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TL;DR: Milestone 8 completed AssetTrack’s atomic custody engine. Milestone 9 added admin correction tools. The system now enforces integrity and can fix reality without corrupting itself.

Project page: AssetTrack.

Context

At the start of today, AssetTrack could enforce slot structure (Milestone 7) and perform atomic Stock-Out transitions.

By the end of today, Milestone 8 was fully operational.

Assets now move between:

STORAGE (slot-bound) IN_CUSTODY (holder-bound)

With:

  • Atomic transactions
  • Hard-stop validation
  • Slot consistency
  • Explicit event logging
  • Rollback safety

No split state.
No partial commits.
No ghost slots.

But inventory systems don’t live in clean lab conditions.

Reality drifts.

Milestone 9 acknowledges that.

What Changed

Atomic Custody Is Complete

Stock-Out and Stock-In now operate as a single transactional layer.

Every transition:

  • Validates state
  • Mutates slot occupancy
  • Updates holder
  • Logs event
  • Commits or rolls back as one unit

The lifecycle state machine is now real.

Admin Reality Correction Layer

Databases drift.

Imports create unslotted assets.
Racks get reorganized.
Humans mis-slot devices.
Sometimes the database is wrong.

AssetTrack now includes explicit admin tools to reconcile that drift:

  • SLOT_ASSIGN
  • SLOT_MOVE
  • FORCE_VACATE

Each one:

  • Is admin-only
  • Has hard-stop validation
  • Executes atomically
  • Writes an audit event
  • Refuses silent correction

What Is Now True

The system now behaves like this:

                         +----------------------+
                         |      IN_CUSTODY      |
                         |   (holder-bound)     |
                         +----------------------+
                               ^         |
                               |         |
                        STOCK_IN|         |STOCK_OUT
                               |         v
+----------------------+     +----------------------+
|       STORAGE        |<--->|     SLOT MODEL       |
|    (slot-bound)      |     |  One asset per slot  |
+----------------------+     +----------------------+

Admin Corrections (All Atomic + Logged):

  SLOT_ASSIGN  → STORAGE + slot-bound
  SLOT_MOVE    → STORAGE, new slot
  FORCE_VACATE → STORAGE, UNSLOTTED

There is no path that:

  • Skips validation
  • Leaves partial state
  • Moves without logging
  • Silently mutates occupancy

The system enforces discipline.

And when reality disagrees, it reconciles visibly.

What I Learned

  1. Atomicity is necessary — but not sufficient.

    Systems must also allow controlled correction.

  2. Governance is not about preventing mistakes.

    It’s about making mistakes visible and recoverable.

Milestone 8 made AssetTrack safe.

Milestone 9 made it operationally honest.

That’s when an inventory tool starts behaving like infrastructure.

Next

Milestone 9 continues with:

  • Admin single-asset creation
  • Operational reporting tools
  • Additional guardrails

The custody engine is stable.

The admin layer is emerging.

Now the system isn’t just correct.

It’s governable.

Updated: