fix(gecloud): stop deleting a manual inverter_mode override during automatic config (#5056)

[kennedy-nic]

Fixes #5056

Summary

On GE Cloud devices where the automatic register scan finds no matching entity for inverter_mode (no enable_eco_mode register on this hardware class), async_automatic_config() called self.set_arg("inverter_mode", None). set_arg() treats None as "delete this key," so any value the user had explicitly set for inverter_mode in apps.yaml was deleted on every config refresh while ge_cloud_automatic: true — with no way to work around it from apps.yaml, since the key was gone again before adjust_inverter_mode() ever got a chance to read it.

This is exactly the class of problem export_limit already solves a few lines later in the same function: set_arg_auto(..., overwrite=False) (added for #4494 / PR #4500, and used again for site export limits in #4978) fills a key in when the user has set nothing, but leaves an explicit apps.yaml value alone rather than deleting it. inverter_mode had just never been switched over to it.

Fix

- self.set_arg("inverter_mode", build_entities("switch", ["enable_eco_mode"]))
+ self.set_arg_auto("inverter_mode", build_entities("switch", ["enable_eco_mode"]), overwrite=False)

Scoped to inverter_mode only — the other set_arg(key, build_entities(...)) call sites in this function (charge_rate, discharge_rate, reserve, charge_limit, scheduled_charge_enable, etc.) have the same delete-on-None behaviour but aren't part of this issue, per the reporter's own framing.

Testing

A GitHub bot triage review of the issue flagged that the existing coverage at test_ge_cloud.py:4164 (asserting inverter_mode is None when the eco toggle is absent) only passed because that assertion can't distinguish "key never set" from "key deleted" — it never actually populated args_from_apps_yaml with a manual value, so it never exercised set_arg_auto's overwrite=False branch for this key at all. Added a new case to _test_async_automatic_config that seeds both config_args["inverter_mode"] and (critically) base.args_from_apps_yaml["inverter_mode"] with a manually-configured entity, then runs auto-config against a device with no eco-mode register, and asserts the manual value survives.

• tools/triage_test.sh ge_cloud: all passing, including the new case — verified red on the unfixed code and green on the fix. The new case is an added assertion inside the existing automatic_config test function rather than a separately-registered test, so the total stays at 94 either way (Predbat's suite counts registered test functions, not individual assertions); what changes is whether that function passes. Confirmed the wiring directly: reverting just the one-line gecloud.py change while keeping the new test flips automatic_config to failing (EXCEPTION in automatic_config: manually configured inverter_mode should survive auto-config when no eco toggle switch is discovered, 93 passed / 1 failed of 94); restoring the fix returns it to 94 passed, 0 failed.
• run_pre_commit (pre-commit run --all-files + ./run_all --quick): passing aside from four pre-existing failures unrelated to gecloud — two Windows-specific environment issues (a pathlib crash in tools/triage_daemon.py, and a ctypes/glibc LoadLibrary(None) bug hit by two unrelated tests) and a missing compiled prediction kernel causing two golden-baseline tests to drift onto the slower Python fallback engine — all four reproducing identically on unmodified main. With those excluded, the remaining 306 quick tests pass.

Related

• Currently predbat does not work via GivTCP on GivEnergy 3 phase Inverters #1607 — 3-phase GivEnergy inverters generally lacking a controllable mode/eco register via GivTCP.
• 3phase GE Cloud: no enable_eco_mode switch (or anything eco/demand-mode related) is created. So inverter_mode slot is empty #4909 — the underlying gap this lets users work around: no native enable_eco_mode register on some 3-phase GEC hardware, so inverter_mode can now be supplied manually and will actually stick.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

No unresolved blocking issues were identified.

Pull request overview

This PR preserves manually configured inverter_mode values during GE Cloud automatic configuration.

Changes:

• Uses set_arg_auto(..., overwrite=False).
• Adds regression coverage for manual override preservation.

File summaries

File	Description
apps/predbat/tests/test_ge_cloud.py	Tests that manual overrides survive automatic configuration.
apps/predbat/gecloud.py	Preserves explicit inverter_mode values.

Review details

• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 0
• Review effort level: Lite

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