Experience: Strategic Scan 2026-04-30
What Happened
ST MCP servers (sequential-thinking + vault-mcp) were unreachable during scheduled cron execution. Root cause: VPS CPU steal time (93.6%) degrading all containerized services. Rather than fail the scan, executed all 9 steps manually using documented reasoning frameworks from SKILL.md files.
Key Learnings
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Infrastructure degradation reframes strategic diagnosis — The Apr 28 “ceremonial scanning loop” diagnosis was behavioral. Today’s finding reveals it is also structural: the platform cannot execute insights it produces.
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MCP server unavailability is a canary — When ST/vault MCPs are unreachable, it signals broader infrastructure distress. This should trigger an immediate health check rather than just logging an error.
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Manual ST execution is viable but slower — 35 minutes vs typical 10-15 minutes for automated MCP chain. Quality comparable because frameworks are well-documented in skills.
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Prior scan outcomes remain pending — 9 days of scans (Apr 21/23/25/28/30) with zero executed actions. The gap between insight and execution is widening.
What Worked
- Vault filesystem access remained available (direct disk, not via MCP)
- Prior scan context was richly documented in vault decisions/active/
- Error playbook had VPS steal-time pattern already captured (added Apr 30 night shift)
What Didn’t
- MCP substrate failure prevented automated ST chain
- No fallback ST endpoint available
- Could not review ST decision journal for wisdom compounding
Recommendations
- Add MCP health check to strategic scan pre-flight
- Create local ST fallback (sqlite journal readable via CLI)
- Escalate VPS recovery to highest priority — it blocks every other capability
Related
- strategic-scan-2026-04-30-vps-degradation-binding-constraint
errors/active/vps-cpu-steal-time-hypervisor-starvation-srv1128277- strategic-scan-2026-04-28-meta-pattern-detected-ceremonial-s