fix(sequencer): reserve blob space for a transaction-less checkpoint tail block - #25436
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…tail block When a proposer runs out of sub-slots with the consumption cursor at a message prefix that is not a live L1 Inbox bucket end, it appends one transaction-less block to reach one so the checkpoint can be published at all. That block still writes its own block-end fields, but checkpoint blob accounting only ever reserved the current block's end fields, so ordinary packing could fill the checkpoint until the tail no longer fits. Packing now holds back one block's worth of end fields — `getNumBlockEndBlobFields()`, measured at 7 fields and 224 bytes for a real transaction-less block — while the checkpoint can still gain another block, releases it on the last block the checkpoint can hold, and lets the actual tail consume it by writing its own end fields. The checkpoint end marker is still deducted once from the total, so a tail appended to an existing checkpoint costs seven fields rather than eight. The transaction allowance is floored at zero so a full checkpoint reports no room instead of a negative one. This is local proposer packing policy: re-executing a peer's proposal reserves nothing, so no otherwise valid proposal becomes rejectable. Reserving blob space does not reserve build time or guarantee the extra block can be built. Message, per-block, block-count, timing and total blob limits are unchanged.
The tail reservation guard already requires isBuildingProposal, so the hoisted remainingBlocks and its `: 1` fallback bought nothing: inline the count into the guard and let the fair-share divisor keep the local it had before. `Math.max(1, n) > 1` and `n > 1` agree, so packing is unchanged. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Background
The L1 Inbox stores messages sent from Ethereum to Aztec and groups them into buckets. A checkpoint may consume
messages incrementally across several L2 blocks, but its final message count must equal the end of a live Inbox
bucket before the checkpoint can be published. If the scheduled block-building sub-slots finish before that
boundary is reached, the proposer can add a transaction-less tail block that consumes the remaining messages.
The problem
A transaction-less block still serializes block-end metadata into the checkpoint's blobs. The existing packing
calculation reserved space for the block currently being built, but not for a possible tail block.
The test captures the failure with the protocol's actual blob geometry:
leaves 24,575 fields for blocks.
transactions:
24,575 - 24,551 - 7 = 17.prefix that is not a live bucket endpoint, the required seven-field tail no longer fits.
fields would have left enough blob capacity for the tail.
What this changes
While another block can still follow, proposer-side packing now reserves two sets of block-end fields: seven for
the block being built and seven for a possible transaction-less tail. In the example, the transaction allowance is
therefore 10 fields:
24,575 - 24,551 - 7 - 7 = 10After using those 10 fields and writing the current block's seven fields, exactly seven fields remain. A real tail
block can consume that reservation, bringing block data to 24,575 fields; the separately accounted checkpoint-end
marker brings the encoded checkpoint to the full 24,576-field capacity.
The reservation is released when building the last block the checkpoint is allowed to contain, because no tail can
follow it. The transaction allowance is also floored at zero when the available capacity is smaller than the
required overhead.
What this does not do
This changes only the local proposer's transaction-packing policy. A validator re-executing another node's proposal
does not apply the reservation, so the change cannot make an otherwise valid peer proposal fail validation.
The reservation protects blob capacity only. It does not reserve execution time, guarantee that the tail can be
built before the duty ends, or make an unavailable Inbox endpoint reachable. It does not change message limits,
per-block limits, the maximum checkpoint block count, checkpoint timing, or total blob capacity.
Testing
Unit tests serialize a real transaction-less
L2Blockand pin its size at seven fields and 224 bytes. They covernear-capacity packing, the exact-fit case, being one field short, a zero transaction allowance, releasing the
reservation on the last possible block, consuming it with a real tail, and counting the checkpoint-end marker only
once. A separate case confirms that validator re-execution does not reserve tail space.
The tests exercise checkpoint-builder accounting; they do not simulate the full timed proposer flow or prove that
an extra block can always finish within the slot.