orca/docs/reference/npm-server-design.md

npm server design

Summary

Orca should run as a remote host on a machine with Node.js without installing the Electron desktop application. The npm distribution reuses the desktop host runtime, pairing protocol, terminal daemon, and web client while omitting Electron-only capabilities such as browser panes.

The promoted stable first-run contract is:

npx @stablyai/orca@latest

On a headless machine this starts a foreground server, chooses a safe reachable address, and prints a web-client URL and pairing URL. A non-interactive serve command retains explicit listener, advertised-address, port, and JSON controls.

The package is not published yet, so that command does not resolve during development. Release candidate testing uses npx @stablyai/orca@rc; @latest becomes valid only after an exact validated candidate is promoted.

Problem

orca serve currently launches the packaged Electron executable. Linux hosts therefore need the full AppImage, Electron libraries, FUSE or AppImage extraction, Chromium sandbox support, and Xvfb. Pairing also requires operators to understand the difference between the bound listener and the address embedded in an access link.

The remote runtime already owns the product behavior needed by a server: E2EE pairing, device credentials, WebSocket transport, the web client, terminal persistence, workspaces, files, Git, agents, and orchestration. The missing boundary is the process environment around that runtime.

Goals

• Install and run the host through npm/npx without Electron, Chromium, Xvfb, or FUSE.
• Preserve the existing RPC, E2EE pairing, readiness, and persisted-state contracts.
• Keep one implementation of workspace, terminal, Git, file, agent, and orchestration behavior.
• Make zero-argument startup useful over SSH without exposing a public interface by accident.
• Keep desktop orca serve working during migration.
• Let the npm host and desktop app coexist safely as distinct hosts.
• Support folder workspaces and Git worktrees.
• Preserve macOS, Linux, Windows, SSH, WSL, Git 2.25, and glibc 2.31 compatibility.

Non-goals

• Hosting browser, emulator, computer-use, speech, or renderer-only features in the initial npm package.
• Replacing the remote wire protocol.
• Making a client-local fallback browser part of the remote host or giving it remote ownership.
• Automatically configuring a VPN, firewall, reverse proxy, or public network listener.
• Shipping an Electron binary inside an npm wrapper.
• Letting two processes write one profile or automatically handing an npm host to the desktop app in the initial release.

User experience

Guided foreground start

After stable promotion:

npx @stablyai/orca@latest

Before promotion, release-candidate operators use the non-default dist-tag:

npx @stablyai/orca@rc

Startup chooses an advertised address in this order:

1. an explicit operator value;
2. a detected Tailscale IPv4 address;
3. loopback with a copyable SSH-tunnel command.

LAN exposure remains explicit. Public addresses require an explicit advertised address. Discovery does not modify Tailscale or firewall configuration.

Human output distinguishes the two network roles:

Orca server ready
Bound endpoint: ws://127.0.0.1:6768
Advertised endpoint: ws://127.0.0.1:6768
Web client URL: http://127.0.0.1:6768/web-index.html#pairing=...
Pairing URL: orca://pair?code=...

Automation

orca-ide serve --port 6768 --pairing-address 100.64.1.20 --json

Existing serve flags and readiness schema version 1 remain valid. New fields must be optional.

Package and executable names

The public package is @stablyai/orca. The durable executable is orca-ide, avoiding conflicts with the Linux screen reader. The package also exposes orca so npm can select the expected bin for npx @stablyai/orca. The package is currently unpublished; source documentation must not describe @latest as available until registry promotion is complete.

Architecture

Electron entry ----+
                   +--> shared host runtime --> RPC / pairing / files / Git / PTY
Node server entry -+
       |                                   |
       +--> Node process environment       +--> optional capabilities
            paths, version, lifecycle           Electron browser backend
            networking, notifications           browserless Node backend

The Node distribution has three build outputs:

• the server CLI and composition root;
• the terminal daemon entry;
• the static web client.

Native packages remain npm dependencies so they target the host Node ABI. The npm package must not depend on or contain Electron, Electron Updater, browser tooling, emulator tooling, or speech models.

Transitional process boundary

Some shared modules still import Electron-owned process primitives. The Node build resolves those imports to a narrow process-environment facade. Every exposed member has either a Node implementation or a fail-closed unsupported result. Browser and renderer behavior is never emulated. The facade is a migration boundary; new host-runtime code must depend on concrete host interfaces rather than adding facade surface.

CI inspects the built package, dependency manifest, and bundle metadata so an Electron runtime dependency cannot enter transitively.

The package executable is the only process entry owner. Importing the reusable server composition must never start a listener by itself; this keeps --help, version, and non-server control commands from accidentally launching a second host.

Browserless service composition

The Node composition root owns the non-Electron services that desktop runtime setup normally wires. It installs Claude and Codex account services, rate-limit collection and settings sync, and the account subscription backing exposed by runtime RPCs. A durable agent-session claim signer is loaded from the server profile.

AgentHook supplies lifecycle and status snapshots, compatibility authority, PTY environment, and live Claude rate-limit observations. Headless PTY registration resolves managed Claude and Codex launch environments. The composition also installs orchestration transport and startup recovery, scheduled and manual headless automation dispatch, artifact cloud sharing, AI Vault Codex discovery and resume resolution, and commit-message agent environment resolution.

Capability behavior

The Node host publishes the existing runtime capabilities except those requiring a browser backend. In particular it omits:

• browser.screencast.v1;
• browser.headless.v1;
• browser.certificate-trust.v1.

Clients must treat the missing capability as unsupported on that host. A remote browser request must not fall back to the viewing computer.

No protocol version bump is required. The server uses existing message shapes and optional capabilities. Mixed-version testing covers an old client with the Node host and a new client with the Electron host.

Storage and security

The server stores state beneath an OS-standard Orca data directory. The directory is created with owner-only permissions where the platform supports POSIX modes. Pairing identity and device files reuse the current secure-file handling and survive package updates.

The npm host deliberately uses a different default profile from the desktop app: Orca Server under the platform application-data directory on macOS and Windows, and orca under the XDG state directory on Linux. An explicit --data-dir or ORCA_SERVER_DATA_DIR still selects one npm profile for service deployments. A process-incarnation-fenced lock prevents two npm processes from writing that profile concurrently; different npm profiles and the desktop default profile can remain live at the same time.

Foreground startup prints a pairing credential unless --no-pairing is set. Automation and service workflows that retain logs must either use that flag or treat readiness output as a secret. Pairing material stays in URL fragments for the web client so reverse proxies and referrer headers do not receive it.

The default listener is loopback unless the operator selects a private reachable interface. A detected Tailscale address is private but is not proof of authorization; E2EE pairing remains mandatory.

Native dependency policy

The supported package must install on Linux x64 and arm64 without a compiler. node-pty and file watcher binaries are checked in clean containers. Linux binaries must retain the Ubuntu 20.04 / glibc 2.31 floor. macOS and Windows receive package smoke tests before release support is claimed.

The initial Node engine remains aligned with the repository. Supporting an older active LTS can be considered only after the server build and native dependency matrix pass there.

Shutdown and persistence

SIGINT and SIGTERM synchronously cancel startup before joining its current phase. Teardown then stops RPC listeners; cancels local or SSH prechecks, aborts and drains headless automations, and waits for AgentHook shutdown through the composition root; disconnects from the terminal daemon; flushes the store; and releases the profile lock. Startup failures join the same coordinator. A failed step is recorded while later steps still run. A normal server shutdown does not kill daemon-owned terminals. Startup reconnects to the same daemon and device identity. A failed shutdown that does not settle within 30 seconds exits unsuccessfully instead of leaving a wedged server process.

Cancellation after worktree creation begins reconciles authoritative Git state even if Git mutated before reporting an abort. Destructive rollback requires the exact branch, requested or canonical path, and managed-worktree instance. Empty or unavailable SSH inventory is ambiguous and fails closed. SSH setup mutations use client-scoped IDs and a relay settlement/release handshake, so rollback cannot race a late setup write; old relays retain the original success path and fail closed when a failed mutation cannot be confirmed settled.

Every listener, socket, timer, and signal handler installed by the Node composition root has a matching joined cleanup path before the process exits.

Safe npm server updates

The npm executable is a supervisor, not the long-lived host itself:

npx / orca-ide supervisor
  ├─ restartable versioned host worker
  └─ separately owned terminal daemon and PTYs

The supervisor starts the host worker over an IPC channel and waits for readiness containing the exact package version and runtime ID. Stopping or replacing a worker uses the normal joined host shutdown, which disconnects from the terminal daemon without killing daemon-owned terminals. Restarting the terminal daemon is never part of an npm package update.

The existing remote-server update RPC and client UI remain the only remote update contract. A new client may add an optional exact target version to the existing check request; older hosts ignore it and newer hosts must continue to support requests where it is absent. No terminal-stream opcode or required response field is added.

An automatic npm update follows this transaction:

1. Resolve an exact published @stablyai/orca version. Never activate a dist-tag or range.
2. Install it into a temporary directory beneath the server profile's runtime directory.
3. Run the candidate's side-effect-free preflight with the same Node executable. Preflight verifies package identity, exact version, required files, external dependencies, and native module load.
4. Write an install-complete sentinel and atomically rename the candidate into its immutable version directory.
5. Return the accepted install result with an unguessable receipt bound to the authenticated paired device. The same device may retry a lost install response and recover the same receipt; another device cannot retrieve or acknowledge it. The client echoes the receipt on a later authenticated status request, and requests without it cannot trigger activation.
6. Persist a pending handoff before stopping the current worker.
7. Start the candidate privately and require an exact-version prepared message while its RPC listener remains closed.
8. Atomically select that immutable version, then grant the prepared candidate permission to open RPC and require its applied acknowledgement.
9. Require public readiness for the exact candidate version and runtime ID.
10. Require an applied success acknowledgement for the same receipt before the paired client can display the update as complete.
11. On any failure, restore the previous durable selection, restart the previous worker, and expose a redacted originating failure so the client does not wait for a generic timeout.

Only one check, download, or activation may run per profile. A repeated request for an already complete immutable version reuses it after preflight. Incomplete staging directories are removed; an existing complete version is never overwritten. Paths received over IPC are not trusted: the supervisor derives candidate paths from the profile and exact version and verifies their sentinel.

The foreground local recovery path stays intentionally unsurprising:

# Stop only the npm supervisor and host; daemon-backed terminals remain alive.
Ctrl+C
npx @stablyai/orca@latest

Remote update from a connected client is the primary no-shell path. The server checks, stages, preflights, restarts, and reconnects while the client displays the existing checking, downloading, restarting, success, or actionable failure states. A foreground supervisor crash cannot promise availability, but relaunching the command adopts the last successfully selected immutable runtime and reconnects to the durable terminal daemon.

Worker shutdown uses a joined supervisor-to-worker IPC request on macOS, Linux, and Windows, with a bounded OS-level kill only as a failure fallback. The install-response acknowledgement replaces a timing delay: replacement cannot begin until a client has received the result and echoes its unique receipt on a later authenticated status request. Other clients cannot trigger the handoff by checking status, and each remote RPC may use a fresh WebSocket connection.

Remote updates replace the versioned host worker but intentionally do not replace the already running supervisor executable. Worker-compatible releases update remotely. A release that changes the supervisor protocol requires the documented local Ctrl+C plus npx relaunch; candidate preflight rejects an incompatible protocol before the active worker is stopped.

The first release does not install a system service or mutate a global npm installation. A future service command may supervise the same versioned-worker protocol; it must not introduce a second update backend or move PTY ownership into the host worker.

Update acceptance requires two independent continuity signals: the terminal daemon PID and PTY identity remain unchanged, and a marker written after the replacement becomes ready is observed on the paired client. Reconnect alone is insufficient. Tests also cover failed preflight, candidate exit before readiness, rollback, duplicate requests, signal races, stale IPC, and a newer client against an older manually updated server.

Desktop coexistence and handoff

The initial npm host and desktop app use separate default data directories. They can run on the same machine without sharing writable state, but they appear as separate Orca hosts and opening the desktop app does not take ownership of the npm host.

The intended follow-up is a coordinated handoff, not an attempt to turn the running Node process into Electron. Standalone-backend architectures keep the host process independent and let desktop clients attach to or supervise it. Orca can move toward that model while keeping browser panes desktop-local.

The current npm profile lock is only a same-profile single-writer guard. It does not let desktop discover the npm host, transfer ownership, reuse its identity, or reconnect clients, and therefore must not be presented as desktop takeover support.

A safe handoff requires:

1. one cross-process profile lease with an owner identity and generation;
2. an authenticated local request from the desktop app to the npm host;
3. a host checkpoint followed by listener shutdown and explicit lease release;
4. desktop acquisition of the next generation before it opens the profile;
5. reuse of the device registry, E2EE keypair, runtime metadata, and durable terminal daemon;
6. client reconnect without re-pairing and terminal input/output after daemon adoption;
7. bounded rollback to the npm host if desktop startup fails before readiness.

No implementation may copy a live profile, infer ownership from a PID file alone, or let both processes publish runtime metadata. A desktop-only browser backend must remain a capability of the desktop owner rather than silently executing remote browser work on a viewing client.

Packaging gates

The publishable tarball must:

• contain the server, daemon, web client, license, README, and package manifest;
• exclude Electron, desktop assets, source maps with local paths, test fixtures, and secrets;
• have no runtime dependency on electron or electron-updater;
• expose executable orca and orca-ide bins;
• report the exact package version in runtime status;
• pass npm pack --dry-run inventory and size assertions.

Validation topology

The deterministic integration oracle is:

1. start the built Node server with isolated state and port 0;
2. parse readiness schema version 1;
3. prove the web client is served;
4. decode the pairing offer and authenticate over the real WebSocket transport;
5. call status.get and assert browser capabilities are absent;
6. add and open a folder workspace;
7. spawn a terminal, send a unique marker, and observe it through the paired stream;
8. restart the server and prove device identity and terminal continuity;
9. stop the server and prove no listener or child-process leak.

Docker runs the same package on Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and 24.04 where images and Node availability permit. The test records host runtime identity, daemon PID, connection identity, PTY identity, and the terminal marker.

Rollout

Registry bootstrap is the only external prerequisite. The @stablyai npm organization must own @stablyai/orca, and that package must trust .github/workflows/release-cut.yml as an npm Trusted Publisher. Trusted publishing uses GitHub OIDC and requires no long-lived NPM_TOKEN secret. If npm does not allow configuring a trusted publisher before the package exists, publish the first exact rc tarball once with an organization-scoped granular token and required 2FA, configure the trusted publisher immediately, then remove the bootstrap token. Release CI verifies the existing registry SHA-1 against its locally packed tarball and verifies or repairs the expected dist-tag before treating a retry as complete. Only a plain X.Y.Z-rc.N advances rc; suffixed prereleases use the non-user-facing build tag.

1. Publish an immutable candidate with an explicit non-default tag, for example npm publish --tag rc; never let the first publication implicitly claim latest.
2. Verify the registry dist-tags, install @rc on the supported package matrix, and retain the exact version that passed.
3. Keep desktop orca serve as the documented stable path while collecting candidate install failures.
4. Promote that exact version with npm dist-tag add @stablyai/orca@<version> latest only after required gates pass. Ship UI and stable docs that recommend @latest no earlier than this step.
5. Move rc to later candidates independently; rollback latest to a previously validated exact version rather than republishing mutable bytes.
6. Add service installation, readiness-based immutable updates, and desktop-managed SSH bootstrap.
7. Consider an opt-in browser sidecar only after the browserless server is stable.

Implementation checklist

Design and boundaries

• Record goals, non-goals, security defaults, wire policy, and validation topology.
• Add the Node server composition root.
• Add the Node process-environment facade.
• Keep the desktop composition root behavior unchanged.
• Prohibit Electron runtime dependencies in the server build.
• Keep executable dispatch in the package entry so importing server composition has no startup side effect.

Runtime

• Initialize persistent state in an isolated server data directory.
• Initialize or adopt the durable terminal daemon.
• Register the headless PTY controller.
• Wire Claude and Codex accounts, rate limits, subscriptions, and runtime-target settings sync.
• Load the durable agent-session claim signer from the server profile.
• Wire AgentHook lifecycle, snapshots, compatibility authority, PTY environment, and rate-limit observations.
• Resolve account-aware Claude and Codex PTY launches.
• Wire orchestration transport plus prepare, refresh, and reconcile recovery.
• Dispatch scheduled and manual automations without a renderer.
• Wire artifact sharing, AI Vault Codex resume, and commit-message agent environments.
• Start local and WebSocket RPC transports.
• Serve the static web client.
• Publish readiness schema version 1.
• Generate runtime-scoped E2EE pairing offers.
• Omit browser capabilities and fail remote browser requests explicitly.
• Join RPC stop, composition drain, daemon disconnect, store flush, and lock release in order on signals and startup errors.
• Cancel startup before signal teardown and prove pre-readiness SIGTERM prints no credential, exits cleanly, and leaves the profile reusable.
• Run the npm host as a supervised worker while leaving the terminal daemon independent.
• Stage exact immutable npm versions, preflight them, and select them atomically.
• Roll back to the previous worker when candidate readiness fails.
• Persist handoff failure state so a reconnected client receives the exact failure.
• Wire the npm backend into the existing remote-server updater RPC and UI.

CLI and networking

• Support zero-argument guided startup.
• Retain serve, --port, --pairing-address, --no-pairing, and --json.
• Detect Tailscale without changing its configuration.
• Default to loopback and print an SSH-tunnel path when no private address is selected.
• Validate ports and advertised addresses before starting.
• Support credential-free automation with --no-pairing.

npm package

• Add @stablyai/orca package metadata and both executable names.
• Build the server and daemon as plain Node outputs.
• Include the built web client.
• Install native dependencies for the Node ABI.
• Add tarball inventory, size, executable, license, and dependency gates.
• Verify the tarball contains no Electron runtime.
• Publish the first immutable candidate under the non-default rc dist-tag.
• Promote the exact matrix-validated candidate to latest before stable onboarding ships.

Candidate onboarding

• Add the release-candidate npm command to the remote-host connection UI.
• Explain Tailscale, SSH-tunnel, and explicit LAN choices.
• Switch stable docs and product onboarding from @rc to @latest after exact-version promotion.
• Link the shorter npm-server documentation from the existing Linux guide.
• Capture visual proof for the UI change.

Desktop coexistence

• Use separate npm and desktop profiles so both installations can run safely today.
• Fence one npm profile to one live writer without blocking different profiles.
• Document the ownership, identity, daemon, and rollback contract for a future handoff.

Future desktop handoff follow-up (not part of the initial release)

• Add a cross-process profile lease with generation fencing.
• Let desktop discover and authenticate to the local npm host.
• Checkpoint and transfer ownership without two live profile writers.
• Preserve pairing identity and daemon-backed terminal continuity across the handoff.
• Add failure-before-yield, failure-after-yield, mixed-version, and rollback oracles.
• Add packaged macOS, Linux, and Windows desktop-handoff journeys.

Tests

• Unit-test CLI parsing, address discovery, paths, readiness, and shutdown.
• Test the built package with the real WebSocket/E2EE transport.
• Test folder workspaces and Git worktrees.
• Test terminal marker delivery and daemon continuity across restart.
• Run the existing cross-version wire regression and verify no wire shape or opcode changed.
• Test missing browser capabilities, explicit rejection, and no local fallback in remote RPCs.
• Run clean Docker tests on Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and 24.04 amd64 and 20.04 arm64.
• Verify the glibc 2.31 floor and Node native ABI.
• Pass the installed-package runtime oracle on Windows Server 2022 x64; macOS arm64 passed locally.
• Prove both installed bins route zero-argument, serve, help/version, and non-server control commands exactly once without eagerly initializing the wrong runtime.
• Record installed CLI startup/readiness timing and subprocess counts on the final package.
• Prove exact-version replacement with unchanged daemon PID and PTY identity.
• Prove terminal output and input after replacement with pre/post-handoff markers.
• Prove failed preflight never stops the current worker.
• Prove candidate failure rolls back and reports an actionable error without a reconnect timeout.
• Prove duplicate, stale, and concurrent activation requests cannot replace the selected worker.
• Run the update oracle against locally packed old/new tarballs and in the Linux Docker matrix.

Accepted platform follow-ups

• Run the installed-package runtime oracle inside WSL.
• Run the installed-package runtime oracle on Windows arm64 hardware.
• Add and validate nested SSH connection-manager lifecycle parity for the browserless host.

Release readiness

• Run typecheck, lint, focused tests, and the full relevant test suite.
• Audit network failure, retry, cleanup, and bounded resource behavior.
• Audit security, package contents, scripts, and dependency changes.
• Audit persisted-state and mobile/old-client compatibility.
• Audit macOS, Linux, Windows, WSL, SSH, and path behavior; retain runtime gaps below.
• Re-run the final-head focused selector and workflow contract suite and record their actual counts below.
• Attach package/Docker evidence and UI visual proof to the PR.
• Complete the PR description with validation commands and remaining platform gaps.

Validation record and residual gaps

The installed-tarball history covers its inventory, executable, license, dependency, web-client, real E2EE, workspace, Git, PTY, shutdown, and restart-continuity oracle on macOS; Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and 24.04 amd64; and Ubuntu 20.04 arm64. Earlier package candidates were rerun on all three amd64 Ubuntu versions. The Ubuntu 20.04 runs used stock Git 2.25.1 and verified the active native PTY against glibc 2.31 without a compiler, Electron, Chromium, Xvfb, or FUSE installed.

The current combined selector passed 650 tests across 48 safe-update, server, RPC, cross-version wire, onboarding, browserless composition, automation, precheck, profile-lock, readiness, installed-process, AgentHook, and shutdown files. Four workflow and release-contract files passed 66 tests with one platform-specific skip:

pnpm exec vitest run --config config/vitest.config.ts \
  config/scripts/node-server-installed-process-harness.test.ts \
  config/scripts/node-server-verifier-daemon-cleanup.test.ts \
  config/scripts/node-server-verifier-git-fixture.test.ts \
  config/scripts/node-server-verifier-host-path.test.ts \
  src/cli/runtime-client-deferral.test.ts \
  src/main/agent-hooks/server.test.ts \
  src/main/automations/headless-completion-settlement.test.ts \
  src/main/automations/headless-work-drain.test.ts \
  src/main/automations/precheck-runner.test.ts \
  src/main/automations/service-precheck.test.ts \
  src/main/automations/service.test.ts \
  src/main/runtime/pairing-endpoint.test.ts \
  src/main/runtime/runtime-rpc.test.ts \
  src/main/server/serve-readiness.test.ts \
  src/node-server/browserless-automation-dispatcher.test.ts \
  src/node-server/browserless-runtime-composition.test.ts \
  src/node-server/package-cli-deferral.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-address-discovery.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-bind-host.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-cli-arguments.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-paths.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-profile-environment.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-profile-process-lock.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-shutdown-coordinator.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-signal-shutdown.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-websocket-readiness.test.ts \
  src/node-server/server-window-graph.test.ts \
  src/renderer/src/components/settings/NodeServerSetupCallout.test.tsx \
  src/renderer/src/components/settings/RuntimeHostAccessForm.test.tsx \
  src/renderer/src/components/sidebar/AddRemoteHostFields.test.tsx \
  tests/e2e/cross-version-wire/cross-version-terminal-wire.unit.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-supervisor-worker-transition.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-supervised-worker.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-pinned-runtime.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-server-updater.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-serve-supervisor.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-supervisor-protocol.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-supervisor-state.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-process-runner.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-update-error-classification.test.ts \
  src/node-server/npm-runtime-version.test.ts \
  src/renderer/src/runtime/remote-server-install-failure-probe.test.ts \
  src/renderer/src/runtime/remote-server-update-errors.test.ts \
  src/renderer/src/runtime/remote-server-restart-wait.test.ts \
  src/renderer/src/runtime/remote-server-update-coordinator.test.ts \
  src/main/runtime/remote-server-updater.test.ts \
  src/main/runtime/rpc/methods/updater.test.ts \
  config/scripts/node-server-package-workflow-contract.test.mjs
pnpm exec vitest run --config config/vitest.config.ts \
  config/scripts/pr-workflow-parallelism.test.mjs \
  config/scripts/node-server-package-workflow-contract.test.mjs \
  config/scripts/generate-skill-bundle-manifest.test.mjs \
  config/scripts/package-electron-runtime-contract.test.mjs

The current macOS arm64 installed-tarball oracle passed with 18,220,887 packed bytes and 55,957,304 unpacked bytes. Its POSIX startup oracle also sent SIGTERM before readiness, observed no credential output, and restarted the same profile successfully. The final Ubuntu 20.04 amd64 package passed the same safe-update journey in Docker and verified the glibc 2.31 and GLIBCXX_3.4.28 floors. Earlier package candidates also passed Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 amd64 plus Ubuntu 20.04 arm64.

The physical Windows x64 safe-update oracle passed in 51.227 seconds with 18,250,120 packed bytes and 55,957,163 unpacked bytes. It covered successful exact activation, rejected preflight without stopping the healthy worker, failed-candidate rollback, unchanged daemon PID/file/launch nonce, PTY reattachment and post-update terminal I/O, selected-version relaunch, and zero residual test processes.

The final cancellation lifecycle gate passed 1,463 tests across eleven deterministic files with one unrelated platform-specific skip in 10.29 seconds. It covers commit-point reconciliation, repo-scoped fork-remote lifecycle serialization and compensation, strict empty-inventory handling, instance-fenced removal, relay filesystem mutation settlement, legacy relay fallback, and the failed-shutdown watchdog. A Docker rerun after these lifecycle edits was blocked by an unrelated wedged local Docker Desktop daemon; the required Ubuntu and Windows package lanes passed on the exact source candidate in CI.

Ten fresh-profile installed-package trials on macOS arm64 reached the first schema-v1 readiness line in 352.705–748.323 ms, with a 369.474 ms median. Recursive process snapshots at one and three seconds were stable in every trial: one server, one daemon, no daemon PTY children, and no other subprocesses. Every measured server and daemon exited cleanly after its trial.

The exact code candidate 4bb4ff8753d2160041bd7ab1acbe26bc14e37958 also passed on the paired Windows host: Node typecheck, the node-server build, clean pack/install, and the full runtime oracle. The native Windows package measured 18,243,548 packed bytes and 55,905,519 unpacked bytes. The same candidate passed the clean installed-package and runtime oracle inside Ubuntu 24.04 WSL; that package measured 18,242,422 packed bytes and 55,905,664 unpacked bytes. Process inspection found no test-owned server or daemon after either oracle.

As an overlapping final packaging subset, the installed-process harness passed 2 tests and the package-workflow contract passed 4 tests. These six tests are already included in the focused and workflow counts above rather than added to them.

The required Windows Server 2022 x64 lane passed the full clean-install, E2EE, workspace, native PTY, restart, and cleanup journey on the exact code candidate. The explicit untested platform gaps remain Windows arm64 and nested SSH connection-manager parity in the browserless host. The PTY dependency contains Windows arm64 prebuilds, but a present binary is not runtime evidence for that untested target.

The package remains unpublished: the registry currently has neither rc nor latest. The PTY package also retains a deprecated transitive prebuild-install fallback; clean installs select the bundled prebuild before that downloader, but the dependency should be replaced when an equally portable maintained package is available.