Problem

Lock contention handling can still cause unclear wait/failure behavior between daemon and direct mode.

Expected behavior

• Both modes should enforce bounded lock retry/wait behavior and fail with explicit timeout semantics.

Acceptance criteria

• Add/adjust lock retry handling/tests to ensure bounded behavior in both modes.
• Ensure timeout/failure contract is explicit and deterministic.

Validation

• Load/contention tests proving no indefinite hangs.
• Assertions for deterministic timeout/failure signaling.