From c275fa3fab03f793fd4c4977199eb02d564d6572 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Garry Tan <garrytan@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:06:59 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix(cli): pre-set GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE/SCRUB_PII env wins over
 DB stash
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The #1475 stash unconditionally overwrote the env vars from the merged DB
plane, silently clobbering an operator's exported value — inverting the
env-above-config precedence the same code comment advertises. Unlike
GBRAIN_EMBEDDING_MULTIMODAL, these keys have no loadConfig() env mapping,
so file/env-wins in loadConfigWithEngine never covered them. Guard the
stash writes: DB fills the gap only when the env var is unset.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 src/cli.ts | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/cli.ts b/src/cli.ts
index dd73d363f..fc40d9d0a 100755
--- a/src/cli.ts
+++ b/src/cli.ts
@@ -2256,10 +2256,14 @@ async function connectEngine(opts?: { probeOnly?: boolean }): Promise<BrainEngin
       // op path and MCP dispatch — it never sees the DB plane directly. The
       // gates consult this stash when the file plane is silent, so
       // `gbrain config set eval.capture true` actually turns capture on.
-      if (merged.eval?.capture !== undefined) {
+      // A pre-set env value wins over the DB plane (env-above-config, the
+      // incident escape hatch) — unlike GBRAIN_EMBEDDING_MULTIMODAL these
+      // keys have no loadConfig() env mapping, so without this guard the
+      // DB stash would silently clobber an operator's export.
+      if (process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE === undefined && merged.eval?.capture !== undefined) {
         process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_CAPTURE = String(merged.eval.capture);
       }
-      if (merged.eval?.scrub_pii !== undefined) {
+      if (process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII === undefined && merged.eval?.scrub_pii !== undefined) {
         process.env.GBRAIN_EVAL_SCRUB_PII = String(merged.eval.scrub_pii);
       }
       // Always re-configure with merged values when DB merge succeeded. The