The honesty half (no fabricated counts) leaves shallow installs permanently
count-less. The compare API knows the full graph regardless of local clone
depth: GET /repos/<o>/<r>/compare/<current>...<target> returns ahead_by —
exactly the behind count the shallow boundary lost.
- hermes_cli/banner.py: _github_compare_behind() (bounded, unauthenticated,
best-effort); wired into _check_via_rev and the shallow branch of
_check_via_local_git. ahead_by==0 with differing tips = local-ahead => 0.
- hermes_cli/update_cmd.py: hermes update --check shallow path prints the
exact count when recoverable, presence-only wording otherwise.
- apps/desktop/electron/update-count.ts: compareApiUrl() +
parseCompareBehindCount() pure helpers; main.ts fetches the count when
resolveBehindCount() returns null, and the SSH-official passive path stops
fabricating behind:1 (uses compare API + updateAvailable flag).
- apps/desktop/src/lib/version-status.ts: updateAvailable now applies to the
client target too, so a shallow desktop install shows '(update)' instead of
nothing (or the old frozen '(+1)').
Fixes#84591; CLI siblings of #78253 / #53479 behavior.
E2E: live compare API returned 61/62 for real 61/62-commit gaps and 0 for the
reversed (local-ahead) pair; real shallow-clone fixture (depth-1 clone +
depth-1 fetch, merge-base broken) recovers the exact count with the API and
falls back to the honest sentinel offline.
On an installer checkout (clone --depth 1) with no merge-base against the
freshly fetched origin tip, resolveBehindCount returned the sentinel 1 and
every surface rendered it as a literal count: 'A new update is ready (1
change included).' — even when the true distance was far larger (observed:
90 commits). The sentinel was meant to mean 'update available, exact count
unknown', but nothing downstream distinguished it from a real one.
- update-count.ts: return null (unknown) instead of the numeric sentinel
- main.ts: flag updateAvailable explicitly and still serve the (capped)
commit log so 'See what's new' stays useful in the unknown case
- updates.ts: toast fires for behind:null + updateAvailable, with
count-free copy instead of being swallowed by the <= 0 guard
- about-settings.tsx: status line and action buttons key off
updateAvailable; unknown size renders the new count-free string
- i18n: updateReadyUnknown / updateReadyMessageUnknown in all 5 locales
Refs #51922 (the shallow-clone special case this UI now renders honestly).
Tests: vitest electron 10/10, ui 44/44 (3 FAIL-BEFORE reds turned green),
tsc typecheck clean, eslint clean on all touched files.
Teknium