reconcile-metadata drain pagination reports repeated scans as forward progress

[chubes4]

Problem

Time-budgeted reconcile-metadata --apply repeatedly scans offset zero while reporting cumulative inspected rows greater than the inventory total, an incomplete cursor, and no clear unique-progress metric.

Evidence

studio wp datamachine-code workspace worktree reconcile-metadata --apply --limit=100 --offset=0 --until-budget=240s --format=json

Returned:

• pagination.total: 245
• summary.inspected: 500
• five pages each with offset: 0, scanned: 100
• pagination.complete: false
• next_offset: 0
• final page scanned 0 while the next command was unchanged

The drain did write 37 records, so repeated offset-zero scanning may be intentional after rows leave the candidate set. The diagnostics do not distinguish unique rows, repeated probes, remaining candidates, or a no-progress stop.

Expected

Pagination/progress evidence should make draining semantics explicit and terminate cleanly when a pass makes no progress.

Acceptance criteria

• Report unique rows inspected separately from total probes.
• Report candidate count before/after each pass.
• Mark completion when no candidates remain.
• Return a reasoned no-progress state instead of an unchanged offset-zero continuation.
• Keep continuation deterministic across time-budget boundaries.

AI assistance

• AI assistance: Yes
• Tool: OpenAI gpt-5.6-sol via OpenCode/Kimaki
• Used for: Live cleanup diagnosis and issue drafting