scan --mode agent --json and get --json overwrite a locally modified npm file without the documented content_mismatch_overwritten warning (not in the JSON, not on stderr)

[mikolalysenko]

[agent] Found by the scheduled npm bug-hunt routine (ledger #302).

Summary

When an installed file matches neither the patch's beforeHash nor its afterHash (for example a local edit, a patch-package patch, or an npm patch change), the default mismatch policy overwrites it with the full patched content. CLI_CONTRACT says that overwrite is always surfaced, as a content_mismatch_overwritten stderr warning plus a skipped event.

apply --json and the human scan --mode agent do surface it. But scan --mode agent --json and get --json run the same in-place apply and report nothing: the JSON has no content_mismatch_overwritten record anywhere, stderr has no warning, and the exit code is 0. The patch shows as "action": "added", failed: 0, applied: 1. The local change is gone.

#955 (#424) made these envelopes report apply failures. The nested apply's warnings are still dropped.

Impact

• --json is the automation path (CI bots, Socket integrations). Through it, socket-patch silently destroys a project's own modifications to a dependency. Under the documented policy that overwrite is allowed, but only with a warning, so the user can notice and switch to --strict.
• In npm projects this hits real setups: patch-package / npm patch users whose patched file the Socket patch also touches lose their patch, and nothing in the JSON says so. A bot can't tell this apart from a clean apply.

Repro (Linux, main 859a279, local mock patch API serving one patch for left-pad@1.3.0)

mkdir p && cd p
echo '{"name":"p","version":"1.0.0","private":true,"dependencies":{"left-pad":"1.3.0"}}' > package.json
npm i
echo '// local edit' >> node_modules/left-pad/index.js

socket-patch scan --mode agent --json --yes <api flags> 2>err.txt >out.json; echo $?   # 0
grep -c content_mismatch_overwritten out.json     # 0
grep -c 'did not match' err.txt                   # 0
grep -c 'local edit' node_modules/left-pad/index.js   # 0: the edit was overwritten

# control 1: same state, human output
socket-patch scan --mode agent --yes <api flags>
#   Warning: pkg:npm/left-pad@1.3.0 package/index.js did not match the patch's expected original content;
#   applied the full verified patched content instead (pass --strict to fail on mismatches)

# control 2: same state, standalone apply --json
socket-patch apply --json
#   events: [{action: applied, ...}, {action: skipped, errorCode: content_mismatch_overwritten, reason: "package/index.js did not match ..."}]

# control 3: --strict works through scan --json (#955)
socket-patch scan --mode agent --strict --json --yes <api flags>   # exit 1, apply.patches[0] = {action: failed, errorCode: apply_failed, ...}

get <uuid> --mode agent --json behaves the same as scan --mode agent --json.

Expected vs actual

• Expected (CLI_CONTRACT.md, "Global arguments", --strict note): "The --strict mismatch policy applies to the in-place apply paths (apply/get/scan --apply/hook/go redirect). DEFAULT: a file whose on-disk content matches neither the patch's beforeHash nor its afterHash is overwritten … and surfaced as a content_mismatch_overwritten stderr warning + Skipped event." The error-code table lists content_mismatch_overwritten as a skipped (warning) event. So scan --json / get --json should carry it, for example as a skipped / warning record next to the patch record in apply.patches[] / patches[], the same way Fix scan/get --json dropping apply failures (#424) #955 folds failures in, or at least print the stderr line.
• Actual: neither. Exit 0, the patch record reads added, and nothing mentions the overwrite.

Matrix (Linux)

socket-patch	npm (Node)	command	exit	JSON warning	stderr warning	local edit kept
main 859a279	10.9.4 (22)	scan --mode agent --json (x2)	0	no	no	no (overwritten)
main 859a279	10.9.4 (22)	get <uuid> --mode agent --json	0	no	no	no
main 859a279	12.2.0 (24)	scan --mode agent --json (x2)	0	no	no	no
main 859a279	12.2.0 (24)	get <uuid> --mode agent --json	0	no	no	no
main 859a279	10.9.4	scan --mode agent (human)	0	n/a	yes	no
main 859a279	10.9.4	apply --json	0	yes (skipped event)	n/a	no
v4.0.0	10.9.4	get <uuid> --json	0	no	no	no

Not a regression: v4.0.0 get --json drops the warning too. The logic doesn't depend on the OS (no npm process is involved in the apply), so I didn't run a macOS / Windows probe.

Suspect code

• crates/socket-patch-cli/src/commands/get.rs:2288-2297 (nested_apply_args): the nested apply runs with json: false and silent: quiet, so for a JSON caller warn_mismatch_overwrites returns early (crates/socket-patch-cli/src/commands/apply.rs:55-58). The apply's own JSON envelope, which records the content_mismatch_overwritten event (apply.rs:1264-1272), is never built.
• crates/socket-patch-cli/src/commands/apply.rs:987 (ApplyRunReport) carries only failures / run_error back to the caller. There's no field for the mismatch-overwrite warnings, so fold_apply_failures (get.rs, Fix scan/get --json dropping apply failures (#424) #955) has nothing to fold into the scan / get envelope.

[mikolalysenko]

[agent] Triage: priority:p1 (npm). Not a duplicate and no open PR. Confirmed on main (1c6c509): nested_apply_args (crates/socket-patch-cli/src/commands/get.rs:2288) runs the nested apply with json: false and silent: quiet, so warn_mismatch_overwrites (apply.rs:55) returns early for a JSON caller, and ApplyRunReport (apply.rs:987) has no field to carry mismatch-overwrite warnings back for fold_apply_failures to fold in. Related to #955/#424 (failures folded in), but this is the warnings half and a separate fix. The cause is in the shared nested-apply path, not npm-specific, so every ecosystem's scan --mode agent --json / get --json drops the warning.

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Generated by Claude Code

[mikolalysenko]

Being fixed in draft PR #1008 (batch fix for open pm:npm issues).