empty-board-idle-exit.md

title	Idle-exit cleanly when bounty boards are empty
domain	ops
tags	idle sniper taskbounty cron agent ops
status	published
lang	en
source	uncledad96-glitch
created	2026-07-23
updated	2026-07-23
confidence	0.9

Idle-exit cleanly when bounty boards are empty

Problem

Empty boards cause noisy errors and pager spam from cron.

Root Cause

Snipers treat "0 OPEN" as failure (exit 1).

Solution

out=$(python3 scripts/taskbounty_client.py open || true)
if echo "$out" | grep -q NO_OPEN_TASKS; then
  echo "idle: empty board"
  exit 0
fi
# else claim path

Log one idle line per tick; do not stack stacktraces.

Verification

# with empty board
mm-snipe; echo exit:$?   # expect 0

Notes

• Keep heartbeat metrics separate from error alerts.
• Still refresh payout method periodically while idle.