Problem

Upstream CI on main has been failing on Bun (ubuntu-latest) since 2026-04-09 — 14+ consecutive runs — with a single test failure:

(fail) Store Creation > createStore throws without explicit path in test mode
Expected substring: "Database path not set"
Received function did not throw

Root Cause

#537 fixed a real bug — the MCP server was resolving the wrong database path at startup — by adding enableProductionMode() at module scope in src/mcp/server.ts:

import { enableProductionMode } from "../store.js";

enableProductionMode();  // ← runs on every import

This flips the global _productionMode flag as a side effect of importing the module. test/mcp.test.ts imports startMcpHttpServer from this module, and while the HTTP Transport describe block is skipIf(!!process.env.CI), the import happens regardless of skip status. So _productionMode flips to true in CI, which later makes store.test.ts fail:

test("createStore throws without explicit path in test mode", () => {
  delete process.env.INDEX_PATH;
  expect(() => createStore()).toThrow("Database path not set");
});

In production mode, getDefaultDbPath() resolves a cache path instead of throwing — so the assertion fails.

Fix

Move enableProductionMode() from module scope into the two server entry points — startMcpServer() (stdio) and startMcpHttpServer() (HTTP). Both entry points still flip the flag before getDefaultDbPath() runs, so #537's original fix is preserved. Merely importing the module for its exports no longer mutates global state.

Testing

Verified against current main:

• Reproduced the CI failure on unmodified main (as expected — every main run since fix(mcp): call enableProductionMode before getDefaultDbPath #537 has failed).
• With this change applied, the failing test passes.
• qmd mcp and qmd mcp --http still enter production mode before path resolution — behaviour identical to before for end users.

Notes

This is a module-scope vs function-scope question rather than a conceptual disagreement with #537. If you'd prefer a different approach (e.g. explicit getDefaultDbPath({ production: true }) parameter, or moving the whole path-resolution logic), happy to adjust.

Relationship to #411 and #537

• #411 originally reported that qmd mcp crashed on startup because enableProductionMode() was never called before getDefaultDbPath().
• #537 fixed that by adding the call at module top level in src/mcp/server.ts.
• This PR keeps fix(mcp): call enableProductionMode before getDefaultDbPath #537's fix working — both startMcpServer (stdio) and startMcpHttpServer (HTTP) still enable production mode before resolving the database path — but moves the call out of module scope so importing the module for its exports (e.g. from test/mcp.test.ts) does not leak the flag into unrelated tests.

Net effect on #411's original symptom: unchanged (still fixed). Net effect on CI: Bun (ubuntu-latest) goes green again.