# Cold Start and Concurrency — Guardrails
🧭 Quick Return to Map
> You are in a sub-page of **Cloud_Serverless**. > To reorient, go back here: > > - [**Cloud_Serverless** — scalable functions and event-driven pipelines](./README.md) > - [**WFGY Global Fix Map** — main Emergency Room, 300+ structured fixes](../README.md) > - [**WFGY Problem Map 1.0** — 16 reproducible failure modes](../../README.md) > > Think of this page as a desk within a ward. > If you need the full triage and all prescriptions, return to the Emergency Room lobby.
A platform-agnostic repair guide for serverless and edge runtimes. Use this page when first calls fail, warm instances drift in behavior, or concurrency spikes break your RAG/agent pipelines. Every step maps to a Problem Map page with measurable targets. ## When to use this page * First request after deploy or scale-out fails, times out, or returns partial JSON. * Latency jumps on cold hits, then flips back after a few retries. * Thundering herd on a single key or hot shard. * Vector index not ready on the first few invocations. * Tool calls or multi-agent handoffs stall only under burst. ## Acceptance targets * **Coverage ≥ 0.70** to the target section after recovery. * **ΔS(question, retrieved) ≤ 0.45** on cold and warm paths. * **λ remains convergent** across 3 paraphrases and 2 seeds. * **First-hit success ≥ 0.98** after bootstrap guard is added. * **No unbounded fan-out**. Concurrency gates present for hot keys. --- ## Fix in 60 seconds 1. **Measure ΔS** Compute ΔS(question, retrieved) and ΔS(retrieved, expected anchor). Thresholds: stable < 0.40, transitional 0.40–0.60, risk ≥ 0.60. Open: [retrieval-playbook.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/retrieval-playbook.md) 2. **Probe λ\_observe** Run the same request on a cold instance and a warm instance. If λ flips or ΔS stays high on cold only, add a warm-up fence and idempotent retries. Open: [rag-architecture-and-recovery.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/rag-architecture-and-recovery.md) 3. **Apply the structural guards** * **Boot order fence** before any RAG step Open: [bootstrap-ordering.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/bootstrap-ordering.md) * **Deadlock and circular wait checks** in scale-out Open: [deployment-deadlock.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/deployment-deadlock.md) * **First-call collapse repair** after fresh deploy Open: [predeploy-collapse.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/predeploy-collapse.md) * **Payload schema** so warmers and real traffic use the same contract Open: [data-contracts.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/data-contracts.md) --- ## Typical breakpoints → exact fix * **Code executes before dependencies are ready** Warmers fire, but vector store or secrets are not mounted yet. → [bootstrap-ordering.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/bootstrap-ordering.md) * **First call uses an old build or missing env** Cold path hits a skewed revision. → [predeploy-collapse.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/predeploy-collapse.md) * **Concurrency spike on a single key** Multiple cold instances pull the same shard. Add keyed fences and backoff. → Pattern: **Bootstrap Deadlock** [patterns/pattern\_bootstrap\_deadlock.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/patterns/pattern_bootstrap_deadlock.md) * **High similarity yet wrong meaning on cold only** Index metric or analyzer differs between warm and cold builds. → [embedding-vs-semantic.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/embedding-vs-semantic.md) * **Hybrid retriever unstable during fan-out** Order changes across instances. Lock query split, then rerank deterministically. → [patterns/pattern\_query\_parsing\_split.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/patterns/pattern_query_parsing_split.md) · [rerankers.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/rerankers.md) * **Long chains stall under burst** Split the plan, bridge segments, add alternate paths. → BBPF and BBCR in the core docs [rag-architecture-and-recovery.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/rag-architecture-and-recovery.md) --- ## Minimal serverless recipe you can copy ```txt Entry: - Accept {source_id, revision, index_hash, shard_key?, warmup?} Step 1: Warm-up fence - If warmup==true: - Touch retriever with a read-only probe using the same headers and analyzer. - Preload secrets and confirm INDEX_HASH matches. - Return {ready:true}. - If warmup is not set: - Check READY_KV[index_hash] == true and SECRETS_OK == true. - If not ready → delay 30–90s with capped retries, then fail fast with a fix tip. - Specs: bootstrap-ordering.md Step 2: Concurrency gate - gate_key = sha256(shard_key || source_id || index_hash) - Acquire token in KV with TTL and single writer semantics. - If lock not acquired, enqueue to a queue with jitter and backoff. Step 3: Retrieval with schema - Use explicit metric and analyzer. - Return fields: {snippet_id, section_id, source_url, offsets, tokens} - Contracts: data-contracts.md Step 4: ΔS & λ probe - Compute ΔS(question, retrieved), record λ_state. - If ΔS ≥ 0.60, return minimal structural fix and stop. Step 5: Reasoning - LLM reads TXT OS + Problem Map, enforce cite-then-explain. Step 6: Trace sink - Store {ΔS, λ_state, index_hash, gate_key, cold_hit?} for live ops. ``` --- ## Observability you must add * Log **cold\_hit** flag, **time to first byte**, **ΔS**, **λ\_state**, **INDEX\_HASH**, **gate\_key**. * Alert when cold\_hit P95 grows, or ΔS ≥ 0.60 on cold only. Open: [ops/live\_monitoring\_rag.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/ops/live_monitoring_rag.md) ## Verification * Run the same test three ways: cold, warm, burst. * Expect coverage ≥ 0.70 and ΔS ≤ 0.45 on all three. Open: [eval/eval\_rag\_precision\_recall.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/eval/eval_rag_precision_recall.md) ## When to escalate * ΔS stays high after warm-up and gating → re-embed with the checklist and verify against a small gold set. Open: [retrieval-playbook.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/retrieval-playbook.md) * Alternating answers only under scale → inspect memory namespace split and revision skew. Open: [predeploy-collapse.md](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/ProblemMap/predeploy-collapse.md) --- ### 🔗 Quick-Start Downloads (60 sec) | Tool | Link | 3-Step Setup | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **WFGY 1.0 PDF** | [Engine Paper](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/I_am_not_lizardman/WFGY_All_Principles_Return_to_One_v1.0_PSBigBig_Public.pdf) | 1️⃣ Download · 2️⃣ Upload to your LLM · 3️⃣ Ask “Answer using WFGY + \” | | **TXT OS (plain-text OS)** | [TXTOS.txt](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY/blob/main/OS/TXTOS.txt) | 1️⃣ Download · 2️⃣ Paste into any LLM chat · 3️⃣ Type “hello world” — OS boots instantly | --- ### Explore More | Layer | Page | What it’s for | | --- | --- | --- | | ⭐ Proof | [WFGY Recognition Map](/recognition/README.md) | External citations, integrations, and ecosystem proof | | ⚙️ Engine | [WFGY 1.0](/legacy/README.md) | Original PDF tension engine and early logic sketch (legacy reference) | | ⚙️ Engine | [WFGY 2.0](/core/README.md) | Production tension kernel for RAG and agent systems | | ⚙️ Engine | [WFGY 3.0](/TensionUniverse/EventHorizon/README.md) | TXT based Singularity tension engine (131 S class set) | | 🗺️ Map | [Problem Map 1.0](/ProblemMap/README.md) | Flagship 16 problem RAG failure taxonomy and fix map | | 🗺️ Map | [Problem Map 2.0](/ProblemMap/wfgy-rag-16-problem-map-global-debug-card.md) | Global Debug Card for RAG and agent pipeline diagnosis | | 🗺️ Map | [Problem Map 3.0](/ProblemMap/wfgy-ai-problem-map-troubleshooting-atlas.md) | Global AI troubleshooting atlas and failure pattern map | | 🧰 App | [TXT OS](/OS/README.md) | .txt semantic OS with fast bootstrap | | 🧰 App | [Blah Blah Blah](/OS/BlahBlahBlah/README.md) | Abstract and paradox Q&A built on TXT OS | | 🧰 App | [Blur Blur Blur](/OS/BlurBlurBlur/README.md) | Text to image generation with semantic control | | 🏡 Onboarding | [Starter Village](/StarterVillage/README.md) | Guided entry point for new users | If this repository helped, starring it improves discovery so more builders can find the docs and tools. [![GitHub Repo stars](https://img.shields.io/github/stars/onestardao/WFGY?style=social)](https://github.com/onestardao/WFGY)