Zoe can't put terms containing promises in durable storage

[Jorge-Lopes]

Greetings,

Recently I faced an issue when trying to start a contract instance using a deploy script. It would return an error with the following message: value is not durable: (an object) at slot 7 of (a string).
After exploring, I was able to identify that the source of this error was related to one of the attributes being passed on the contract terms, the chainTimerService.

Since the error message was mentioning that a value was not durable, I got confused because the contract being instantiated was not using any durable storage or objects.

I address this question on the Agoric Office Hours Jul 19 and Dan suggested that the error is most likely from zoe, trying to put the terms into durable storage. &7 refers to a promise for chainTimerService and promises don't fit in durable storage.
He advised to resolve the chainTimerService promise before calling startInstance.

After updating the script to resolve the promise, ( const timeAuthority = await chainTimerService; ), the error was no longer triggered.

Link to the repository

The code snippet bellow is extracted from the original deploy script:

const deployApi = async (homePromise, { installUnsafePlugin }) => {
  const { zoe, wallet, board, chainTimerService, scratch, agoricNames } = E.get(
    homePromise,
  );  

  const installation = await E(board).getValue(INSTALLATION_BOARD_ID);

    const issuerKeywordRecord = harden({
      Fund: aktIssuer,
    });

    const terms = harden({
      akashClient,
      timeAuthority: chainTimerService,
      minimalFundThreshold: 6_000_000n,
      depositValue: 5_000n,
      checkInterval: 15n,
      deploymentId,
      pegasus,
      aktPeg,
    });

    // start the contract
    const { creatorInvitation } = await E(zoe).startInstance(
      installation,
      issuerKeywordRecord,
      terms,
    );

The error message being printed on the console:

akash-controller-demo % agoric deploy api/deploy-onchain-agent.js --allow-unsafe-plugins
  ? Enable unsafe (unconfined) plugins for this deployment?  Type 'yes' if you are sure: yes
  Open CapTP connection to ws://127.0.0.1:8000/private/captp...o
  agoric: deploy: running /Users/jorgelopes/Documents/GitHub/Agoric/ibc/akash-controller-demo/api/deploy-onchain-agent.js
  agoric: deploy: Deploy script will run with Node.js ESM
  Finding the akt fund purse
  Finding the aktPeg, pegasus instance...
  agoric: deploy: Installing unsafe plugin "/Users/jorgelopes/Documents/GitHub/Agoric/ibc/akash-controller-demo/api/src/akash.js"
  agoric: deploy: Loading plugin "/Users/jorgelopes/Documents/GitHub/Agoric/agoric-sdk/packages/cosmic-swingset/t1/8000/plugins/_Users_jorgelopes_Documents_GitHub_Agoric_ibc_akash-controller-demo_api_src_akash.js"
  akashClient installed Object [Alleged: stableForwarder] {}
  CapTP bundle exception: (RemoteError(error:captp:unknown#20001)#1)
  RemoteError(error:captp:unknown#20001)#1: value is not durable: (an object) at slot 7 of (a string)

    at WebSocket.<anonymous> (packages/agoric-cli/src/deploy.js:236:13)
    at WebSocket.emit (node:events:527:28)
    at WebSocket.emit (node:domain:475:12)
    at Receiver.emit (node:events:527:28)
    at Receiver.emit (node:domain:475:12)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:527:28)
    at Socket.emit (node:domain:475:12)

  agoric: (RemoteError(error:captp:unknown#20001)#1)

Error message being printed on the chain logs:

2023-07-17T15:32:57.471Z SwingSet: ls: v7: Logging sent error stack (Error#6)
2023-07-17T15:32:57.472Z SwingSet: ls: v7: Error#6: value is not durable: { installation: Object [Alleged: BundleInstallation] {}, instance: Object [Alleged: InstanceHandle] {}, terms: { akashClient: Object [Alleged: stableForwarder] {}, aktPeg: Object [Alleged: Akash peg] {}, checkInterval: 15n, deploymentId: '433973', depositValue: 5_000n, minimalFundThreshold: 6_000_000n, pegasusTerm: { pegasus: Object [Alleged: pegasus] {} }, timeAuthority: Promise [Promise] {}, issuers: { Fund: Object [Alleged: Local2 issuer] {} }, brands: { Fund: Object [Alleged: Local2 brand] {} } } } at slot 7 of #{"installation":"$0.Alleged: BundleInstallation","instance":"$1.Alleged: InstanceHandle","terms":{"akashClient":"$2.Alleged: stableForwarder","aktPeg":"$3.Alleged: Akash peg","brands":{"Fund":"$4.Alleged: Local2 brand"},"checkInterval":"+15","deploymentId":"433973","depositValue":"+5000","issuers":{"Fund":"$5.Alleged: Local2 issuer"},"minimalFundThreshold":"+6000000","pegasusTerm":{"pegasus":"$6.Alleged: pegasus"},"timeAuthority":"&7"}}
2023-07-17T15:32:57.472Z SwingSet: ls: v7: Error: value is not durable: (an object) at slot 7 of (a string)
 at construct ()
 at Error (/bundled-source/.../node_modules/ses/src/error/tame-error-constructor.js:56)
 at makeError (/bundled-source/.../node_modules/ses/src/error/assert.js:242)
 at fail (/bundled-source/.../node_modules/ses/src/error/assert.js:370)
 at throwNotDurable (/bundled-source/.../packages/SwingSet/src/liveslots/collectionManager.js:75)
 at (/bundled-source/.../packages/SwingSet/src/liveslots/collectionManager.js:376)
 at forEach ()
 at set (/bundled-source/.../packages/SwingSet/src/liveslots/collectionManager.js:374)
 at instantiate (.../zoe/src/instanceRecordStorage.js:96)
 at makeAndStoreInstanceRecord (.../zoe/src/instanceRecordStorage.js:141)
 at makeZoeInstanceStorageManager (.../zoe/src/zoeService/zoeStorageManager.js:150)
 at ()
 at ()

[Jorge-Lopes]

While researching for similar implementations on the Agoric repository, I've come across the econ-behaviors.js.
But I failed to recognise the purpose of the deeplyFulfilledObject function, which will resolve all promises passed as arguments. I advise to watch the recording of the office hours linked above, where Dan explain in more detail how it works.

const reserveGovernorTerms = await deeplyFulfilledObject(
    harden({
      timer: chainTimerService,
      governedContractInstallation: reserveInstallation,
      governed: {
        terms: reserveTerms,
        issuerKeywordRecord: { Central: centralIssuer },
        label: 'reserve',
      },
    }),
  );

Also, this discussion address this subject as well.

[dckc]

Thanks for the write-up!

It's good to start with the symptoms as you've done here. Then, once we have a diagnosis, I like to promote it to the title. Something like "Zoe can't put terms containing promises in durable storage".

Hm... there's also a potential documentation issue here. I don't think docs on E(zoe).startInstance() state this constraint.

[Jorge-Lopes]

Thank you for the feedback Dan.