistence State (Disk Format)

Instant fields cannot be serialized directly. Each entry type has a corresponding Serializable* wrapper that stores time fields as u64 second offsets from a saved_at: SystemTime reference point. On restore, elapsed downtime is subtracted to produce the correct remaining TTL.

struct PurgatoryState {
    version: u32,                    // currently 1
    saved_at: SystemTime,            // reference for offset math

    /// Non-soft-expired announcements indexed by "owner_hex:identifier"
    announcement_purgatory: HashMap<String, SerializableAnnouncementPurgatoryEntry>,

    /// State events indexed by repository identifier
    state_events: HashMap<String, Vec<SerializableStatePurgatoryEntry>>,

    /// PR events (and placeholders) indexed by event ID hex
    pr_events: HashMap<String, SerializablePrPurgatoryEntry>,

    /// Expired event IDs → approximate expiry SystemTime
    expired_events: HashMap<String, SystemTime>,
}

The announcement_purgatory field uses #[serde(default)] so that state files written before announcement persistence was added (version 1 without the field) still deserialize correctly.

---

Announcement Purgatory Flows

New Announcement Flow

Announcement arrives
    |
    v
Is there an active announcement for (pubkey, identifier) in DB?
    |
    +-- YES --> Accept immediately (replacement, repo already proven)
    |
    +-- NO --> Is there a purgatory entry for (pubkey, identifier)?
                |
                +-- YES --> Replace purgatory entry, extend expiry 30 min
                |           Return OK to client (but don't serve)
                |
                +-- NO --> Create bare repo
                           Add to purgatory
                           Return OK to client (but don't serve)

Git Data Arrival → Promotion

Git push/fetch completes with data
    |
    v
process_purgatory_announcements() called
    |
    v
Is there a purgatory announcement for (owner, identifier)?
    |
    +-- YES --> promote_announcement() removes from purgatory
    |           Save event to database
    |           Notify WebSocket clients
    |           (Sync upgrades to Full automatically via SelfSubscriber)
    |
    +-- NO --> Normal processing

State Event Arrival for Purgatory Announcement

State event arrives
    |
    v
fetch_repository_data_with_purgatory() checks DB + purgatory
    |
    +-- Announcement found in purgatory -->
    |       Validate authorization against purgatory announcement
    |       Extend purgatory announcement expiry (reset 30-min timer)
    |       If soft-expired: recreate bare repo, clear soft_expired flag
    |       Route state event to state purgatory
    |
    +-- No announcement anywhere --> Reject

Announcement Expiry (Two-Phase Soft Expiry)

The protocol specifies 30-minute expiry for announcements. We implement a two-phase soft expiry:

Phase 1 — Initial 30-minute expiry (soft_expired == false):

• Defer the expiry sweep while a concrete background Git sync for the repository is actively running
• Delete the bare git repo (frees disk space, respects protocol expiry)
• Set soft_expired = true
• Extend expires_at by 24 hours (SOFT_EXPIRY_EXTENDED)
• Continue syncing state events (same as active purgatory)

Phase 2 — 24-hour soft expiry (soft_expired == true):

• Add event ID to expired_events (prevents re-sync loops)
• Remove entry completely from announcement_purgatory

Why soft expiry? Without it, we'd face a dilemma:

• Add expired announcements to failed_events → permanently reject future state events, losing potential revival when state events arrive late
• Re-fetch the announcement event on every sync cycle → wasting bandwidth and creating unnecessary sync traffic

Soft expiry retains the event for 24 hours so that late-arriving state events (e.g. from a slow sync) can revive the announcement without forcing a full re-announcement flow.

Revival: If a state event arrives for a soft-expired announcement, extend_announcement_expiry() recreates the bare repo, clears soft_expired, and resets the 30-minute timer.

Expiry Extension Triggers

The 30-minute purgatory timer is reset (extended) in three scenarios:

Trigger	Location	Why
State event arrives	StatePolicy::process_state_event()	Repo is actively receiving metadata
Git push authorized against purgatory state	get_state_authorization_for_selected_repo()	Repo is actively receiving git data
Replacement announcement arrives	AnnouncementPolicy::validate()	Announcement updated

All three call purgatory.extend_announcement_expiry(owner, identifier, 1800s).

Background Git synchronization does not reset the 30-minute deadline. Instead, the expiry sweep skips matching announcements, state events and PR events only while sync_identifier is actively running. This lets a large but healthy clone finish without allowing an unavailable repository to live forever: queue entries waiting for their next attempt or in backoff remain eligible for normal expiry. When active work finishes, it either promotes the satisfied events or the next sweep expires any still-unsatisfied entries.

Purgatory Lifecycle

                    ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │                                     │
                    v                                     │
Announcement ──> ACTIVE ──────────────────────────────────┤
  arrives        (bare repo exists)                       │
                    │                                     │
                    ├── Git data ──> PROMOTED (exit)      │
                    │                                     │
                    ├── Deletion ──> REMOVED (exit)       │
                    │                                     │
                    v                                     │
               SOFT_EXPIRED ──────────────────────────────┘
               (bare repo deleted,        ^
                event retained)           │
                    │                     │
                    ├── State event arrives (revival)
                    │
                    └── Extended expiry ──> REMOVED (exit)

Exit	Trigger	Action
Promotion	Git data arrives	Move to database, sync upgrades to Full
Soft expiry	Initial 30-min timeout	Delete bare repo, retain event, continue sync
Full expiry	24-hour soft expiry	Add to expired_events, remove from purgatory
Deletion	Kind 5 event	Delete bare repo, remove from purgatory
Replacement	Newer announcement (same pubkey, identifier)	Replace entry, extend expiry
Service change	Newer announcement removes our service	Remove from purgatory

---

State and PR Event Flows

State Event Arrival (Kind 30618)

sequenceDiagram
    participant Client
    participant WritePolicy
    participant Purgatory
    participant Database
    participant GitRepos

    Client->>WritePolicy: EVENT kind:30618
    WritePolicy->>WritePolicy: Validate structure
    WritePolicy->>WritePolicy: Parse identifier and author

    Note right of WritePolicy: Check if git data exists
    WritePolicy->>GitRepos: Check if any authorized repo has matching refs

    alt Git data exists
        GitRepos-->>WritePolicy: Refs match in repo X
        WritePolicy->>Database: Save event
        WritePolicy->>Client: OK true - event saved
    else Git data not available yet
        WritePolicy->>Purgatory: add_state(event, identifier, author)
        Purgatory->>Purgatory: Store in state_events[identifier]
        Purgatory->>Purgatory: Enqueue for sync (3min delay)
        WritePolicy->>Client: OK true "purgatory: awaiting git data"
    end

State promotion remains oldest-first so reconstructable predecessors reach relay history before a newer replacement. After a promotion pass, purgatory removes only non-preferred events on the promoted event's exact coordinate (same author and d tag) when their Git objects are still unavailable. Reconstructable predecessors and other maintainers' states remain as rollback candidates.

PR Event Arrival (Kind 1617/1618)

sequenceDiagram
    participant Client
    participant WritePolicy
    participant Purgatory
    participant Database
    participant GitRepos

    Client->>WritePolicy: EVENT kind:1617/1618
    WritePolicy->>WritePolicy: Extract event_id and commit from 'c' tag

    Note right of WritePolicy: Check if git data exists
    WritePolicy->>GitRepos: Check refs/nostr/<event-id> in repos

    alt Git data exists in database
        GitRepos-->>WritePolicy: Found with matching commit
        WritePolicy->>Database: Save event
        WritePolicy->>Client: OK true - event saved
    else Placeholder exists in purgatory
        WritePolicy->>Purgatory: find_pr_placeholder(event_id)
        alt Placeholder has matching commit
            Purgatory-->>WritePolicy: Placeholder entry
            WritePolicy->>Database: Save event
            WritePolicy->>Purgatory: remove_pr(event_id)
            WritePolicy->>Client: OK true - event saved
        else Placeholder has different commit
            WritePolicy->>Client: OK false - commit mismatch
        end
    else No git data yet
        WritePolicy->>Purgatory: add_pr(event, event_id, commit)
        Purgatory->>Purgatory: Store in pr_events[event_id]
        Purgatory->>Purgatory: Enqueue for sync (3min delay)
        WritePolicy->>Client: OK true "purgatory: awaiting git data"
    end

Git Push - State Refs

Critical: Authorization happens BEFORE git-receive-pack execution, checking both database and purgatory.

sequenceDiagram
    participant GitClient
    participant GitHandler
    participant Authorization
    participant Purgatory
    participant Database
    participant GitProcess

    GitClient->>GitHandler: POST /npub/id/git-receive-pack
    GitHandler->>Authorization: authorize_push(body, purgatory, database)
    
    Note over Authorization: Parse pushed refs from pkt-line format
    Authorization->>Authorization: parse_pushed_refs(body)
    Authorization->>Authorization: Separate state refs from refs/nostr/*
    
    Note over Authorization: Check database for state events
    Authorization->>Database: Query state events for identifier
    
    alt State found in database
        Database-->>Authorization: State event
        Authorization->>Authorization: Validate refs match
        Authorization-->>GitHandler: Authorized (from_purgatory=false)
    else No state in database - check purgatory
        Authorization->>Purgatory: find_matching_states(identifier, pushed_refs, local_refs)
        
        alt Matching state in purgatory
            Purgatory-->>Authorization: State event(s)
            Authorization->>Authorization: Filter to authorized authors
            Authorization->>Authorization: Find latest state
            Authorization->>Authorization: Validate refs match
            Authorization->>Purgatory: extend_expiry(15min)
            Authorization-->>GitHandler: Authorized (from_purgatory=true)
        else No matching state anywhere
            Authorization-->>GitHandler: Rejected - no authorized state
        end
    end
    
    alt Authorized
        GitHandler->>GitProcess: Execute git-receive-pack
        
        alt Push succeeds AND from_purgatory=true
            GitHandler->>Database: Save state event
            GitHandler->>Purgatory: remove_state_event(identifier, event_id)
            GitHandler->>GitClient: Push accepted
        else Push succeeds AND from_purgatory=false
            GitHandler->>GitClient: Push accepted
        else Push fails
            GitHandler->>GitClient: Push rejected - git error
        end
    else Rejected
        GitHandler->>GitClient: Push rejected - not authorized
    end

Git Push - PR Refs (refs/nostr/event-id)

sequenceDiagram
    participant GitClient
    participant GitHandler
    participant Purgatory
    participant Database
    participant GitProcess

    GitClient->>GitHandler: POST /npub/id/git-receive-pack refs/nostr/abc123
    GitHandler->>GitHandler: Extract event_id and commit from push
    
    Note over GitHandler: Check database first
    GitHandler->>Database: Query PR event with event_id
    
    alt Event exists in database
        Database-->>GitHandler: PR event
        GitHandler->>GitHandler: Compare commit tags
        alt Commit matches
            GitHandler->>GitProcess: Execute push
            GitHandler->>GitClient: Push accepted
        else Commit mismatch
            GitHandler->>GitClient: Push rejected - commit mismatch
        end
    else Event not in database - check purgatory
        GitHandler->>Purgatory: find_pr(event_id)
        
        alt PR event in purgatory
            Purgatory-->>GitHandler: PR entry with event
            GitHandler->>GitHandler: Compare commit tags
            alt Commit matches
                GitHandler->>GitProcess: Execute push
                GitHandler->>Database: Save PR event
                GitHandler->>Purgatory: remove_pr(event_id)
                GitHandler->>GitClient: Push accepted
            else Commit mismatch
                GitHandler->>GitClient: Push rejected - commit mismatch
            end
        else No PR event anywhere (git-data-first)
            GitHandler->>GitProcess: Execute push - accept any commit
            GitHandler->>Purgatory: add_standard_pr_placeholder(event_id, commit, owner, identifier)
            GitHandler->>GitClient: Push accepted - awaiting PR event
        end
    end

---

Normal-endpoint git-first placeholders persist each destination owner, repository identifier, and pushed commit. The 60-second expiry task acquires those repositories' lifecycle write locks before checking the record again. If the event is still absent after 30 minutes, it compare-and-deletes the recorded refs, retaining the placeholder on failure for retry. A database check protects accepted events whose placeholders survived in an older checkpoint. Legacy records without destinations remain readable, but cannot safely drive scoped online ref deletion.

The objects of a git-first push are staged in the view that received them, not stored in the identifier family. Expiring the ref lets staging maintenance reclaim them. Accepting the PR event first promotes its history into the family; the placeholder is released only after that succeeds. See Staging of unsigned uploads.

Background Sync

Purgatory includes a background sync system that fetches git data from remote servers when events arrive before git data.

Sync Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Sync Loop (1s)                     │
│  - Checks sync_queue for ready identifiers          │
│  - Spawns tasks for each ready identifier           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           sync_identifier(identifier)               │
│  1. Try all non-throttled URLs sequentially         │
│  2. Check if complete after each fetch              │
│  3. Enqueue with throttled domains if incomplete    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│      sync_identifier_from_url(identifier, url)      │
│  1. Collect needed OIDs from purgatory events       │
│  2. Fetch OIDs from remote URL                      │
│  3. Process newly available git data                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   process_newly_available_git_data(repo, oids)      │
│  1. Find satisfiable announcement in purgatory      │
│  2. Find satisfiable state events in purgatory      │
│  3. Find satisfiable PR events in purgatory         │
│  4. Save events to database                         │
│  5. Sync git data to other owner repos              │
│  6. Remove from purgatory                           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Sync Queue Entry

pub struct SyncQueueEntry {
    /// When to attempt next sync
    pub next_attempt: Instant,
    
    /// Number of sync attempts made
    pub attempt_count: u32,
    
    /// Whether a sync task is currently running
    pub in_progress: bool,
}

Backoff strategy:

• First attempt: 20 seconds
• Second attempt: 40 seconds
• Subsequent attempts: capped at 2 minutes

Sync Delays

Scenario	Delay	Reason
User-submitted event	3 minutes	Give time for git push to arrive
Sync-triggered event	500ms	Batch burst arrivals from negentropy

Domain Throttling

pub struct ThrottleManager {
    /// Max requests per domain per minute
    max_requests_per_minute: usize,
    
    /// Tracking window duration
    window_duration: Duration,
    
    /// Per-domain throttle state
    domains: DashMap<String, DomainThrottle>,
}

Rate limiting:

• Default: 5 concurrent requests per domain, 30 requests per minute
• Tracks request timestamps in a sliding window
• Queues identifiers when domain is throttled
• Processes queue when capacity frees up

See src/purgatory/sync/throttle.rs for implementation.

---

Purgatory API

Announcement Purgatory

impl Purgatory {
    /// Add an announcement to purgatory (bare repo already created by caller)
    pub fn add_announcement(
        &self,
        event: Event,
        identifier: String,
        owner: PublicKey,
        repo_path: PathBuf,
        relays: HashSet<String>,
    );

    /// Promote announcement: remove from purgatory, return event for DB save
    pub fn promote_announcement(
        &self,
        owner: &PublicKey,
        identifier: &str,
    ) -> Option<Event>;

    /// Get announcements by identifier (for authorization checks)
    pub fn get_announcements_by_identifier(
        &self,
        identifier: &str,
    ) -> Vec<AnnouncementPurgatoryEntry>;

    /// Extend expiry (and revive soft-expired entries, recreating bare repo)
    pub fn extend_announcement_expiry(
        &self,
        owner: &PublicKey,
        identifier: &str,
        duration: Duration,
    );

    /// Get all announcements for sync registration
    pub fn announcements_for_sync(&self) -> Vec<AnnouncementPurgatoryEntry>;
}

State and PR Purgatory

impl Purgatory {
    /// Add a state event to purgatory
    /// Automatically enqueues for sync with 3min delay
    pub fn add_state(&self, event: Event, identifier: String, author: PublicKey);
    
    /// Add a PR event to purgatory
    /// Automatically enqueues for sync with 3min delay
    pub fn add_pr(&self, event: Event, event_id: String, commit: String);
    
    /// Add a PR placeholder (git-data-first scenario)
    pub fn add_pr_placeholder(&self, event_id: String, commit: String);

    /// Find state events waiting for an identifier
    pub fn find_state(&self, identifier: &str) -> Vec<StatePurgatoryEntry>;
    
    /// Find state events that match pushed refs (late binding)
    pub fn find_matching_states(
        &self,
        identifier: &str,
        pushed_updates: &[RefUpdate],
        local_refs: &HashMap<String, String>,
    ) -> Vec<Event>;
    
    /// Find a PR entry by event ID
    pub fn find_pr(&self, event_id: &str) -> Option<PrPurgatoryEntry>;
    
    /// Find a PR placeholder specifically (git-data-first)
    pub fn find_pr_placeholder(&self, event_id: &str) -> Option<String>;

    /// Remove all state events for an identifier
    pub fn remove_state(&self, identifier: &str);
    
    /// Remove a specific state event by event ID
    pub fn remove_state_event(&self, identifier: &str, event_id: &EventId);
    
    /// Remove a PR entry
    pub fn remove_pr(&self, event_id: &str);
}

Maintenance

impl Purgatory {
    /// Remove expired entries (called every 60 seconds)
    /// Handles two-phase soft expiry for announcements
    pub fn cleanup(&self);
    
    /// Extend expiry for state/PR entries about to be processed
    pub fn extend_expiry(&self, identifier: &str, event_ids: &[EventId], duration: Duration);
    
    /// Check if an event previously expired (prevents re-sync loops)
    pub fn is_expired(&self, event_id: &EventId) -> bool;
}

---

Helper Functions

State Event Matching

/// Extract ref pairs from a state event
pub fn extract_refs_from_state(event: &Event) -> Vec<RefPair>;

/// Check if a state event can be satisfied by a push
/// Returns true if:
/// - Every ref in state is either in pushed_refs OR in local_refs
/// - At least one ref in state is being changed by the push
pub fn can_satisfy_state(
    state_refs: &[RefPair],
    pushed_refs: &[RefPair],
    local_refs: &HashMap<String, String>,
) -> bool;

/// Check if a state event can be applied to a repository
/// Returns true if all required OIDs exist in the repo
pub fn can_apply_state(
    event: &Event,
    repo_path: &Path,
) -> Result<bool>;

See src/purgatory/helpers.rs for implementation.

---

Integration Points

1. Announcement Policy (src/nostr/policy/announcement.rs)

Routes new announcements to purgatory or accepts replacements:

• If active DB announcement exists for (pubkey, identifier) → Accept immediately
• If purgatory entry exists → replace it, extend expiry, return Accept
• Otherwise → return AcceptPurgatory, caller calls add_to_purgatory() which creates bare repo and adds to purgatory

2. State Event Policy (src/nostr/policy/state.rs)

Checks purgatory announcements for authorization and extends their expiry:

// Fetch announcements from both DB and purgatory
let repo_data = fetch_repository_data_with_purgatory(db, purgatory, identifier).await?;

// For each authorized owner with a purgatory announcement, extend expiry
purgatory.extend_announcement_expiry(&owner_pk, &identifier, Duration::from_secs(1800));

3. Git Push Authorization (src/git/authorization.rs)

fetch_repository_data_with_purgatory() merges DB announcements with purgatory announcements for authorization. On successful authorization via purgatory state events, also extends announcement expiry.

4. Git Data Processing (src/git/sync.rs)

process_purgatory_announcements() is called after any git push or background sync fetch. It promotes announcements from purgatory to the database and notifies WebSocket clients.

5. Sync Registration (src/sync/)

A background timer (run_purgatory_announcement_sync, every 5 seconds) ensures purgatory announcements are registered in RepoSyncIndex with SyncLevel::StateOnly. It connects the announcement's relay hints before recovering rejected dependencies, walks accepted announcements to collect maintainer-discovery relay dependencies, and re-processes any dependency events still in the hot cache.

If a dependency's full event has expired, the timer starts a background exact-ID request against all connected dependency relays. Requests run in parallel and do not hold the sync-manager lock. Announcements are applied before state events; IDs remain in the cold index through empty or failed requests and are removed only after successful policy processing. Production retries are limited to once every 30 seconds, with a five-second timeout per relay request.

When an announcement is promoted, the SelfSubscriber upgrades it to SyncLevel::Full.

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File Structure

src/
├── purgatory/
│   ├── mod.rs              # Main Purgatory struct, API, save_to_disk, restore_from_disk
│   ├── types.rs            # RefPair, AnnouncementPurgatoryEntry, StatePurgatoryEntry, PrPurgatoryEntry
│   ├── persistence.rs      # instant_to_offset / offset_to_instant time conversion utilities
│   ├── helpers.rs          # Ref extraction and matching functions
│   └── sync/
│       ├── mod.rs          # Sync module exports
│       ├── loop.rs         # Background sync loop
│       ├── functions.rs    # sync_identifier, sync_identifier_from_url
│       ├── context.rs      # SyncContext trait and RealSyncContext
│       ├── queue.rs        # SyncQueueEntry
│       └── throttle.rs     # ThrottleManager, DomainThrottle
├── git/
│   ├── authorization.rs    # authorize_push with purgatory checking
│   ├── handlers.rs         # handle_receive_pack with post-push processing
│   └── sync.rs             # process_newly_available_git_data, process_purgatory_announcements
└── nostr/
    └── policy/
        ├── announcement.rs # Route announcements to purgatory
        ├── state.rs        # State event policy with purgatory
        └── pr_event.rs     # PR event policy with purgatory

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Testing

Unit Tests

Located in each module:

• src/purgatory/mod.rs - Core purgatory operations including announcement purgatory; persistence round-trip tests for all entry types (state, PR, announcement, expired events, downtime calculation, soft-expired exclusion, missing-repo skip)
• src/purgatory/persistence.rs - instant_to_offset / offset_to_instant round-trip tests
• src/purgatory/helpers.rs - Ref matching logic
• src/purgatory/sync/functions.rs - Sync functions with MockSyncContext
• src/purgatory/sync/throttle.rs - Throttle manager

Integration Tests

Located in tests/:

• Announcement purgatory flow - Announcement enters purgatory, git data promotes it
• Announcement soft expiry - Bare repo deleted after 30 min, event retained 24h
• Announcement revival - State event revives soft-expired announcement
• State event purgatory flow - Event arrives, git push releases it
• PR event purgatory flow - Event arrives, git push releases it
• Git-data-first flow - Git push creates placeholder, event completes it
• Authorization with purgatory - Push authorized by purgatory state
• Background sync - Sync fetches git data and releases events
• Persistence across restart - Save/restore cycle preserves all entry types including announcements

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Key Learnings

1. Announcement Purgatory Prevents Misleading Empty Repos

Without announcement purgatory, we'd serve announcements for repos with no content. Clients would see the announcement, try to clone, and get nothing.

Solution: Announcements wait in purgatory until git data proves content exists.

2. Soft Expiry Avoids Sync Loops

The protocol's 30-minute expiry creates a problem: without soft expiry, we'd either permanently block repositories or constantly re-sync expired announcement events.

Solution: Soft expiry retains the event for 24 hours after deleting the bare repo, allowing revival without re-fetching.

3. Purgatory Authorization is Critical

Without checking purgatory during authorization, we have a deadlock:

• State event goes to purgatory (no git data)
• Push is rejected (no state in database)
• Event never gets released

Solution: authorize_push() checks both database and purgatory.

4. Late Binding for State Events

Extracting refs at event arrival time doesn't work when:

• Multiple state events arrive for same identifier
• Git data for older state arrives after newer state received

Solution: Extract and match refs at push time via find_matching_states().

5. Bidirectional Waiting for PR Events

PR events can arrive before or after git data:

• Event first → Wait for git push
• Git first → Create placeholder, wait for event

Solution: PrPurgatoryEntry.event: Option<Event> with None = placeholder.

6. Persistence Requires Instant → Duration Conversion

std::time::Instant is not serializable and is not meaningful across process boundaries. Expiry deadlines must be converted to a portable form.

Solution: Store each deadline as a u64 second offset from a saved_at: SystemTime reference. On restore, subtract elapsed downtime from each offset to compute the new Instant. Entries whose deadline already passed during downtime get expires_at = now and are swept by the next cleanup tick.

Soft-expired announcements are excluded from persistence because their bare repos have been deleted. Restoring them would leave purgatory entries pointing at non-existent repos. They are simply dropped; background sync will re-fetch the announcement event if needed.

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Related Documentation

• Architecture Overview - Full system design
• GRASP-02 Proactive Sync - Relay-to-relay event sync with SyncLevel
• GRASP-02 Purgatory Git Data Fetching - Background git data hunting

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Part of the ngit-grasp explanation docs