[Backend] Make /health not report 503 when the indexer is disabled or cold-started

[ogazboiz]

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Why this matters

The /health endpoint (backend/src/routes/health.routes.ts) returns a single overall status and uses it for the HTTP code (200 vs 503). It treats the service as degraded whenever indexerLag > 60 seconds — but on a freshly deployed instance, or one where STREAM_CONTRACT_ID is intentionally unset (indexer disabled), the indexer state row is stale or absent and the endpoint reports 503 even though the API itself is perfectly healthy. Container orchestrators (Render/Docker, see render.yaml / docker-compose.yml) use health checks for liveness/readiness, so a perpetually-503 health check can cause restart loops or block traffic for a service that is actually up.

Splitting liveness (process up + DB reachable) from readiness/indexer-lag, or making the indexer-lag contribution conditional on the indexer being enabled, makes the health signal trustworthy.

Acceptance criteria

• Distinguish core health (process + DB) from indexer freshness; do not return 503 purely because the indexer is disabled or has no state row yet.
• Keep reporting indexerLag in the body for observability, but only let it force a non-200 status when the indexer is actually enabled (STREAM_CONTRACT_ID set) and lagging.
• Optionally add a lightweight /health/live vs /health/ready split, or document the single-endpoint semantics clearly.
• Add/extend a test covering: DB up + indexer disabled returns 200; DB down returns 503.

Files to touch

• backend/src/routes/health.routes.ts
• backend/tests/ (new or existing health test)

Out of scope

• Prometheus / external monitoring integration.

[dolaoluwa574-source]

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[0xMegie]

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[dee-john]

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Hi, I'd like to work on this issue! because I am very conversant with solving problems like this!

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