refactor(build): promote task-metrics, self-check, env-vault to always-on

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,20 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/).
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Changed
+
+- build: add `profiling` and `sandbox` to default Cargo features — tracing spans are compiled by
+  default for diagnostics; macOS Seatbelt / Linux Landlock sandbox is available without
+  `--features sandbox` (still runtime-disabled unless `tools.sandbox.enabled = true`)
+- build: consolidate `self-check`, `env-vault`, and `task-metrics` as always-on — these were pure
+  behavioral markers with no optional deps, violating the feature flag decision rule (spec 029 §2)
+
+### Fixed
+
+- docs(specs): update spec 001 §9 and spec 029 §3.1/§4/§5.3 to reflect actual default feature set
+  (was documenting `default = ["scheduler", "sqlite"]` since v0.18 while reality had 5 features
+  since v0.20)
+
 ## [0.20.2] - 2026-05-06
 
 ### Added

Cargo.toml

@@ -195,19 +195,17 @@ description = "Lightweight AI agent with hybrid inference, skills-first architec
 readme = "README.md"
 
 [features]
-default = ["scheduler", "sqlite", "task-metrics", "self-check", "env-vault"]
+default = ["scheduler", "sqlite"]
 
 # === Use-case bundles ===
 desktop = ["tui"]
 ide     = ["acp", "acp-http"]
 server  = ["gateway", "a2a", "otel", "prometheus"]
 chat    = ["discord", "slack"]
 ml      = ["candle", "pdf"]
-full    = ["desktop", "ide", "server", "chat", "pdf", "scheduler", "classifiers", "profiling", "task-metrics", "sandbox", "self-check", "gonka", "testing"]
+full    = ["desktop", "ide", "server", "chat", "pdf", "scheduler", "classifiers", "profiling", "sandbox", "gonka", "sqlite", "testing"]
 testing = ["zeph-llm/testing"]
-env-vault  = ["zeph-core/env-vault"]
 sandbox    = ["zeph-tools/sandbox"]
-self-check = ["zeph-core/self-check"]
 bench      = ["dep:zeph-bench"]
 
 # === Individual feature flags ===
@@ -242,7 +240,6 @@ profiling = [
 ]
 profiling-alloc = ["profiling", "zeph-core/profiling-alloc"]
 profiling-pyroscope = ["profiling", "otel", "dep:pprof"]
-task-metrics = ["zeph-core/task-metrics"]
 # Database backend selection — mutually exclusive. Default includes sqlite.
 # NOTE: --all-features activates both, triggering compile_error! in zeph-db.
 # Use --features full or --features full,postgres instead.

book/src/advanced/observability.md

@@ -93,18 +93,18 @@ Zeph uses a `TaskSupervisor` to manage background tasks (embedding, memory conso
 
 ### Enabling Task Metrics
 
-Enable the optional `task-metrics` feature (included in `full`):
+Task metrics compile unconditionally — no feature flag needed. Build normally:
 
 ```bash
-cargo build --release --features task-metrics
+cargo build --release
 ```
 
-When enabled, each supervised task records:
+Each supervised task records:
 
 - **Wall-time**: elapsed time from spawn to completion
 - **CPU-time**: actual CPU cycles spent (OS-level thread time measurement)
 
-Zero overhead when disabled — the feature gate compiles out the measurement code.
+Note: the `task-metrics` feature flag was consolidated as always-on in v0.20.x.
 
 ### Viewing Task Metrics
 

book/src/changelog.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/).
 
 ### Added
 
-- **TaskSupervisor observability** — CPU and wall-time metrics for supervised tasks, visible in Jaeger traces and tokio-console. Optional `task-metrics` feature (included in `full`). See [Observability & Cost](advanced/observability.md#task-supervisor-metrics).
+- **TaskSupervisor observability** — CPU and wall-time metrics for supervised tasks, visible in Jaeger traces and tokio-console. See [Observability & Cost](advanced/observability.md#task-supervisor-metrics). (The `task-metrics` feature flag was consolidated as always-on in v0.20.x — no feature flag required.)
 - **TUI task registry panel** — new `/tasks` command displays live table of all supervised tasks (name, state, uptime, restart count). See [TUI Dashboard](advanced/tui.md#command-palette).
 - **Per-chunk code indexing supervision** — `CodeIndexer` now integrates with `TaskSupervisor` for fine-grained visibility of concurrent embedding tasks. Each chunk operation is registered as a separate task (`chunk_file_{N}`) in the supervisor registry.
 - **Bootstrap TaskSupervisor migration** — 7 memory background loops (eviction, tier promotion, consolidation, forgetting, compression, tree consolidation) migrated to `TaskSupervisor` with restart policies.

crates/zeph-agent-context/Cargo.toml

@@ -31,11 +31,7 @@ zeph-sanitizer.workspace = true
 zeph-skills.workspace = true
 
 [features]
-# `default = []` — opt-in only. Both features must be enabled explicitly.
 default = []
-# Gates the retrieved-memory mirror types and the `quality` field on view structs.
-# Forward this feature to `zeph-context` when needed.
-self-check = []
 # Enables `zeph-index` integration via `IndexAccess` in context assembly views.
 index = ["dep:zeph-index"]
 

crates/zeph-agent-context/README.md

@@ -86,13 +86,13 @@ let window = MessageWindowView {
 
 | Feature | Default | Description |
 |---|---|---|
-| `self-check` | off | Retrieved-memory mirror types for the MARCH self-check pipeline |
 | `index` | off | `zeph-index` integration via `IndexAccess` in assembly views |
 
-Both features must be enabled explicitly. `zeph-core` enables them where needed.
+The `self-check` feature was consolidated as always-on in v0.20.x — retrieved-memory mirror types
+compile unconditionally. Only `index` remains optional.
 
 ```toml
-zeph-agent-context = { version = "0.20", workspace = true, features = ["self-check", "index"] }
+zeph-agent-context = { version = "0.20", workspace = true, features = ["index"] }
 ```
 
 ## License

crates/zeph-agent-context/src/lib.rs

@@ -25,14 +25,11 @@
 //!
 //! # Features
 //!
-//! - `self-check` — gates retrieved-memory mirror types for the MARCH self-check pipeline.
 //! - `index` — enables `zeph-index` integration via the `IndexAccess` trait.
 
 pub mod compaction;
 pub mod error;
 pub mod helpers;
-#[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
-#[cfg_attr(docsrs, doc(cfg(feature = "self-check")))]
 pub mod retrieved;
 pub mod service;
 pub mod state;
@@ -53,6 +50,4 @@ pub use state::{
     ToolOutputArchive, TrustGate,
 };
 
-#[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
-#[cfg_attr(docsrs, doc(cfg(feature = "self-check")))]
 pub use retrieved::{RetrievedContext, collect_retrieved_context};

crates/zeph-agent-context/src/retrieved.rs

@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@
 //! (recall, graph facts, cross-session, summaries) for one turn.
 //! [`collect_retrieved_context`] walks the turn's message list and populates
 //! the four buckets without allocating beyond the [`Vec`]s themselves.
-#![cfg_attr(docsrs, doc(cfg(feature = "self-check")))]
-
 use zeph_llm::provider::{Message, MessagePart, Role};
 
 use crate::helpers::{CROSS_SESSION_PREFIX, GRAPH_FACTS_PREFIX, RECALL_PREFIX, SUMMARY_PREFIX};

crates/zeph-common/Cargo.toml

@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ description = "Shared utility functions and security primitives for Zeph crates"
 readme = "README.md"
 
 [features]
-task-metrics = ["dep:cpu-time", "dep:metrics"]
 treesitter = [
     "dep:tree-sitter",
     "dep:tree-sitter-go",
@@ -25,8 +24,8 @@ treesitter = [
 
 [dependencies]
 blake3.workspace = true
-cpu-time = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-metrics = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+cpu-time.workspace = true
+metrics.workspace = true
 parking_lot.workspace = true
 serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive", "rc"] }
 serde_json.workspace = true

crates/zeph-common/src/task_supervisor.rs

@@ -253,13 +253,10 @@ pub enum TaskStatus {
 /// | Field | tokio-console | Jaeger / OTLP | TUI | `metrics` histogram |
 /// |-------|--------------|--------------|-----|---------------------|
 /// | `name` | span name | span name | task list | label `"task"` |
-/// | `task.wall_time_ms` | — | span field (`task-metrics`) | — | `zeph.task.wall_time_ms` |
-/// | `task.cpu_time_ms` | — | span field (`task-metrics`) | — | `zeph.task.cpu_time_ms` |
+/// | `task.wall_time_ms` | — | span field | — | `zeph.task.wall_time_ms` |
+/// | `task.cpu_time_ms` | — | span field | — | `zeph.task.cpu_time_ms` |
 /// | `status` | — | — | task list | — |
 /// | `restart_count` | — | — | task list | — |
-///
-/// The `task.wall_time_ms` and `task.cpu_time_ms` fields are only populated when
-/// the crate is compiled with the `task-metrics` feature.
 pub struct TaskSnapshot {
     /// Task name.
     pub name: Arc<str>,
@@ -511,15 +508,12 @@ impl TaskSupervisor {
         R: Send + 'static,
     {
         let (tx, rx) = oneshot::channel::<Result<R, BlockingError>>();
-        #[cfg(feature = "task-metrics")]
         let span = tracing::info_span!(
             "supervised_blocking_task",
             task.name = %name,
             task.wall_time_ms = tracing::field::Empty,
             task.cpu_time_ms = tracing::field::Empty,
         );
-        #[cfg(not(feature = "task-metrics"))]
-        let span = tracing::info_span!("supervised_blocking_task", task.name = %name);
 
         let semaphore = Arc::clone(&self.inner.blocking_semaphore);
         let inner = Arc::clone(&self.inner);
@@ -1042,11 +1036,7 @@ impl TaskSupervisor {
 
 // ── Task metrics helpers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
-/// Run `f` and record wall-time and CPU-time metrics when `task-metrics` is enabled.
-///
-/// When the feature is disabled this is a zero-overhead identity wrapper —
-/// no `cpu-time` or `metrics` crates are linked.
-#[cfg(feature = "task-metrics")]
+/// Run `f` and record wall-time and CPU-time metrics via `metrics` crate.
 #[inline]
 fn measure_blocking<F, R>(name: &str, f: F) -> R
 where
@@ -1065,18 +1055,6 @@ where
     result
 }
 
-/// Identity wrapper when `task-metrics` feature is disabled.
-///
-/// Compiles to a direct call to `f()` with no overhead.
-#[cfg(not(feature = "task-metrics"))]
-#[inline]
-fn measure_blocking<F, R>(_name: &str, f: F) -> R
-where
-    F: FnOnce() -> R,
-{
-    f()
-}
-
 // ── BlockingSpawner impl ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 impl BlockingSpawner for TaskSupervisor {
@@ -1691,13 +1669,11 @@ mod tests {
         handle.await.expect("task should complete");
     }
 
-    /// Verify that `measure_blocking` emits wall-time and CPU-time histograms when
-    /// the `task-metrics` feature is enabled.
+    /// Verify that `measure_blocking` emits wall-time and CPU-time histograms.
     ///
     /// `measure_blocking` calls `metrics::histogram!` on the current thread.
     /// We test it directly using a `DebuggingRecorder` installed as the thread-local
     /// recorder via `metrics::with_local_recorder`.
-    #[cfg(feature = "task-metrics")]
     #[test]
     fn test_measure_blocking_emits_metrics() {
         use metrics_util::debugging::DebuggingRecorder;

crates/zeph-core/Cargo.toml

@@ -13,23 +13,20 @@ description = "Core agent loop, configuration, context builder, metrics, and vau
 readme = "README.md"
 
 [features]
-profiling = ["dep:tracing-subscriber"]
-profiling-alloc = ["profiling"]
-sysinfo = ["dep:sysinfo"]
-task-metrics = ["dep:cpu-time", "dep:metrics", "zeph-common/task-metrics"]
 default = ["sqlite"]
 candle = ["zeph-llm/candle"]
 classifiers = ["zeph-llm/classifiers", "zeph-sanitizer/classifiers"]
-gonka = ["zeph-llm/gonka"]
 cuda = ["zeph-llm/cuda"]
-env-vault = ["zeph-vault/env-vault"]
+gonka = ["zeph-llm/gonka"]
+index = ["zeph-agent-context/index"]
 metal = ["zeph-llm/metal"]
 mock = ["zeph-vault/mock"]
 postgres = ["zeph-db/postgres"]
+profiling = ["dep:tracing-subscriber"]
+profiling-alloc = ["profiling"]
 scheduler  = []
-index = ["zeph-agent-context/index"]
-self-check = ["zeph-agent-context/self-check"]
 sqlite = ["zeph-db/sqlite"]
+sysinfo = ["dep:sysinfo"]
 
 [dependencies]
 base64.workspace = true
@@ -61,8 +58,8 @@ toml_edit.workspace = true
 tracing.workspace = true
 tracing-subscriber = { workspace = true, features = ["parking_lot", "registry"], optional = true }
 sysinfo = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-cpu-time = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-metrics = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+cpu-time.workspace = true
+metrics.workspace = true
 tree-sitter.workspace = true
 uuid = { workspace = true, features = ["v4", "serde"] }
 zeroize.workspace = true

crates/zeph-core/src/agent/builder.rs

@@ -2096,8 +2096,6 @@ impl<C: Channel> Agent<C> {
     /// response and appends a flag marker to the channel output if assertions are contradicted
     /// or unsupported by retrieved evidence.
     ///
-    /// Calling this method without the `self-check` feature compiled in is a no-op.
-    ///
     /// # Examples
     ///
     /// ```no_run
@@ -2109,7 +2107,6 @@ impl<C: Channel> Agent<C> {
     /// // agent_builder.with_quality_pipeline(Some(pipeline));
     /// ```
     #[must_use]
-    #[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
     pub fn with_quality_pipeline(
         mut self,
         pipeline: Option<std::sync::Arc<crate::quality::SelfCheckPipeline>>,

crates/zeph-core/src/agent/memcot/metrics.rs

@@ -1,29 +1,23 @@
 // SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Andrei G <bug-ops>
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
 
-//! Feature-gated metrics helpers for the `MemCoT` distillation pipeline.
-//!
-//! All public functions are no-ops when the `task-metrics` feature is disabled.
-//! This pattern matches the existing `agent_supervisor.rs` convention.
+//! Metrics helpers for the `MemCoT` distillation pipeline.
 
 /// Increment the `memcot_distill_total` counter.
 #[inline]
 pub fn distill_total() {
-    #[cfg(feature = "task-metrics")]
     metrics::counter!("memcot_distill_total").increment(1);
 }
 
 /// Increment the `memcot_distill_timeout_total` counter.
 #[inline]
 pub fn distill_timeout() {
-    #[cfg(feature = "task-metrics")]
     metrics::counter!("memcot_distill_timeout_total").increment(1);
 }
 
 /// Increment the `memcot_distill_error_total` counter.
 #[inline]
 pub fn distill_error() {
-    #[cfg(feature = "task-metrics")]
     metrics::counter!("memcot_distill_error_total").increment(1);
 }
 
@@ -32,8 +26,5 @@ pub fn distill_error() {
 /// `reason` should be `"interval"` or `"session_cap"`.
 #[inline]
 pub fn distill_skipped(reason: &'static str) {
-    #[cfg(feature = "task-metrics")]
     metrics::counter!("memcot_distill_skipped_total", "reason" => reason).increment(1);
-    #[cfg(not(feature = "task-metrics"))]
-    let _ = reason;
 }

crates/zeph-core/src/agent/mod.rs

@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ mod persistence;
 mod plan;
 mod policy_commands;
 mod provider_cmd;
-#[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
 mod quality_hook;
 pub(crate) mod rate_limiter;
 #[cfg(feature = "scheduler")]
@@ -281,7 +280,6 @@ impl<C: Channel> Agent<C> {
             sidequest: sidequest::SidequestState::default(),
             tool_state: ToolState::default(),
             goal_accounting: None,
-            #[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
             quality: None,
             proactive_explorer: None,
             promotion_engine: None,
@@ -1606,7 +1604,6 @@ impl<C: Channel> Agent<C> {
         tracing::debug!("turn timing: process_response done");
 
         // MARCH self-check hook: runs after every successful response, including cache-hit path.
-        #[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
         if let Some(pipeline) = self.services.quality.clone() {
             self.run_self_check_for_turn(pipeline, turn.id().0).await;
         }

crates/zeph-core/src/agent/state/services.rs

@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ pub(crate) struct Services {
     pub(crate) goal_accounting: Option<std::sync::Arc<crate::goal::GoalAccounting>>,
 
     /// MARCH self-check pipeline, built at startup and rebuilt on provider swap.
-    #[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
     pub(crate) quality: Option<std::sync::Arc<crate::quality::SelfCheckPipeline>>,
     /// Proactive world-knowledge explorer (#3320).
     ///

crates/zeph-core/src/lib.rs

@@ -84,7 +84,6 @@ pub mod notifications;
 pub mod pipeline;
 pub mod project;
 pub mod provider_factory;
-#[cfg(feature = "self-check")]
 pub mod quality;
 pub mod redact;
 #[cfg(feature = "sysinfo")]
@@ -137,15 +136,13 @@ pub mod vault {
         default_vault_dir,
     };
 
-    /// Environment-variable backed vault provider, available only when the
-    /// `env-vault` feature is enabled.
+    /// Environment-variable backed vault provider.
     ///
     /// # Security
     ///
     /// This provider reads secrets from process environment variables and is
-    /// intended **exclusively for development and testing**. Never enable this
-    /// feature in production builds. Use [`AgeVaultProvider`] instead.
-    #[cfg(feature = "env-vault")]
+    /// intended **exclusively for development and testing**. Never use in
+    /// production builds. Use [`AgeVaultProvider`] instead.
     pub use zeph_vault::EnvVaultProvider;
 
     #[cfg(any(test, feature = "mock"))]