## Problem
Chats with a persisted `agent_id` binding hang indefinitely when the
workspace is stopped. The stale agent row still exists in the DB, so
`ensureWorkspaceAgent` succeeds, but the dial blocks forever in
`AwaitReachable`. The MCP discovery goroutine used an unbounded context,
so `g2.Wait()` never returned and the LLM never started.
## Fix
Three targeted changes restore the pre-binding behavior where stopped
workspaces degrade gracefully instead of blocking:
1. **`dialWithLazyValidation`**: "no agents in latest build" is now a
terminal fast-fail — the hanging dial is canceled and
`errChatHasNoWorkspaceAgent` returned immediately, instead of falling
through to `waitForOriginalDial`.
2. **Pre-LLM workspace setup**: MCP discovery and instruction
persistence gate on `workspaceAgentIDForConn` before attempting any
dial. MCP discovery is bounded by a 5s timeout and checks the in-memory
tool cache first (using the cheap cached agent from
`ensureWorkspaceAgent`), so the common subsequent-turn path has zero DB
queries.
3. **`persistInstructionFiles`**: tracks whether the workspace
connection succeeded and skips sentinel persistence on failure, so the
next turn retries if the workspace is restarted.
## Scenarios
**Running workspace, subsequent turn (hot path):** MCP cache hit via
in-memory cached agent. Zero DB queries, zero dials. Unchanged from
#23274.
**Stopped workspace, persisted binding (the bug):** MCP cache hit (stale
descriptors, fine — they fail at invocation). Pre-LLM setup completes
instantly. Tool invocation enters `dialWithLazyValidation`, dial fails
or hangs, validation discovers no agents, returns
`errChatHasNoWorkspaceAgent`. Model sees the error and can call
`start_workspace`.
**New chat, running workspace:** `ensureWorkspaceAgent` resolves via
latest-build, persists binding. MCP discovery dials and caches tools.
**New chat, stopped workspace:** `ensureWorkspaceAgent` finds no agents,
returns `errChatHasNoWorkspaceAgent`. Pre-LLM setup skips. LLM starts
with built-in tools only.
**Rebuilt workspace (agent switched):** MCP cache hit with stale agent
(harmless for one turn). Tool invocation dials stale agent, fails fast,
`dialWithLazyValidation` switches to new agent, persists updated
binding.
**Workspace restarted after stop:** No sentinel was persisted during the
stopped turn, so instruction persistence retries. Agent binding switches
to the new agent via `workspaceAgentIDForConn`.
**Transient DB error during validation:** Not
`errChatHasNoWorkspaceAgent`, so `dialWithLazyValidation` falls through
to `waitForOriginalDial` (cannot prove stale). No false positive.
**Tool invocation on stopped workspace:** `getWorkspaceConn` calls
`ensureWorkspaceAgent` (returns stale row), then
`dialWithLazyValidation` validation discovers no agents, returns
`errChatHasNoWorkspaceAgent`, cached state cleared, error returned to
model.
Ethan
c4ef94aacf