[codex] prove grounding-only managed plugin convergence

[TheGreenCedar]

Outcome

The packaged managed plugin reaches full Apple Silicon Metal retrieval through its normal ground activation, then serves packet and search through the same MCP session. Readiness stays closed until local freshness, full retrieval, live native-process identity, and verified GPU proof converge.

What changed

• Added the grounding-only managed lifecycle: ground -> packet -> search, one managed repair, warm identity reuse, endpoint-death blocking, recovery, and proof-owned cleanup.
• Made managed macOS repair use the selected dynamic embedding endpoint and Darwin process-start identity instead of fixed-port and GNU ps assumptions.
• Required live endpoint/process/GPU identity before packet or search can open under accelerator-required policy.
• Included SHA256SUMS.txt in reusable package artifacts so the plugin can provision the exact packaged CLI without a release-network fallback.
• Recognized llama.cpp b9902's logger-prefixed MTL0 : Apple M5 inventory before layer-offload lines while preserving provider-bound, current-launch proof.
• Kept Developer ID signing and notarization out of PR and integration gates. The main-triggered release signs and notarizes the exact Mac binaries once before publication.

Verification

• Exact-head source gate at 895e755: workspace tests and all-target/all-feature clippy.
• Current head 3bceed3: formatting, the focused provider-binding regression, release build, archive checksum, version/help package smoke, and all attached draft checks pass.
• Hosted Mac package run: arm64 and x64 source/package checks passed; the downloaded arm64 artifact contains the archive, per-archive checksum, and SHA256SUMS.txt.
• Exact current-head package on Apple M5 reached fresh local state, retrieval_mode=full, gpu_proof=verified, Metal detected/requested, 13/13 layers offloaded, a 7 ms embed smoke, and allowed packet/search. Both packet and search requests succeeded through the managed MCP runtime.

Hugging Face's Xet object began returning HTTP 403 to both pinned URLs during the hosted rerun, so hosted stats and Metal preflight stopped before product startup. The checksum-verified local copy was used for exact-head hardware proof; no model contract or checksum was changed. The proof harness then reported a diagnostic-only terminal-result lookup gap after the successful product requests because it read the current identity path while the worker result remained under the compatible prior path. Runtime identity reconciliation remains in the dedicated identity lane.

Closes #1053
Refs #897
Refs #899

[TheGreenCedar]

PR #1058 review remediation is pushed at exact head 04a15422c62e8c40d29212d033ce9162af43b577.

What changed:

• The managed repair worker now retains the grounding-owned local-refresh guard through ensure_open and releases it immediately after index readiness, closing the second-contender cache_busy race.
• Managed convergence proof now requires one namespace-stable repair attempt with a durable terminal result, plus explicitly requested and detected Metal before packet/search readiness can pass.
• Runtime-log accelerator proof records the proven requested backend as the detected provider when host inventory has no provider result.
• Timeout cleanup now discovers workers started by ground_activation from the latest convergence status and avoids terminating a completed attempt.
• Shared status extraction and convergence validation are consolidated; the constructor-literal self-test was removed. The review-remediation commit is net +45 lines (157 insertions, 112 deletions).

Verification:

• Rebased onto exact origin/dev/codestory-next 174b77ea20093150cd1de3640d885327e3704b3f; both conflicting stats rows were preserved.
• Packaged-proof and package self-tests, workflow policy, release-version synchronization, documentation links, and focused remediation probes passed.
• Locked focused lock test, workspace check/test, full fidelity and language-coverage binaries, all-target/all-feature clippy, and release CLI build passed.
• The repo-scale ignored stats lane passed with full-sidecar evidence; the emitted Apple Silicon row is appended. It records the expected retrieval-index timing warning against the prior baseline, with zero index errors.

The PR remains draft and has not been merged or marked ready.

[TheGreenCedar]

Pause checkpoint: exact head 04a1542 is published and its full local gate passed, but the final independent review found two remaining P2s. The PR stays draft.

1. Ground-triggered repair cleanup still depends on a successful convergence-status response exposing the worker PID. If ground or the first poll fails after activation, the detached worker can escape proof cleanup and race cache/resource removal.
2. detected_provider=metal is currently backfilled from the requested provider. Because the existing log prerequisite can match metal in the managed executable path plus a generic offload line, the protected proof is not yet independent runtime Metal evidence.

The local-refresh ownership handoff, terminal worker-result requirement, and namespace stability fixes reviewed cleanly. No further changes or tests are being started before the Codex update.