Every main push since the v6 branch flip was cancelled at the 45-minute
job timeout with no verdict. The flip brought the full 94-spec suite onto
main (the last green run, 2026-06-29, ran only 2 specs on the v5 main),
and it runs sequentially against a release-tagged image whose mock-fixture
gate returns 403 without a demo entitlement. Dozens of specs fail, retry
twice each, and burn the budget: of the 31 minutes of suite time in run
28907574469, 18.8 minutes were failing attempts.
- Add GO_BUILD_TAGS build arg (default release) and build the pulse:test
e2e image with it empty, matching the dev harness the suite is green
under. Shipped images keep the release tag; release-gate behavior keeps
its dedicated -tags release Go tests.
- Shard Playwright 4 ways across a CI matrix (214/202/205/203 tests per
shard) with per-shard report artifacts and an aggregate verdict job.
- Cap CI at 20 failures so an env-broken run reports red in minutes
instead of grinding into a no-verdict cancellation.