fix: improve app metadata registration and add flow debugging

Author: hotlong

packages/cli/src/commands/serve.ts

@@ -255,10 +255,22 @@ export default class Serve extends Command {
       }
 
       // 3. Auto-register AppPlugin if config contains app definitions
-      // Skip if config is a host/aggregator config that already contains
-      // instantiated plugins — wrapping it would cause duplicate registration
-      // and startup failures (e.g. plugin.app.dev-workspace).
-      if (!isHostConfig(config) && (config.objects || config.manifest || config.apps)) {
+      // (objects / manifest / apps / flows / apis). Even host/aggregator
+      // configs (those whose `plugins` array contains instantiated plugins)
+      // need this wrap when they ALSO carry top-level metadata — otherwise
+      // top-level `flows`, `objects`, etc. never reach the ObjectQL registry
+      // and downstream services like AutomationServicePlugin start with 0 flows.
+      //
+      // To avoid double-registration when the host already wraps itself with
+      // an AppPlugin (e.g. apps/objectos's dev-workspace stack), we skip if
+      // any plugin in `plugins[]` is already an AppPlugin instance.
+      const hasAppPluginAlready = plugins.some(
+        (p: any) => p && (p.type === 'app' || p.constructor?.name === 'AppPlugin' || (p.name && typeof p.name === 'string' && p.name.startsWith('plugin.app.')))
+      );
+      const configHasMetadata = !!(
+        config.objects || config.manifest || config.apps || config.flows || config.apis
+      );
+      if (!hasAppPluginAlready && configHasMetadata) {
         try {
             const { AppPlugin } = await import('@objectstack/runtime');
             await kernel.use(new AppPlugin(config));

packages/objectql/src/engine.ts

@@ -374,6 +374,7 @@ export class ObjectQL implements IDataEngine {
       const id = manifest.id || manifest.name;
       const namespace = manifest.namespace as string | undefined;
       this.logger.debug('Registering package manifest', { id, namespace });
+      console.warn(`[ObjectQL:registerApp] id=${id} flows=${Array.isArray(manifest.flows) ? manifest.flows.length : typeof manifest.flows} keys=${Object.keys(manifest).join(',')}`);
 
       // Store manifest for defaultDatasource lookup
       if (id) {

packages/runtime/src/app-plugin.ts

@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ export class AppPlugin implements Plugin {
             ? { ...this.bundle.manifest, ...this.bundle }
             : this.bundle;
 
+        console.warn(
+            `[AppPlugin:init] appId=${appId} keys=${Object.keys(servicePayload).join(',')} flows=${Array.isArray((servicePayload as any).flows) ? (servicePayload as any).flows.length : 'n/a'}`,
+        );
+
         ctx.getService<{ register(m: any): void }>('manifest').register(servicePayload);
     }
 

packages/runtime/src/standalone-stack.ts

@@ -88,8 +88,11 @@ export async function createStandaloneStack(config?: StandaloneStackConfig): Pro
         artifactBundle = (parsed?.schemaVersion != null && parsed?.metadata !== undefined)
             ? parsed.metadata
             : parsed;
-    } catch {
-        // No artifact yet — AppPlugin skipped.
+        console.warn(
+            `[StandaloneStack] artifact loaded: path=${artifactPath} keys=${artifactBundle ? Object.keys(artifactBundle).join(',') : '(null)'} flows=${Array.isArray(artifactBundle?.flows) ? artifactBundle.flows.length : 'n/a'}`,
+        );
+    } catch (err: any) {
+        console.warn(`[StandaloneStack] artifact load FAILED: path=${artifactPath} error=${err?.message}`);
     }
 
     const plugins: any[] = [

packages/services/service-automation/src/plugin.ts

@@ -68,7 +68,11 @@ export class AutomationServicePlugin implements Plugin {
     }
 
     async start(ctx: PluginContext): Promise<void> {
-        if (!this.engine) return;
+        console.warn('[Automation:start] entering start()');
+        if (!this.engine) {
+            console.warn('[Automation:start] engine missing, bailing');
+            return;
+        }
 
         // Trigger hook to notify engine is ready — other plugins can start registering nodes
         await ctx.trigger('automation:ready', this.engine);
@@ -87,14 +91,14 @@ export class AutomationServicePlugin implements Plugin {
                 registry?: { listItems?: (type: string) => unknown[] };
             }>('objectql');
             if (!ql) {
-                ctx.logger.warn('[Automation] objectql service not found at start()');
+                console.warn('[Automation] objectql service not found at start()');
             } else if (!ql.registry) {
-                ctx.logger.warn('[Automation] objectql.registry is undefined at start()');
+                console.warn('[Automation] objectql.registry is undefined at start()');
             } else if (typeof ql.registry.listItems !== 'function') {
-                ctx.logger.warn('[Automation] objectql.registry.listItems is not a function');
+                console.warn('[Automation] objectql.registry.listItems is not a function');
             }
             const flows = ql?.registry?.listItems?.('flow') ?? [];
-            ctx.logger.warn(`[Automation] flow pull: registry returned ${flows.length} flow(s)`);
+            console.warn(`[Automation] flow pull: registry returned ${flows.length} flow(s)`);
             let registered = 0;
             for (const f of flows) {
                 const def = f as { name?: string };