From 506ab806e4007770c74b61cfaf4872a2a7d40247 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Brian Picciano <me@mediocregopher.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2026 03:52:43 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] fix: propagate trie update diff result to trigger debug
 recorder writes (#22331)

Co-authored-by: Amp <amp@ampcode.com>
---
 .changelog/odd-donkeys-chirp.md                 |  5 +++++
 .../engine/tree/src/tree/payload_validator.rs   | 17 ++++++++++-------
 crates/engine/tree/src/tree/trie_updates.rs     |  7 +++++--
 3 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .changelog/odd-donkeys-chirp.md

diff --git a/.changelog/odd-donkeys-chirp.md b/.changelog/odd-donkeys-chirp.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..22629f46d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/odd-donkeys-chirp.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+reth-engine-tree: patch
+---
+
+Fixed `compare_trie_updates` to return `bool` indicating whether differences were found, and updated the caller to properly use the return value instead of treating all successful comparisons as having no differences.
diff --git a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_validator.rs b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_validator.rs
index a18e72712c..da18967c18 100644
--- a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_validator.rs
+++ b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_validator.rs
@@ -1104,17 +1104,20 @@ where
                 // Get a database provider to use as trie cursor factory
                 match overlay_factory.database_provider_ro() {
                     Ok(provider) => {
-                        if let Err(err) = super::trie_updates::compare_trie_updates(
+                        match super::trie_updates::compare_trie_updates(
                             &provider,
                             task_trie_updates,
                             serial_trie_updates,
                         ) {
-                            warn!(
-                                target: "engine::tree::payload_validator",
-                                %err,
-                                "Error comparing trie updates"
-                            );
-                            return true;
+                            Ok(has_diff) => return has_diff,
+                            Err(err) => {
+                                warn!(
+                                    target: "engine::tree::payload_validator",
+                                    %err,
+                                    "Error comparing trie updates"
+                                );
+                                return true;
+                            }
                         }
                     }
                     Err(err) => {
diff --git a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/trie_updates.rs b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/trie_updates.rs
index 332aec24bd..a757d55571 100644
--- a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/trie_updates.rs
+++ b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/trie_updates.rs
@@ -101,11 +101,13 @@ impl StorageTrieUpdatesDiff {
 
 /// Compares the trie updates from state root task, regular state root calculation and database,
 /// and logs the differences if there's any.
+///
+/// Returns `true` if there are differences.
 pub(crate) fn compare_trie_updates(
     trie_cursor_factory: impl TrieCursorFactory,
     task: TrieUpdates,
     regular: TrieUpdates,
-) -> Result<(), DatabaseError> {
+) -> Result<bool, DatabaseError> {
     let mut task = adjust_trie_updates(task);
     let mut regular = adjust_trie_updates(regular);
 
@@ -179,9 +181,10 @@ pub(crate) fn compare_trie_updates(
     }
 
     // log differences
+    let has_differences = diff.has_differences();
     diff.log_differences();
 
-    Ok(())
+    Ok(has_differences)
 }
 
 fn compare_storage_trie_updates<C: TrieCursor>(