ADR 0044: Closed transaction guard ownership

• Status: Accepted

• Date: 2026-10-04

Context

The installed C and C++ consumers reproduce a lifecycle defect in release 0.5: close transaction A, begin B, release A, then begin C. C incorrectly succeeds while B remains open. Commit, rollback, and failed commit all expose the defect. C++ move and destruction expose the same C handle lifetime.

Decision

Only an open transaction owns the production’s open-transaction guard. Commit and rollback relinquish that ownership; destruction clears the guard only when the transaction is still open. Closed handles may remain allocated while a newer transaction is open. Failed commit still closes the transaction.

This restores the documented one-open-transaction contract without changing C declarations, symbols, ownership operations, projections, or schema. No ABI bump or consumer migration is required. Public C and C++ installed tests cover all three terminal paths and opening again after releasing B.

Standards impact

This is local handle bookkeeping. It adds no identifier, vocabulary, mapping, normalization, or persisted domain fact under the standards policy.