feat: Auto-start refinery/witness on spawn, add refinery check to Witness patrol (gt-bjft)

Implements redundant systems to ensure infrastructure stays operational:
- gt spawn: Auto-starts refinery and witness if not running
- mol-witness-patrol: Added check-refinery step to verify refinery is alive

This ensures polecats don't wait forever for merges.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

internal/beads/builtin_molecules.go

@@ -814,6 +814,30 @@ Handle by message type:
 Record any pending actions for later steps.
 Mark messages as processed when complete.
 
+## Step: check-refinery
+Ensure the refinery is alive and processing merge requests.
+
+**Redundant system**: This check runs in both gt spawn and Witness patrol
+to ensure the merge queue processor stays operational.
+
+` + "```" + `bash
+# Check if refinery session is running
+gt session status <rig>/refinery
+
+# Check for merge requests in queue
+bd list --type=merge-request --status=open
+` + "```" + `
+
+If merge requests are waiting AND refinery is not running:
+` + "```" + `bash
+gt session start <rig>/refinery
+gt mail send <rig>/refinery -s "PATROL: Wake up" -m "Merge requests in queue. Please process."
+` + "```" + `
+
+If refinery is running but queue is non-empty for >30 min, send nudge.
+This ensures polecats don't wait forever for their branches to merge.
+Needs: inbox-check
+
 ## Step: load-state
 Read handoff bead and get nudge counts.
 
@@ -829,7 +853,7 @@ bd show <handoff-bead-id>
 
 If no handoff exists (fresh start), initialize empty state.
 This state persists across wisp burns and session cycles.
-Needs: inbox-check
+Needs: check-refinery
 
 ## Step: survey-workers
 List polecats and categorize by status.

internal/beads/builtin_molecules_test.go

@@ -300,16 +300,17 @@ func TestWitnessPatrolMolecule(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("failed to parse: %v", err)
 	}
 
-	// Should have 10 steps: inbox-check, load-state, survey-workers, inspect-workers,
-	// decide-actions, execute-actions, save-state, generate-summary, context-check, burn-or-loop
-	if len(steps) != 10 {
-		t.Errorf("expected 10 steps, got %d", len(steps))
+	// Should have 11 steps: inbox-check, check-refinery, load-state, survey-workers,
+	// inspect-workers, decide-actions, execute-actions, save-state, generate-summary,
+	// context-check, burn-or-loop
+	if len(steps) != 11 {
+		t.Errorf("expected 11 steps, got %d", len(steps))
 	}
 
 	expectedRefs := []string{
-		"inbox-check", "load-state", "survey-workers", "inspect-workers",
-		"decide-actions", "execute-actions", "save-state", "generate-summary",
-		"context-check", "burn-or-loop",
+		"inbox-check", "check-refinery", "load-state", "survey-workers",
+		"inspect-workers", "decide-actions", "execute-actions", "save-state",
+		"generate-summary", "context-check", "burn-or-loop",
 	}
 	for i, expected := range expectedRefs {
 		if i >= len(steps) {
@@ -327,13 +328,18 @@ func TestWitnessPatrolMolecule(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("inbox-check should have no deps, got %v", steps[0].Needs)
 	}
 
-	// load-state needs inbox-check
+	// check-refinery needs inbox-check
 	if len(steps[1].Needs) != 1 || steps[1].Needs[0] != "inbox-check" {
-		t.Errorf("load-state should need inbox-check, got %v", steps[1].Needs)
+		t.Errorf("check-refinery should need inbox-check, got %v", steps[1].Needs)
+	}
+
+	// load-state needs check-refinery
+	if len(steps[2].Needs) != 1 || steps[2].Needs[0] != "check-refinery" {
+		t.Errorf("load-state should need check-refinery, got %v", steps[2].Needs)
 	}
 
 	// burn-or-loop needs context-check
-	if len(steps[9].Needs) != 1 || steps[9].Needs[0] != "context-check" {
-		t.Errorf("burn-or-loop should need context-check, got %v", steps[9].Needs)
+	if len(steps[10].Needs) != 1 || steps[10].Needs[0] != "context-check" {
+		t.Errorf("burn-or-loop should need context-check, got %v", steps[10].Needs)
 	}
 }

internal/cmd/spawn.go

@@ -407,6 +407,28 @@ func runSpawn(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		fmt.Printf("  %s\n", style.Dim.Render("Deacon notified of polecat start"))
 	}
 
+	// Auto-start infrastructure if not running (redundant system - Witness also self-checks)
+	// This ensures the merge queue and polecat monitor are alive to handle work
+	refineryRunning, _ := sessMgr.IsRunning("refinery")
+	if !refineryRunning {
+		fmt.Printf("Starting refinery for %s...\n", rigName)
+		if err := sessMgr.Start("refinery", session.StartOptions{}); err != nil {
+			fmt.Printf("  %s\n", style.Dim.Render(fmt.Sprintf("Warning: could not start refinery: %v", err)))
+		} else {
+			fmt.Printf("  %s\n", style.Dim.Render("Refinery started"))
+		}
+	}
+
+	witnessRunning, _ := sessMgr.IsRunning("witness")
+	if !witnessRunning {
+		fmt.Printf("Starting witness for %s...\n", rigName)
+		if err := sessMgr.Start("witness", session.StartOptions{}); err != nil {
+			fmt.Printf("  %s\n", style.Dim.Render(fmt.Sprintf("Warning: could not start witness: %v", err)))
+		} else {
+			fmt.Printf("  %s\n", style.Dim.Render("Witness started"))
+		}
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }