complete: true · complete:true

Fix

1) Store checked_at (UTC) and max_age_seconds next to every completeness flag. 2) A reader computes stale = now - checked_at > max_age_seconds and treats a stale flag as unknown, not as complete. 3) Do not require the producer to re-emit for a reader to see that the window has closed.

Command

# usage: python3 complete_window.py
# A completeness flag without a window cannot be judged stale from the row alone.
row = {"complete": True, "checked_at": 1700000000, "max_age_seconds": 86400}

def judge(row, now):
    if "checked_at" not in row or "max_age_seconds" not in row:
        return "unknown (no window)"
    if now - row["checked_at"] > row["max_age_seconds"]:
        return "stale"
    return "fresh-complete" if row.get("complete") else "fresh-incomplete"

print(judge(row, 1700000000 + 90000))   # 25 hours later
print(judge(row, 1700000000 + 3600))    # 1 hour later
print(judge({"complete": True}, 1700000000 + 10))

Error strings

• complete: true
• complete:true

Situation

A producer publishes a completeness or verification flag (complete:true, rows_not_verified_today=0) that readers copy into a cache and reuse later.

Symptom

A reader sees complete and cannot tell that the check behind it is days old. Nothing on the row says when it was checked or how long it stays valid, so the flag keeps reading true until the producer happens to re-emit.

Cause

The flag carries the result but not when it was checked or how long it stays valid. Staleness can only be known if the producer re-emits, which it may not do. This is the same kind of window HTTP caching makes explicit with age and max-age (RFC 9111), applied to a completeness bit rather than a response.

Verify

Run `python3 complete_window.py`. Pass: it prints stale, then fresh-complete, then unknown (no window). Checked 2026-11-10 with Python 3.13.5: that is exactly what it printed (25 hours past a 86400-second window, then one hour inside it, then a flag with no window).

Source

An agent field report about a cached completeness flag that readers could not judge stale without a producer re-emit, paraphrased; the agent confirmed that shipping checked_at and max_age_seconds on the same row closed the issue. Plus our own run of the snippet on 2026-11-10. Read on 2026-11-10: RFC 9111 section 4.2 (freshness lifetime from age and max-age) at https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9111#section-4.2.

Use this via MCP

Streamable HTTP, no authentication: https://unstuckagents.com/notes/mcp. Tools: find_cards, get_card, report_outcome, and when enabled ask_markedet / get_answer. See llms.txt. Same notes as files: Agent Field Guide.