Startup Init & Reconciliation

Business modules declare menus, roles, buttons, and seed data via init_data.py. On every startup, autodiscover invokes each module's init(). Below: the sync semantics for each data category and how a module becomes the single source of truth for its subtree.

Startup flow

In app/__init__.py's lifespan, the Redis-elected leader worker runs (in order):

1. init_menus() — system menus (app/system/init_data.py)
2. refresh_api_list() — full reconciliation of FastAPI routes ↔ Api table
3. init_users() — system seed users
4. iterate each business module's init_data.init() (Inventory, then any new modules)
5. refresh_all_cache() — reload permission / menu cache

Multi-worker coordination uses Redis lock app:init_lock so only one worker runs init; the rest wait for the done signal. The leader deletes stale locks before each start, so init really runs on every restart.

Sync semantics by data type

Data type	How it syncs	Field change	Add	Remove	Rename
API (routes)	refresh_api_list full reconcile	✅ auto	✅ auto	✅ auto	✅ auto (delete + insert)
Menu	ensure_menu upsert + optional reconcile_menu_subtree	✅ auto	✅ auto	⚠️ requires reconcile	⚠️ requires reconcile
Button	ensure_menu upsert + optional reconcile_menu_subtree	✅ auto	✅ auto	⚠️ requires reconcile	⚠️ requires reconcile
Role	ensure_role upsert; relations clear-and-readd	✅ auto	✅ auto	❌ manual cleanup	❌ manual cleanup
Role grants (menus / buttons / apis)	clear-and-readd	✅ auto	✅ auto	✅ auto	⚠️ missing emits warning
Business seed data	_safe_update_or_create by unique key	✅ auto	✅ auto	❌ manual cleanup	❌ manual cleanup

Legend: ✅ takes effect on restart; ⚠️ needs explicit opt-in; ❌ needs SQL / migration.

Menu / button reconciliation: reconcile_menu_subtree

ensure_menu is forward-applying (upsert only). Removing entries from init_data.py therefore doesn't clean the DB. app/system/services/init_helper.py provides reconcile_menu_subtree to scope an init declaration as the single source of truth for its subtree.

Usage

just cli-gen / just cli-crud now writes MODULE_MENU_CHILDREN, ensure_menu() and reconcile_menu_subtree() into the module's generated init_data.py. By default it reconciles the selected model menus, but keeps declared_button_codes=None, so buttons maintained from the Web UI are not cleaned up. When generation uses --button-auth, the CLI also declares create/edit/delete buttons and points declared_button_codes at the declared set, making buttons IaC-managed too.

In your module's init_data.py:

from app.system.services import ensure_menu, reconcile_menu_subtree


def _collect_declared_routes(children: list[dict]) -> set[str]:
    result: set[str] = set()
    for item in children:
        result.add(item["route_name"])
        if item.get("children"):
            result.update(_collect_declared_routes(item["children"]))
    return result


def _collect_declared_buttons(children: list[dict]) -> set[str]:
    result: set[str] = set()
    for item in children:
        for btn in item.get("buttons") or []:
            result.add(btn["button_code"])
        if item.get("children"):
            result.update(_collect_declared_buttons(item["children"]))
    return result


async def _init_menu_data() -> None:
    await ensure_menu(
        menu_name="CRM",
        route_name="crm",
        route_path="/crm",
        icon="mdi:account-box",
        order=8,
        children=CRM_MENU_CHILDREN,
    )
    await reconcile_menu_subtree(
        root_route="crm",
        declared_route_names=_collect_declared_routes(CRM_MENU_CHILDREN),
        declared_button_codes=_collect_declared_buttons(CRM_MENU_CHILDREN),
    )

Scope and semantics

• Subtree-scoped: BFS from root_route's menu, only acts within that subtree
• Menu reconciliation: menus in the subtree whose route_name is not in declared_route_names ∪ {root_route} get delete()d (cascades M2M)
• Button reconciliation: only buttons mounted on subtree menus; those whose button_code is not in declared_button_codes get delete()d. Pass declared_button_codes=None to skip button reconciliation.
• Idempotent: re-running with no extras is a no-op

Mental shift

After enabling reconcile_menu_subtree, that subtree becomes Infrastructure-as-Code:

• ✅ edit init_data.py, restart, done
• ✅ rename = delete-old + insert-new, auto handled
• ❌ Web-UI-created menus / buttons under that subtree get reaped on next restart

If you need user-driven dynamic menus, do not call reconcile_menu_subtree on that subtree.

ensure_role config-drift warnings

ensure_role does clear-and-readd for menus / buttons / apis. If a declared route_name / button_code / (method, path) doesn't resolve in the DB, you get:

ensure_role 'R_DEPT_MGR': missing apis [('patch', '/api/v1/business/inventory/warehouses/{dept_id}/old')] (route signature changed?)

Common causes:

• A route was renamed / removed but the seed apis wasn't updated
• A button_code was renamed but the seed buttons wasn't updated
• A parent route_name changed but the seed menus wasn't updated

Fix on sight — otherwise the role permission silently disappears and users hit mysterious 403s.

Manual cleanup for removals

reconcile_menu_subtree only handles menus and buttons. The following still need manual cleanup (SQL or Tortoise migration):

1. Roles — removing INVENTORY_ROLE_SEEDS entries does NOT delete the Role row, nor does it touch user-role associations
2. Business seed data — same for INVENTORY_WAREHOUSE_SEEDS / INVENTORY_TAG_SEEDS / INVENTORY_PRODUCT_SEEDS
3. Cross-subtree orphan buttons — buttons referenced by multiple subtrees can survive cleanup of one of them

These scenarios are rare and removal cascades are subtle (does deleting a role also unbind its users?), so the framework intentionally avoids automation here — write a proper migration.

Summary

Scenario	Recommended action
Add menu / button / role / seed	Edit init_data.py, restart
Edit menu fields (name / icon / order)	Edit init_data.py, restart
Delete menu / button	Enable reconcile_menu_subtree, edit init_data.py, restart
Rename route_name / button_code	Enable reconcile_menu_subtree, restart auto delete-old + insert-new
Delete role / business seed	Write Tortoise migration
Modify API route path	Sync apis list in INVENTORY_ROLE_SEEDS, otherwise warning at startup