The disposable host reached multi-user.target in a degraded state because distro Podman housekeeping used overlay storage inside the outer container. Mask unused units, force VFS for explicit daemons, and fail closed on systemd unit failures so retained rootful evidence remains trustworthy.
Stable promotions built whatever the dispatch branch was at that second.
The resolver checked that HEAD descends from the promoted release
candidate but never that its content matches, so v6.4.0 shipped 64
changed files, including product code, that v6.4.0-rc.12 had not
soaked. Every v6 version was mapped to main, which now moves every few
minutes under the autonomous maintainer, so each fix to a candidate
brought everything landed since and stable was never an exact soaked
commit. Five of six stable minor releases shipped under version-bound
owner exceptions that waived the soak.
From v6.5.0 the release train applies (RELEASE_PROMOTION_POLICY.md,
"Release Train"): a two-week train sized to measured velocity, a
release/v6.N branch per train declared in the control plane so the
workflow refuses a dispatch from anywhere else, a stable promotion that
may differ from its candidate only in release metadata unless
hotfix_exception names active customer harm, and a seven day soak for
minor releases. The 6.4.x line stays on main so the v6.4.3-rc.1
candidate already prepared there is unaffected. The gap is registered
as coverage gap release-train-exact-candidate-promotion.
Open the v6.4.3 candidate line from main. The v6.4.2 tag was staged on
2026-08-31 but never activated: its release run was cancelled after the
private Pro build failed the compiler memory gate, so the latest published
stable is still v6.4.1. This candidate carries the complete v6.4.2 change
set plus the corrections landed since that tag, including the stale PBS
Backup Running state (#1815), the Windows Unified Agent auto-update 404
(#1820), and shared-token same-hostname agent identity collapse (#1753).
Packet: VERSION, compose and install-docker defaults, Helm chart metadata,
release notes with a declined visual plan, changelog, pointer docs and
the shipped docs mirror, and the deployment-installability cutoff note.
Rollback target is v6.4.1 and the mobile decision is no-mobile-impact.
Tests: the packet tests now describe the 6.4.3 train, v6.4.2 is recorded
as an unpublished stable so it is never derived as the previous stable or
rollback target, and the Python v6.4.2 notes expectation matches the
phrase the notes actually use.
Verify the signed release checksum manifest against Pulse's pinned SSH key before either MCP installer accepts a downloaded binary. Remove the unsigned bypass and require one exact digest entry.
Include bare Unix MCP executables in release checksum/signature assembly, cover unavailable, invalid, ambiguous, mismatched, and successful evidence paths with executable regression tests, and enforce MCP installer pins against the configured release key.
rcourtman