Record a heartbeat so a silent update checker is distinguishable from a dead one

There was no way to tell "running, nothing to pull" from "not running". The
no-change path logs nothing by design, and PM2 reports a cron-restart process
as `stopped` with ↺ 0 even while firing on schedule — I verified that against
PM2 7.0.4: a one-minute cron fired four times without the counter moving once.

scripts/.last-check is now rewritten on every run with the outcome. It is a
single overwritten line, so it needs no trimming.

The outcome is set by each exit path and written once in `finally`, rather than
calling record at each return — the first version of this did the latter and
already missed the build-failure path.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

.gitignore

@@ -62,3 +62,4 @@ scripts/update.log
 
 # clicker virtualenv (Linux/Pi)
 clicker/.venv/
+scripts/.last-check

README.md

@@ -210,8 +210,23 @@ AutoFirmer, and restarts the clicker if anything under `clicker/` changed.
 **A failed build is never deployed.** The build runs before anything restarts, so
 a broken push leaves the previous build serving and logs the failure instead.
 
-Everything it does is appended to `scripts/update.log`. To see what it would do
+### Checking it is alive
-without touching anything:
+
+`scripts/.last-check` is rewritten on every check, whether or not anything came
+down:
+
+```
+2026-08-31T00:43:27.155Z  up to date at 27a61fd2
+```
+
+This exists because the alternatives mislead. `update.log` only records real
+events, so it stays empty for days when nothing is pushed — and PM2 reports a
+cron-restart process as `stopped` with a restart count of `0` even while it is
+firing on schedule. Neither is evidence of a problem; `.last-check` is the
+signal to trust.
+
+Everything that actually happens is appended to `scripts/update.log`. To see
+what it would do without touching anything:
 
 ```powershell
 node scripts\update-check.mjs --dry-run

scripts/seed-settings 2.js

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+/**
+ * Writes the reporter settings into autotrader.sqlite before first launch.
+ *
+ * lib/db.ts seeds these keys with INSERT OR IGNORE, so values written here
+ * survive the app's own startup seeding. Must be run from the project root —
+ * lib/db.ts opens the database at process.cwd().
+ *
+ *   node scripts/seed-settings.js <master_dashboard_url> <instance_name>
+ */
+const path = require('path');
+const Database = require('better-sqlite3');
+
+const [, , url, name] = process.argv;
+
+const db = new Database(path.join(process.cwd(), 'autotrader.sqlite'));
+db.exec(`
+    CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS settings (
+        key   TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
+        value TEXT NOT NULL
+    );
+`);
+
+const upsert = db.prepare(
+    'INSERT INTO settings (key, value) VALUES (?, ?) ' +
+    'ON CONFLICT(key) DO UPDATE SET value = excluded.value'
+);
+
+if (url)  { upsert.run('master_dashboard_url', url);  console.log('  master_dashboard_url = ' + url); }
+if (name) { upsert.run('instance_name', name);        console.log('  instance_name        = ' + name); }
+
+db.close();

scripts/update-check.mjs

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import { ensurePythonDeps } from './ensure-python-deps.mjs';
 const ROOT = path.resolve(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
 const LOG_FILE = path.join(ROOT, 'scripts', 'update.log');
 const LOCK_FILE = path.join(ROOT, 'scripts', '.update.lock');
+const LAST_CHECK_FILE = path.join(ROOT, 'scripts', '.last-check');
 const BRANCH = process.env.AUTOFIRMER_BRANCH ?? 'master';
 const PORT = process.env.AUTOFIRMER_PORT ?? '3000';
 const BASE = `http://127.0.0.1:${PORT}`;
@@ -50,6 +51,21 @@ function log(msg) {
     try { appendFileSync(LOG_FILE, line + '\n'); } catch { /* logging must never throw */ }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Record that a check happened, whether or not it found anything.
+ *
+ * Overwritten rather than appended, so it stays one line and needs no trimming.
+ * Without it there is no way to tell "running, nothing to pull" from "not
+ * running at all": the no-change path logs nothing by design, and PM2 reports a
+ * cron-restart process as `stopped` with a restart count of 0 even while it is
+ * firing on schedule.
+ */
+function recordCheck(status) {
+    try {
+        writeFileSync(LAST_CHECK_FILE, `${new Date().toISOString()}  ${status}\n`);
+    } catch { /* never let bookkeeping break an update */ }
+}
+
 function run(cmd, args, { capture = false } = {}) {
     return spawnSync(cmd, args, {
         cwd: ROOT,
@@ -88,12 +104,17 @@ async function main() {
         return 0;
     }
 
+    let outcome = 'interrupted';
+
     try {
         git('fetch', 'origin', BRANCH);
         const local = git('rev-parse', 'HEAD');
         const remote = git('rev-parse', `origin/${BRANCH}`);
 
-        if (local === remote) return 0;                     // the common path: silent no-op
+        if (local === remote) {
+            outcome = `up to date at ${local.slice(0, 8)}`;
+            return 0;                                       // silent in the log by design
+        }
 
         log(`update available: ${local.slice(0, 8)} -> ${remote.slice(0, 8)}`);
         const changed = git('diff', '--name-only', local, remote).split('\n').filter(Boolean);
@@ -115,7 +136,7 @@ async function main() {
 
         if (changed.includes('package-lock.json')) {
             log('package-lock.json changed — npm install');
-            if (run('npm', ['install']).status !== 0) { log('ABORTED: npm install failed'); return 1; }
+            if (run('npm', ['install']).status !== 0) { log('ABORTED: npm install failed'); outcome = 'npm install failed'; return 1; }
         }
 
         if (changed.includes('clicker/requirements.txt')) {
@@ -128,11 +149,12 @@ async function main() {
         log('building');
         if (run('npm', ['run', 'build']).status !== 0) {
             log('ABORTED: build failed — the previous build is still serving, nothing was restarted');
+            outcome = 'build failed — not deployed';
             return 1;
         }
 
         log('restarting autofirmer');
-        if (run('pm2', ['restart', 'autofirmer']).status !== 0) { log('pm2 restart autofirmer failed'); return 1; }
+        if (run('pm2', ['restart', 'autofirmer']).status !== 0) { log('pm2 restart autofirmer failed'); outcome = 'pm2 restart failed'; return 1; }
 
         if (changed.some((f) => f.startsWith('clicker/'))) {
             log('clicker changed — restarting it too');
@@ -141,12 +163,17 @@ async function main() {
 
         await warmUp();
         log(`updated to ${remote.slice(0, 8)}`);
+        outcome = `updated to ${remote.slice(0, 8)}`;
         return 0;
     } catch (err) {
         log(`ERROR: ${err.message}`);
+        outcome = `ERROR: ${err.message}`;
         return 1;
     } finally {
-        if (!DRY_RUN) releaseLock();
+        if (!DRY_RUN) {
+            releaseLock();
+            recordCheck(outcome);
+        }
     }
 }