fix(workboard): heal oversized persisted notifications (#120999)

Preserve the existing UTF-16-safe notification cap at the canonical metadata normalization boundary so a legacy oversized row cannot abort dispatch or starve sibling cards. Move the existing capText helper into its normalization owner without production growth.

Co-authored-by: licheer-zte <licheer-zte@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Peter Steinberger <steipete@gmail.com>

extensions/workboard/src/store-card-helpers.ts

@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ import {
 } from "@openclaw/workboard-contract";
 import { safeEqualSecret } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/security-runtime";
 import { normalizeOptionalString } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/string-coerce-runtime";
-import { truncateUtf16Safe } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/text-utility-runtime";
 import {
   BLOCKED_TOO_LONG_MS,
   MAX_CARD_ATTEMPTS,
@@ -26,6 +25,7 @@ import {
 } from "./store-constants.js";
 import type { WorkboardMutationScope } from "./store-inputs.js";
 import {
+  capText,
   metadataIsEmpty,
   normalizeEvents,
   normalizeTimestamp,
@@ -522,13 +522,6 @@ export function computeCardDiagnostics(card: WorkboardCard, now: number): Workbo
   return diagnostics;
 }
 
-export function capText(value: string | undefined, max: number): string | undefined {
-  if (!value) {
-    return undefined;
-  }
-  return value.length <= max ? value : `${truncateUtf16Safe(value, Math.max(0, max - 1))}…`;
-}
-
 export function cardBoardId(card: WorkboardCard): string {
   return card.metadata?.automation?.boardId ?? "default";
 }

extensions/workboard/src/store-enrichment.ts

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import type {
 import type { PersistedWorkboardAttachment } from "./persistence-types.js";
 import {
   assertCanMutateClaimedCard,
-  capText,
   cardRunId,
   cardSessionKey,
   closeRunningAttempts,
@@ -30,6 +29,7 @@ import type {
   WorkboardWorkerLogInput,
 } from "./store-inputs.js";
 import {
+  capText,
   clearDiagnostics,
   normalizeArtifact,
   normalizeAttachmentInput,

extensions/workboard/src/store-normalizers.ts

@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ import {
 } from "@openclaw/workboard-contract";
 import { resolveNonNegativeIntegerOption } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/number-runtime";
 import { isRecord, normalizeOptionalString } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/string-coerce-runtime";
+import { truncateUtf16Safe } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/text-utility-runtime";
 import {
   MAX_ATTACHMENT_BYTES,
   MAX_CARD_ARTIFACTS,
@@ -278,6 +279,13 @@ export function normalizeBoundedString(
   return normalized;
 }
 
+export function capText(value: string | undefined, max: number): string | undefined {
+  if (!value) {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+  return value.length <= max ? value : `${truncateUtf16Safe(value, Math.max(0, max - 1))}…`;
+}
+
 export function normalizeStatus(value: unknown, fallback: WorkboardStatus): WorkboardStatus {
   if (typeof value !== "string" || !value.trim()) {
     return fallback;
@@ -941,7 +949,7 @@ function normalizeNotification(value: unknown): WorkboardNotification | null {
   const kind = normalizeEnumValue(record.kind, WORKBOARD_NOTIFICATION_KINDS, undefined);
   const createdAt = normalizeTimestamp(record.createdAt, Date.now());
   const sequence = normalizeTimestamp(record.sequence, 0) || undefined;
-  const message = normalizeBoundedString(record.message, undefined, 240, "notification message");
+  const message = capText(normalizeOptionalString(record.message), 240);
   if (!kind || !message) {
     return null;
   }

extensions/workboard/src/store-workflow.ts

@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ import { safeEqualSecret } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/security-runtime";
 import { normalizeOptionalString } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/string-coerce-runtime";
 import {
   assertCanMutateClaimedCard,
-  capText,
   cardBoardId,
   cardChildIds,
   cardParentIds,
@@ -48,6 +47,7 @@ import type {
 } from "./store-inputs.js";
 import {
   appendCompletionProof,
+  capText,
   clearDiagnostics,
   deriveChildIdempotencyKey,
   normalizeArtifact,

extensions/workboard/src/store.test.ts

@@ -2748,6 +2748,50 @@ describe("WorkboardStore", () => {
     expect(blocked.metadata?.notifications?.[0]?.message.length).toBeLessThanOrEqual(240);
   });
 
+  it("heals oversized persisted notifications and keeps dispatching sibling cards", async () => {
+    const dir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-workboard-notification-"));
+    const dbPath = path.join(dir, "workboard.sqlite");
+    const stores = createWorkboardSqliteStores({ dbPath });
+    try {
+      const store = new WorkboardStore(stores.cards);
+      const poisoned = await store.create({ title: "Oversized notification", status: "ready" });
+      const sibling = await store.create({ title: "Unaffected sibling", status: "ready" });
+      const oversized = `${"x".repeat(238)}🦞${" tail".repeat(60)}`;
+      const rawDb = new DatabaseSync(dbPath);
+      try {
+        rawDb
+          .prepare(
+            "INSERT INTO workboard_card_notifications (id, card_id, ordinal, kind, message, created_at) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)",
+          )
+          .run("oversized", poisoned.id, 0, "failed", oversized, Date.now());
+      } finally {
+        rawDb.close();
+      }
+
+      expect((await store.get(poisoned.id))?.metadata?.notifications?.[0]?.message).toBe(oversized);
+      await expect(store.dispatch()).resolves.toBeDefined();
+
+      const repaired = await store.get(poisoned.id);
+      expect(repaired?.metadata?.notifications?.[0]?.message).toBe(`${"x".repeat(238)}…`);
+      expect(repaired?.metadata?.automation?.dispatchCount).toBe(1);
+      expect((await store.get(sibling.id))?.metadata?.automation?.dispatchCount).toBe(1);
+
+      const verifyDb = new DatabaseSync(dbPath, { readOnly: true });
+      try {
+        expect(
+          verifyDb
+            .prepare("SELECT message FROM workboard_card_notifications WHERE id = ?")
+            .get("oversized"),
+        ).toEqual({ message: `${"x".repeat(238)}…` });
+      } finally {
+        verifyDb.close();
+      }
+    } finally {
+      stores.close();
+      fs.rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
   it("dispatches ready cards and blocks expired or timed-out work", async () => {
     vi.useFakeTimers();
     try {

extensions/workboard/src/store.ts

@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ import { createWorkboardSqliteStores } from "./sqlite-store.js";
 import {
   buildWorkerContext,
   assertCanMutateClaimedCard,
-  capText,
   cardBoardId,
   cardRunId,
   cardSessionKey,
@@ -49,7 +48,7 @@ import type {
   WorkboardDispatchResult,
   WorkboardMutationScope,
 } from "./store-inputs.js";
-import { normalizeBoardId, normalizeTimestamp } from "./store-normalizers.js";
+import { capText, normalizeBoardId, normalizeTimestamp } from "./store-normalizers.js";
 import { WorkboardNotificationStore } from "./store-notifications.js";
 
 export type { WorkboardDispatchResult } from "./store-inputs.js";