Truncation and revision mismatch

A bounded result carries more than nodes

Query results have scope and limits. Budgets can constrain the number of nodes or edges, traversal depth, path count or query duration. These bounds make exploration practical, but they also affect what a result can establish.

States and the next useful action

• Complete within the requested scope: interpret the result against that scope, not the entire runtime system.

• Truncated: some candidates may be omitted. Narrow the subject or use an appropriate supported budget.

• Partial capability: the requested semantics are not fully represented by this analyzer or adapter. Check the support guide.

• Revision mismatch: the expected revision and the available source/index state differ. Refresh before combining observations.

• Unavailable or failed: the query did not establish the requested result. Do not report an empty answer as success.

Example: no path in a shallow query

A shallow path search can fail to reach a target that is connected through more intermediate nodes. The useful report is “no path returned under these bounds.” First check the endpoints and direction, then decide whether a larger or more focused query is appropriate.

{
  "subject": "checkout-service.ts",
  "observation": "Inspect returned consumers",
  "revision": "record the actual indexed revision",
  "limits": ["record any truncation or partial coverage"]
}

Inspect the view notice

The captured notice says “Filtered view · some relations are hidden”, and the footer labels its counts “In view”. Treat this as a statement about the visible scope, not the total number of entities in the repository. A display filter is also distinct from a truncated query result.

Current does not mean complete

Currentness and coverage are separate. A result can be current and still have unsupported source languages, unresolved relationships, excluded files or query limits. Read the returned coverage notices and qualify an empty result by its actual scope. A recognized language listed without a compatible analyzer has not gained semantic analysis merely by appearing in a coverage summary.

Scope, coverage and continuation are different

A complete one-hop query can leave deeper relationships unexplored. Source-language coverage, query scope, result truncation and currentness answer different questions. Read them together before making a global claim.

Some agent results support continuation; not every traversal does. Ordinary continuation state lasts at most four hours in the current process and can disappear earlier through eviction or restart. Keep the returned workspace, revision, filters and query parameters. A final empty page does not cancel matches returned by earlier pages.

A registered workspace or a successful tool response alone does not prove that the index matches the files currently on disk. Check the actual source-currentness evidence, refresh when required and repeat the affected query.