Admission

A host that receives work can limit the repos it accepts. The list lives in the host’s own dispatch config. Dispatch requests cannot replace it or route around it. A person with shell access as the host account can read and edit that account’s files; use OS permissions for separation between people. If an order names a repo the host does not admit, the host refuses it before it fetches anything or creates a branch.

Set the list

Add a top-level [admission] table to the dispatch config on the receiving host:

cap = 4 # receiving host capacity

[admission]
repos = [
  "https://github.com/acme/api.git",
  "[email protected]:acme/web",
]

[hosts.buildbox]
local = true
cap = 4

The host reads this from its default config only: HEV_DISPATCH_CONFIG if it is set in the environment that runs hev dispatch rpc, otherwise ~/.config/hev/dispatch.toml. A sender’s --config and a host’s config_path select launch settings. They never select admission policy.

Setting	Result
No [admission] table, or no repos key	Every repo is admitted.
repos = []	No repo is admitted.
repos = [...]	Only repos whose origin matches an entry.

If HEV_DISPATCH_CONFIG is set but the file cannot be read, the host refuses all work with target admission config: .... If it is unset and the default file does not exist, there is no policy and every repo is admitted.

Capacity also comes from this default config. Top-level cap wins over the host’s own legacy entry, then defaults to 2. A sender may lower the ceiling for its request but cannot raise it. See Hosts.

What is matched

The host runs git remote get-url origin in its own clone and compares that URL with each entry. The repo field in the order is only used to find the clone. Renaming a directory on the sender, or using a different label, does not change what the host checks.

URLs are compared by server and path:

• SSH and HTTPS spellings of the same repo match. [email protected]:acme/api matches https://github.com/acme/api.git.
• User names, transport, trailing slashes and a trailing .git are ignored.
• Server names are case insensitive. Repo paths are case sensitive.
• An explicit port is part of the server and must match.
• Local paths work too. Write them as they appear on the host. Windows paths, including UNC paths, compare without case and with either slash.

A host with a list refuses a clone whose origin it cannot read.

When it is checked

The host checks the list:

• before it fetches origin or creates the worktree for a new run,
• before it admits a browser validator run,
• before an amendment moves work onto this host,
• before hev dispatch rework relaunches a stopped run,
• before hev dispatch say turns a message to an ended run into rework.

Changing the list takes effect on the next check. Runs already going are not stopped.

What a refusal looks like

$ hev dispatch order.md
Error: repo "acme/api" is not admitted on host "buildbox"

The command exits with code 1. The message uses the repo and host values from the order. The host keeps a record of the refusal as a failed run:

hev dispatch ls --all
hev dispatch show api-rate-limit-headers

ls --all lists it as failed with the reason in the ERROR column, and show includes it in result.json. hev dispatch clean NAME removes the record so you can reuse the name.

Why the receiving side decides

The machine that runs the work holds the credentials, the clones and the risk. If the sender carried the policy, any sender with SSH access could widen it. Keeping the list on the receiving host means a dispatch request can only ask. The host answers from its own policy file. This is not a boundary against a person or agent with shell access to that file.

The cost is that you have to edit the list on every host that needs it. Nothing pushes policy out from a central place.

Every binary that reads a config with [admission] must support it. Older hev versions stop with an unknown config key error. Upgrade a host before you add the table.