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fix(server): cap query_metric_series window at retention, not a flat 90 days (JEF-593) - #155

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thejefflarson/jef-593-cap-query_metric_series-window-at-retention-drop-the-90-day
Jul 29, 2026
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fix(server): cap query_metric_series window at retention, not a flat 90 days (JEF-593)#155
thejefflarson merged 2 commits into
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thejefflarson/jef-593-cap-query_metric_series-window-at-retention-drop-the-90-day

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Summary

query_metric_series (server/src/api.rs) resolved its window with a fixed
24 * 90-hour ceiling, while metric_series_rollups is itself pruned at
WATCHER_RETENTION_DAYS (default 7 -- same as the facet/histogram/hist_facet
sibling queries' fixed 24 * 7). A wide request scanned an index/heap range
that structurally holds no rows past retention: wasted scan width, and a
ceiling inconsistent with every other metric endpoint.

Decision: sourced from WATCHER_RETENTION_DAYS, not hard-wired. Added
metric_series_max_hours() (env-reading, mirrors the existing
max_lookback_hours()/rollup_bucket_secs() pattern already in api.rs)
backed by a pure parse_retention_max_hours(Option<&str>) -> i32 helper for
unit testing without mutating process env. It reads WATCHER_RETENTION_DAYS
and returns days * 24, so raising retention widens the queryable window
without a code change, and falls back to the sibling queries' fixed 24 * 7
both when the var is unset/unparsable and when retention is disabled
(<= 0) -- a disabled sweep prunes nothing and shouldn't be read as license
for an unbounded scan.

JEF-561's adaptive output-bucket width is unchanged; only the ceiling fed
into resolve_window_and_width changed. No change to returned data for
windows within retention.

Test plan

  • Added unit tests in server/src/api.rs:
    • parse_retention_max_hours_matches_sibling_ceiling_at_default_retention
      -- default (unset) resolves to the same 24 * 7 the sibling queries use
    • parse_retention_max_hours_tracks_a_non_default_retention
    • parse_retention_max_hours_falls_back_to_sibling_ceiling_when_retention_disabled
    • parse_retention_max_hours_falls_back_to_sibling_ceiling_when_invalid
    • resolve_window_clamps_series_window_to_retention_ceiling -- the
      acceptance-criterion test: a 90-day request is clamped to the 7-day
      retention bound, mirroring JEF-532's existing absolute-window clamp test
  • cargo fmt, cargo check, cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings,
    cargo test --locked all pass (66 integration tests + full lib suite,
    including the new tests above)
  • Ran /soundcheck:pr-review equivalent manual review: no Critical/High
    findings (env-var read only, no new user input path, value flows into the
    existing parameterized $5 bind)
  • Ran /simplify manual pass: deduped a redundant test assertion

Closes JEF-593

…90 days (JEF-593)

query_metric_series resolved its window with a fixed 24*90-hour ceiling
while metric_series_rollups is itself pruned at WATCHER_RETENTION_DAYS
(default 7, same as the facet/histogram/hist_facet siblings' fixed
24*7). A wide request scanned an index/heap range that structurally
holds no rows past retention -- wasted scan width and an inconsistent,
misleading ceiling versus the sibling metric endpoints.

Adds metric_series_max_hours(), sourced from WATCHER_RETENTION_DAYS
(the same knob retention::prune_once prunes metric_series_rollups
against) rather than a hard-wired constant, so raising retention widens
the queryable window without a code change. Falls back to the sibling
queries' fixed 24*7 both when the var is unset/unparsable and when
retention is disabled (<= 0), since a disabled sweep prunes nothing and
shouldn't be read as license for an unbounded scan. JEF-561's adaptive
output bucketing is unchanged.

Tests: parse_retention_max_hours unit tests cover the default-matches-
sibling-ceiling case, tracking a non-default retention, and both
disabled/invalid fallbacks; resolve_window_clamps_series_window_to_retention_ceiling
proves a 90-day request is clamped to the 7-day retention bound
(acceptance criterion).

Closes JEF-593

Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@thejefflarson

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HELD — the required server check is red (a real test failure, not an incomplete arm64 build). The change itself is sound (retention-derived ceiling via a bound $5 param, sibling-consistent), but dropping the ceiling from a flat 90 days to metric_series_max_hours() (default 7d) breaks two pre-existing smoke tests that encode the old 90-day contract. These need to be rewritten, not deleted — they pin real behavior the new code still must satisfy at the new ceiling.

Severity-ordered:

  1. server/tests/smoke.rs:772metric_series_wide_window_returns_bounded_correct_points seeds rollups at 89d/45d/10d/91d and asserts exactly the 3 within 90d. Under the new 7-day ceiling all four are now outside the window, so the series is empty (left: 0, right: 3). Fix: re-seed the "inside" rows at offsets under metric_series_max_hours() (e.g. 6d/3d/1d) and the "just outside" row just past 7d, and request hours at/over the new ceiling so the clamp is what excludes it. Keeps the test asserting the same property (nothing dropped, nothing leaked from just outside) against the retention bound instead of 90d.

  2. server/tests/smoke.rs:830metric_series_wide_window_reaggregates_merged_buckets_correctly hardcodes WIDTH = 7800.0, the adaptive output-bucket width for a 90-day window. Clamped to 7 days the window is narrower, so output_bucket_secs yields a smaller bucket and the two "same-bucket" rows no longer share one (left: 3, right: 2). Fix: recompute WIDTH from output_bucket_secs at the 7-day window and place the seed rows relative to that new width, so the count-weighted-merge assertion ((15+2)/(3+1)=4.25) still holds.

Please recompute the expected values rather than loosening the assertions — the point of both tests is exact bucket boundaries. Re-request review once server is green.

…day ceiling (JEF-593)

metric_series_wide_window_returns_bounded_correct_points and
metric_series_wide_window_reaggregates_merged_buckets_correctly hardcoded
the old flat 90-day query_metric_series ceiling: seed offsets at 89d/45d/
10d/91d, and an output-bucket WIDTH of 7800.0 (300 * ceil(2160h-in-secs /
300 / 1000)). Under the new retention-derived 7-day ceiling
(metric_series_max_hours(), JEF-593) those fixtures fall outside the
window entirely -- both tests would fail against a real Postgres (they
silently no-op locally via pool_or_skip when DATABASE_URL is unset).

Rebased both onto the 7-day ceiling, preserving the exact properties
each pins:
- returns_bounded_correct_points: seeds now sit at 6d/3d/1d (in-window)
  and 8d (just past the ceiling, must be excluded) -- same 1-day margins
  on each side of the boundary as the original 89d/91d pair.
- reaggregates_merged_buckets_correctly: WIDTH recomputed for the 7-day
  (604800s) window -- 300 * ceil(604800 / 300 / 1000) = 900 -- with the
  bucket anchor moved from 5d to 3.5d ago (still well clear of both the
  "now" and ceiling edges) and the count-weighted-merge assertion
  (4.25) unchanged.

Local cargo fmt/check/clippy are green; the smoke suite still skips
locally (no Docker/Postgres in this environment) -- verified by
reasoning through output_bucket_secs' bucket-floor math rather than by
running against a live database. CI's server check (with Postgres) is
the real validator for this commit.

Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@thejefflarson
thejefflarson merged commit 8a40d3e into main Jul 29, 2026
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@thejefflarson
thejefflarson deleted the thejefflarson/jef-593-cap-query_metric_series-window-at-retention-drop-the-90-day branch July 29, 2026 02:54
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