Unstick studio queue when Ready but waiting jobs will not start.

A failed held shot-batch no longer blocks waiting work, ghost Comfy pending no longer freezes Start now, and Start now force-starts when the GPU is idle.

Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>

server/utils/studioQueue.ts

@@ -358,7 +358,20 @@ export async function videoJobsBusy() {
     return pendingAlive(job)
   }))) return true
   const queue = await fetchLiveQueue()
-  if (queue) return queue.running > 0 || queue.pending > 0
+  if (queue) {
+    if (queue.running > 0) return true
+    // Ghost queue_pending after a clear/restart used to show Ready in the header
+    // (health only checks running) while forever blocking Start now / auto-dispatch.
+    if (queue.pending > 0) {
+      if (listJobs().some(job => liveJobOwnsGpu(job) || jobIsLocallySubmitting(job))) return true
+      if (listPendingJobs().some((pending) => {
+        if (!pending.promptId || pending.stopAfterCurrent) return false
+        return Date.now() - pending.startedAt < PENDING_ORPHAN_MS
+      })) return true
+      return false
+    }
+    return false
+  }
   return listPendingJobs().some((pending) => {
     if (!pending.promptId || pending.stopAfterCurrent) return false
     const live = getJob(pending.jobId)
@@ -610,8 +623,8 @@ export async function cancelOrphanQueue(owner: string, queueId: string) {
 
 export async function requestCutIn(owner: string, id: string) {
   const jobsNow = readJobs(owner)
+  // Only a live "running" row is generating. Held leftovers must not steal Start now.
   const running = jobsNow.find(job => job.status === 'running')
-    || jobsNow.find(job => job.status === 'held')
   const target = jobsNow.find(job => job.id === id)
   if (!target) throw createError({ statusCode: 404, statusMessage: 'Queued job not found' })
   if (target.status !== 'waiting') {
@@ -646,7 +659,30 @@ export async function requestCutIn(owner: string, id: string) {
     }
   }
   await kickStudioQueue()
-  return updated
+  // GPU idle + still waiting = dispatcher missed it (held deadlock, false busy, etc). Force start.
+  let started = false
+  const after = readJobs(owner).find(job => job.id === id)
+  if (after?.status === 'running') {
+    started = true
+  } else if (after?.status === 'waiting') {
+    const queue = await fetchLiveQueue().catch(() => null)
+    const comfyRendering = Boolean(queue && queue.running > 0)
+    const liveOwns = listJobs().some(liveJobOwnsGpu)
+    if (!comfyRendering && !liveOwns) {
+      try {
+        await startStudioJob(after)
+        started = readJobs(owner).find(job => job.id === id)?.status === 'running'
+      } catch {
+        started = false
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  const latest = readJobs(owner).find(job => job.id === id) || updated
+  return {
+    ...summarizeStudioJob(latest),
+    started,
+    deferred: Boolean(running) && !started
+  }
 }
 
 export async function retryStudioJob(owner: string, id: string) {
@@ -860,9 +896,8 @@ async function dispatchStudioQueue() {
   // Repair every owner first. videoJobsBusy() looks at all owners — fixing only the
   // current owner left a stuck "running" row on a later owner blocking the GPU forever.
   const owners = listOwnersWithStudioQueues()
-  const stores = new Map<string, StudioQueueStore>()
   for (const owner of owners) {
-    const store = await mutateStore(owner, (current) => {
+    await mutateStore(owner, (current) => {
       migrateGlobalPause(current)
       repairStaleJobs(current.jobs)
       const next = pruneDone(current.jobs)
@@ -873,7 +908,6 @@ async function dispatchStudioQueue() {
         jobs: current.jobs.map(item => structuredClone(item))
       }
     })
-    stores.set(owner, store)
   }
   if (await videoJobsBusy()) {
     if (owners.some(owner => readJobs(owner).some(job => job.status === 'waiting'))) {
@@ -881,8 +915,9 @@ async function dispatchStudioQueue() {
     }
     return
   }
+  // Re-read after videoJobsBusy — reap/settle may have rewritten disk rows.
   for (const owner of owners) {
-    const store = stores.get(owner) || readStore(owner)
+    const store = readStore(owner)
     const cutIn = pickCutIn(store.jobs)
     if (cutIn) {
       await startStudioJob(cutIn)
@@ -891,8 +926,9 @@ async function dispatchStudioQueue() {
     const held = pickHeld(store.jobs)
     if (held?.shotQueueId) {
       const resumed = await resumeHeldStudioJob(held)
-      if (!resumed) scheduleKickRetry()
-      return
+      if (resumed) return
+      // Failed resume used to `return` here and starve every waiting job forever.
+      scheduleKickRetry()
     }
     const waiting = pickWaiting(store.jobs)
     if (waiting) {
@@ -913,8 +949,20 @@ async function resumeHeldStudioJob(item: StudioJob) {
     })
     return false
   }
-  const { isShotQueueCancelled } = await import('~/server/utils/shotQueue')
-  if (isShotQueueCancelled(latest.shotQueueId)) return false
+  const { isShotQueueCancelled, getShotQueue } = await import('~/server/utils/shotQueue')
+  const shotQueue = getShotQueue(item.ownerKey, latest.shotQueueId)
+  if (!shotQueue || isShotQueueCancelled(latest.shotQueueId) || pendingSegmentCount(shotQueue) <= 0) {
+    await patchStudioJob(item.ownerKey, item.id, (job) => {
+      if (job.status === 'cancelled') return
+      job.status = 'complete'
+      job.liveJobId = undefined
+      job.holdForCutIn = false
+      job.pauseAfterCurrent = false
+      job.pausedByUser = false
+      job.updatedAt = Date.now()
+    })
+    return false
+  }
   await patchStudioJob(item.ownerKey, item.id, (job) => {
     if (job.status === 'cancelled') return
     job.status = 'running'
@@ -936,7 +984,19 @@ async function resumeHeldStudioJob(item: StudioJob) {
   } catch (error) {
     const message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error)
     if (/already processing/i.test(message)) return true
-    if (/removed|not found/i.test(message)) return false
+    if (/removed|not found/i.test(message)) {
+      await patchStudioJob(item.ownerKey, item.id, (job) => {
+        if (job.status === 'cancelled') return
+        job.status = 'complete'
+        job.liveJobId = undefined
+        job.holdForCutIn = false
+        job.pauseAfterCurrent = false
+        job.pausedByUser = false
+        job.lastError = message
+        job.updatedAt = Date.now()
+      }).catch(() => null)
+      return false
+    }
     const transient = /offline|never answered|host agent|unreachable|asleep|Starting Comfy|ComfyUI \(1\)|instance picker/i.test(message)
     await patchStudioJob(item.ownerKey, item.id, (job) => {
       if (job.status === 'cancelled') return