[BUG] [v0.0.7] cortex dag graph --output ascii renders children in non-deterministic order — HashMap iteration causes scrambled task listing

[andrirevo]

Project

cortex

Description

cortex dag graph --output ascii renders child tasks in a non-deterministic order that changes between runs. When a root task has 10 children (Child0-Child9), they appear scrambled (e.g., Child6, Child5, Child4, Child3, Child1, Child8...) instead of in definition order or alphabetical order.

Error Message

N/A

Debug Logs

N?A

System Information

Cortex CLI v0.0.7
OS: macOS Darwin 25.3.0

Screenshots

https://github.com/springoliver/bounty_challenge_report_image/blob/main/cortex001.png

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a DAG with one root and 10 children (Child0 through Child9), all depending on Root
2. Run cortex dag graph --file dag.json --output ascii
3. Observe children appear in scrambled order (not alphabetical, not definition order)
4. Run again — order may change between runs

Expected Behavior

Children should be rendered in a stable, predictable order — either alphabetical by name or in definition order from the DAG file.

Actual Behavior

Children appear in random order determined by internal HashMap iteration. The order is: Child6, Child5, Child4, Child3, Child1, Child8, Child9, Child0, Child7, Child2 — neither alphabetical nor by definition.

Additional Context

No response

[atlas-cortex]

🔁 Validation Summary — Issue #53517

Issue is a duplicate of #50778 (similarity: 0.92)

Duplicate of #50778 — the original issue takes precedence.

Confidence Score: 5/5

• High confidence — this issue substantially overlaps with [BUG] [v0.0.7] cortex dag graph --output ascii renders children in non-deterministic order — HashMap iteration causes scrambled task listing #50778.

Validation Checks

Check	Status	Detail
Media Evidence	✅ Pass	Evidence found and accessible
Spam Detection	✅ Pass	Score: 16% — no spam signals
Duplicate Detection	❌ Duplicate	Matches existing issue #50778
Code Verification	✅ Pass	Bug confirmed in source code (confidence: 100%) — The code confirms that topological_sort relies on HashMap and HashSet iter
Edit History	✅ Pass	No suspicious edits
LLM Evaluation	❌ Fail	Issue is a duplicate of #50778 (similarity: 0.92)

Validation Pipeline

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flowchart TD
    A["Issue #53517"] --> B{"Media Check"}
    B -->|"✅ Found"| C{"Spam Check"}
    C -->|"✅ Clean"| D{"Duplicate Check"}
    D -->|"Matches #50778"| Z["🔁 Duplicate"]
    style Z fill:#ffa94d,color:#fff

Loading

Raw Evidence

{
  "media": {
    "hasMedia": true,
    "accessible": true,
    "urls": [
      "https://github.com/springoliver/bounty_challenge_report_image/blob/main/cortex001.png"
    ],
    "evidence": [
      "Found 1 media URL(s) via markdown parsing",
      "1 URL(s) accessible"
    ]
  },
  "spam": {
    "overallScore": 0.16058743169398906,
    "details": "template=0.24 (3 recent issues compared); burst=0.75 (4 issues in 2h window); parity=0.00; overall=0.32 (threshold=0.7); llm_spam=0.00 (The issue provides a highly specific title and a clear description of a non-deterministic rendering bug caused by HashMap iteration. The steps to reproduce are precise, and the expected versus actual behaviors are explicitly stated. A screenshot link is included in the body, fulfilling the evidence requirement. There are no signs of spam or template farming, and no duplicates were flagged.)"
  },
  "duplicate": {
    "isDuplicate": true,
    "originalIssue": 50778,
    "similarity": 0.9219945872298181,
    "topSimilar": [
      {
        "issueNumber": 50778,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] `cortex dag graph --output ascii` renders children in non-deterministic order — HashMap iteration causes scrambled task listing",
        "similarity": 0.9219945872298181
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 50829,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] cortex dag graph --output ascii renders children in non-deterministic order — HashMap iteration causes scrambled task listing",
        "similarity": 0.8951058922224469
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 52475,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] `cortex dag create --format text` lists tasks in nondeterministic order — task list shuffles between runs",
        "similarity": 0.7029971053777462
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 52546,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] `cortex dag graph --output dot` emits nodes in nondeterministic order — DOT output differs between runs for the same DAG",
        "similarity": 0.6824902563602738
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 50590,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] `cortex dag graph --output ascii` attaches dependent task to wrong parent when DAG has isolated nodes",
        "similarity": 0.6423735142889325
      }
    ]
  },
  "editHistory": {
    "fraudScore": 0,
    "editCount": 0,
    "details": "No edits detected"
  },
  "codeVerification": {
    "plausible": true,
    "confidence": 1,
    "reasoning": "The code confirms that `topological_sort` relies on `HashMap` and `HashSet` iteration, which is non-deterministic in Rust. This sort order is directly used by `print_ascii_graph` to display the tasks, leading to the reported scrambled and unstable ordering of child tasks.",
    "codeEvidence": "In `src/cortex-agents/src/task/dag.rs`, the `topological_sort` method iterates over `self.tasks.keys()` (a `HashMap`) and `self.dependents` (values are `HashSet`s) to build the sorted order. Since Rust's `HashMap` and `HashSet` use randomized hashing by default, the iteration order is non-deterministic. In `src/cortex-cli/src/dag_cmd/helpers.rs`, `print_ascii_graph` uses this non-deterministic `topological_sort` result to order the tasks when printing, causing the scrambled output described in the bug report.",
    "screenshotValid": true,
    "screenshotReasoning": "The screenshot analysis tool marked the screenshot as valid, indicating it shows the actual CLI output demonstrating the non-deterministic ordering."
  }
}

_{Validated by Atlas • 2026-05-04}