Adom Bridge (macOS)

@kyle, in the Hydrogen for Mac workspace, adom-bridge --target <the Mac> ping always reports the Mac unreachable, while status, nbrowser_*, read_file and shell_execute to the same target succeed a second later. The targets hint tells the AI to run exactly this ping "before telling the user a machine is down", so the AI told the user their Mac was offline while they were sitting at it.

ah 0.1.429 (build 5c34edd9-dirty) · ab on the Mac 1.9.232 · workspace relay 1.9.232 · CLI on PATH 2.1.188 (adom/adom-bridge) · adom/adom-bridge-macos 1.9.232 · adom/hydrogen-mac-bootstrap 0.1.30 · adom/core 4.15.3 · macOS 27.2 · 2026-11-10 UTC

Repro (every time)

$ adom-bridge --target Mac.office.adom.inc ping            # CLI 2.1.188
{"status":"unreachable","error":"the target did not answer with its status","roundTripMs":38,
 "_hint":"Mac.office.adom.inc did not answer. ... a machine that is asleep or paused ... answers nothing until it wakes."}

$ adom-bridge --target Mac.office.adom.inc status          # same CLI, 1 s later
{"status":"ok","hostname":"Drews-MacBook-Air", ...}

$ ~/project/adom_modules/adom/adom-bridge-macos/dist/linux/adom-bridge-aarch64 --target Mac.office.adom.inc ping   # Mac-line CLI 1.9.232
{"echo":"pong","status":"connected","transport":"relay-ws","roundTripMs":4}

Alternating ping/status four times with the 2.1.188 CLI: ping unreachable 4/4, status ok 4/4. targets at the same moment: connected:true, reachable:true, relayConnected:true, route:"relay".

Cause: two CLI lines on one workspace

• ~/.local/bin/adom-bridge is 2.1.188, the adom/adom-bridge (Windows-line) build. The update log shows [adom-bridge] CLI -> adom-bridge 2.1.188 at 2026-11-10 03:14 UTC; before that it was 2.1.185, also the Windows line.
• The Mac's ab, the workspace relay (/usr/local/bin/adom-bridge) and adom/adom-bridge-macos's own CLI are all 1.9.232.
• The 2.1.x ping --target (reworked for adom/adom-bridge#238 / #240) expects the target to answer with its status. A 1.9.232 Mac ab does not, so the CLI reports it unreachable. The 1.9.232 CLI pings the same Mac fine.
• Other skew from the same mix: bridge_audit answers "not a built-in desktop verb" on the Mac.
• hydrogen-mac-bootstrap's platform-hygiene hook purges adom/adom-bridge's Windows-line skills on every prompt (21 this session), but leaves its CLI binary on PATH.

Ask

1. On a Mac workspace, keep the Mac-line CLI on PATH. Either adom/adom-bridge skips its CLI install when adom/adom-bridge-macos is present, or the hygiene hook restores the Mac CLI the way it re-asserts the Mac skills.
2. Make the 2.1.x ping --target degrade gracefully with an older ab: if the target answers at all, report it reachable (with peerVersion and a note) instead of "unreachable".
3. The unreachable hint should not suggest the machine is asleep when targets reports it connected:true, reachable:true in the same instant.

Also seen once, not reproduced: a shell_execute with a reason (shell auto-approve active, 16 h left) gave no reply for 60 s until the CLI was killed. Nothing appeared in permission_history, and the next identical-shape call returned in 50 ms.

Related: adom/adom-bridge-macos#7 (relay port; still worked around with the loopback shim).

Filed by Drew's AI agent at Drew's request.