Glossary · staging-swap
GLOSSARY
Staging swap
Assembling every artifact of a build in a staging directory and moving it into the delivered folder only after the final gate passes. A failed run then leaves the previous pack byte for byte intact, rather than overwriting a certified deliverable file by file and leaving a half updated ruin in its place.
Principle 5 · Fail closed and stale
Where does Staging swap come from?
Principle 5 of the Kymira doctrine, Fail closed and stale. Staging swap is the name the doctrine gives to what that principle requires in practice.
What failure is Staging swap named after?
The rerun that trampled the good pack. A failed build writing over the last known-good deliverable file by file, leaving a certified-looking ruin.
What does it look like on a real file?
The failed rerun writes only into staging, so the delivered pack is byte for byte what it was before.
Not for
Not a substitute for a passing gate. The swap protects the prior pack; it does not make the failed run publishable.
Nearest terms
Last updated 2026-09-02 · Dylan, founder · one of 40 terms in the Kymira glossary, each one named after something we watched go wrong in a real build or in our own audits.