checkup drift cannot resolve nested subproject prompt with explicit code file

[Serhan-Asad]

Summary

pdd checkup drift cannot resolve valid nested prompt/code pairs in a subproject, even when the prompt path is supplied as the dev unit and --code-file explicitly names the generated artifact. The command exits 1 instead of producing the requested drift report.

Environment

• pdd-cli==0.0.290
• macOS
• Command run from a subproject root containing its own .pddrc, .pdd/, and architecture.json
• Valid pairs:
  • prompts/src/pdd_issue_runner_job_Python.prompt -> src/pdd_issue_runner_job.py
  • prompts/src/services/pdd_issue_goal_session_Python.prompt -> src/services/pdd_issue_goal_session.py
• Official pdd.metadata_sync.run_metadata_sync succeeds for both pairs, and calculate_current_hashes matches their saved fingerprints.

Reproduction

Using a basename:

pdd checkup drift pdd_issue_runner_job \
  --code-file src/pdd_issue_runner_job.py \
  --dry-run --json

Observed: exit 1 with no JSON report.

Using the explicit nested prompt path:

pdd --verbose checkup drift \
  prompts/src/pdd_issue_runner_job_Python.prompt \
  --code-file src/pdd_issue_runner_job.py \
  --dry-run

Observed:

Could not resolve prompt for dev unit 'prompts/src/pdd_issue_runner_job_Python.prompt'

The same behavior occurs for prompts/src/services/pdd_issue_goal_session_Python.prompt and its explicit code file.

Expected behavior

• An explicit existing prompt path should be accepted directly.
• --code-file should remain authoritative for the generated artifact instead of being discarded during prompt resolution.
• Basename resolution should honor the active subproject .pddrc and nested prompts_dir mappings.
• --json failures should still emit structured error output.
• Add deterministic nested-prompt/subproject coverage plus a root-level neighboring control.

Duplicate search

Searched open and closed issues for checkup drift, Could not resolve prompt, nested prompts, and subproject resolution. #1614 concerned the pre-checkup architecture target and #1211 concerned metadata writes from a parent directory; neither covers drift dev-unit resolution with an explicit code file.

[Serhan-Asad]

Closing as a duplicate/covered symptom after the required issue + PR + branch audit.

• Existing generalized issue: Honor architecture.json filepath for prompts in nested .pddrc contexts #1976 (nested .pddrc prompt resolution misses architecture-owned paths)
• Existing implementation PR: Honor architecture.json filepath for prompts in nested .pddrc contexts #1971 (fix/arch-json-prompts-dir-prefix, head 7c45702e0a89803abe1ea809f59fb6eda7b02a0d)
• Related target-repo checkup resolver issue/solution: checkup repair resolves owning prompts against pdd's self-hosted layout instead of the target repo's prompt layout (refuses repair on all external repos) #1957 and Bundle: checkup resilience — auto-degrade, target-repo prompt paths, test adoption (#1941, #1957, #1903) #1962
• Existing branch audit also found fix/issue-1957-checkup-target-prompt-path at bae6260115a5ceadef3cf79293505487f16b83fb.

The observed checkup drift failure should be retested against #1971/#1962 before any new implementation. No competing fix was started here.

[Serhan-Asad]

The broader existing-work audit found related #1976/PR #1971 and #1957/PR #1962, but the exact symptom is not fixed by the most relevant reusable head.

Independent current-head reproduction against PR #1971 (7c45702e0a89803abe1ea809f59fb6eda7b02a0d), with that checkout first on PYTHONPATH:

pdd --verbose checkup drift prompts/src/pdd_issue_runner_job_Python.prompt \
  --code-file src/pdd_issue_runner_job.py --dry-run
Error: Could not resolve prompt for dev unit
'prompts/src/pdd_issue_runner_job_Python.prompt'
exit 1

--json also exits 1 with no structured output. PR #1971 hardens get_pdd_file_paths / architecture output resolution; #1957/#1962 concern repair-loop prompt ownership. Neither currently covers the checkup drift CLI dev-unit resolver accepting an explicit existing nested prompt path and preserving authoritative --code-file.

Reopening this issue as the narrower uncovered CLI contract. Any implementation should reuse the existing target-repo/path-resolution primitives from those branches where applicable rather than competing with them.

[Serhan-Asad]

Generalized fix PR #2002 passed exact-head review/checks and merged only into the PDD campaign branch stack/e2e-staging-v2 at 6679049370fc61e6e7e62d1aee74175a830a38d7. PDD main is unchanged. The fix was verified against explicit nested prompt + authoritative --code-file, nested basename, nested no-code derivation, ambiguity/containment/JSON controls, and real pdd_cloud consumers.