Best possible solution:

Merge the narrow cleanup now that exact-head macOS Swift validation is green; retain deterministic tests for controlled valid-lock waiting and malformed-lock failure/state preservation without a shared-runner upper wall-clock ceiling.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

Yes at source level. The redundant try follows directly from the async rethrows helper signature, and the removed upper bound measures scheduler wall time around a fixed synchronous retry loop; the PR body reports three loaded-runner failures despite the expected result.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

Yes. The patch removes only non-contractual checks while retaining the failure result, lock preservation, no-mutation assertion, and separate controlled coverage for valid-lock waiting.

AGENTS.md: found and applied where relevant.

Codex review notes: model internal, reasoning high; reviewed against 5a26748c3eb6.

Label changes:

• add P3: This is low-risk compiler-warning and test-flake cleanup with no runtime, configuration, or upgrade behavior change.
• add rating: 🦞 diamond lobster: Overall readiness is 🦞 diamond lobster; proof is 🌊 off-meta tidepool and patch quality is 🦞 diamond lobster.

Label justifications:

• P3: This is low-risk compiler-warning and test-flake cleanup with no runtime, configuration, or upgrade behavior change.
• rating: 🦞 diamond lobster: Overall readiness is 🦞 diamond lobster; proof is 🌊 off-meta tidepool and patch quality is 🦞 diamond lobster.

PR surface:

Other -3. Total -3 across 2 files.

What I checked:

• Helper contract: withEnvValues is declared async rethrows; this call supplies a non-throwing closure, so omitting try is the correct warning-free invocation. (apps/macos/Tests/OpenClawIPCTests/TestIsolation.swift:93, 5a26748c3eb6)
• Lock retry contract: The implementation performs ten 20 ms retries before timing out; this defines a retry budget, not a sub-0.5-second scheduler wall-time guarantee on a loaded runner. (apps/macos/Sources/OpenClaw/ExecApprovalsFileIO.swift:169, 5a26748c3eb6)
• Preserved behavioral coverage: The patched test still requires .failure(.unavailable), preserves the malformed lock bytes, and verifies no allowlist mutation; a sibling test separately verifies waiting for a valid lock released after 100 ms. (apps/macos/Tests/OpenClawIPCTests/ExecApprovalsStoreRefactorTests.swift:2193, 9aebfd57dbd3)
• Mutation failure mapping: The mutation path acquires the write lock before reading or saving and maps acquisition errors to .unavailable, matching the assertions retained by the PR. (apps/macos/Sources/OpenClaw/ExecApprovalsStore.swift:1171, 5a26748c3eb6)
• Feature provenance: Git blame and history show both affected assertions were introduced by commit 2ed2424 in the merged macOS hardening work at feat: harden live gateway and mac restarts #104314. (apps/macos/Tests/OpenClawIPCTests/ExecApprovalsStoreRefactorTests.swift:2245, 2ed24246182f)
• Patch topology: The current-main three-way diff contains exactly the two intended test files, so unrelated base drift is not part of the proposed merge result. (apps/macos/Tests/OpenClawIPCTests/ExecApprovalsSocketPathGuardTests.swift:173, 9aebfd57dbd3)

Likely related people:

• steipete: Peter Steinberger introduced both affected tests and the surrounding macOS exec-approvals hardening in commit 2ed2424, then authored and took assignment for this focused cleanup. (role: introduced behavior and recent area contributor; confidence: high; commits: 2ed24246182f, 9aebfd57dbd3; files: apps/macos/Tests/OpenClawIPCTests/ExecApprovalsSocketPathGuardTests.swift, apps/macos/Tests/OpenClawIPCTests/ExecApprovalsStoreRefactorTests.swift, apps/macos/Sources/OpenClaw/ExecApprovalsFileIO.swift)

• 🦀 challenger crab: rare, exceptional readiness with strong proof, clean implementation, and convincing validation.
• 🦞 diamond lobster: very strong readiness with only minor maintainer review expected.
• 🐚 platinum hermit: good normal PR, likely mergeable with ordinary maintainer review.
• 🦐 gold shrimp: useful signal, but proof or patch confidence is still limited.
• 🦪 silver shellfish: thin signal; proof, validation, or implementation needs work.
• 🧂 unranked krab: not merge-ready because proof is missing/unusable or there are serious correctness or safety concerns.
• 🌊 off-meta tidepool: rating does not apply to this item.

Shiny media proof means a screenshot, video, or linked artifact directly shows the changed behavior. Runtime, network, CSP, and security claims still need visible diagnostics.

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