Establish release-candidate platform foundation

[Llewellynvdm]

Outcome

Establishes the 0.3.0-rc.1 platform definition and makes the repository ready for its first controlled real-image build campaign.

What changed

• makes manifest/images.yaml schema 2 the authority for version, images, composable language/capability components, policies, sizes, architectures, profiles and both CI matrices;
• retains the six practical release images while cataloguing Android, GPU, containers, GUI, audio and security tooling as non-release planned capabilities;
• removes Java and splits browser/database provisioning into reusable components;
• adds restricted Incus projects, public-only connected egress, offline/fail-closed policy tiers, resource profiles and an interactive launch questionnaire;
• replaces secret-bearing Incus environment arguments with validated root-owned systemd credentials;
• enforces session TTL with systemd cgroups and adds a host VM expiry reaper;
• enables all language specialists in the OpenCode orchestrator and defines structured handoffs;
• adds OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok and local gateway routes plus documented GitHub App, Gitea MCP and short-lived VPS/SSH paths;
• adds architecture-specific image/package identities;
• adds SBOM, Grype, in-toto/SLSA provenance, OpenBao-backed Cosign and tamper-verification hooks;
• makes Gitea publication idempotent and atomic at artifact level through read-back verification and an upload-last completion marker;
• establishes GPL-3.0-only licensing and Vast Development Method copyright ownership;
• replaces the optimistic roadmap with explicit real-build and independent-host RC gates.

Static and mocked evidence

Passed locally:

• repository validation;
• schema and generated-file drift checks;
• GitHub/Gitea matrix parity;
• YAML and JSON parsing;
• Bash syntax;
• policy and Incus restriction assertions;
• provider route assertions;
• secret-not-in-Incus-argv test;
• TTL reaper expired/unexpired/malformed/idempotent cases;
• mocked Incus export/import round trip;
• architecture-safe artifact assertions;
• checksum verification and tampered payload rejection.

The CI runner installs and runs ShellCheck/yamllint. They were unavailable in this execution container, so the PR workflow is the authoritative lint result.

Deliberate release gates

This PR does not pretend static tests prove a VM image. Promotion requires:

1. all six native amd64 builds;
2. signed SBOM and vulnerability evidence;
3. export/import/boot on a second clean host;
4. positive and negative network policy tests;
5. TTL/cgroup caller-loss tests;
6. broker, provider, repository and SSH-certificate scope tests.

ARM64 is collision-safe in the schema but remains non-promotable until native evidence exists. Brokered/restricted/release policies remain blocked until the external gateway/proxy is deployed and tested.

[Llewellynvdm]

Final source-level validation status:

• Head 7c95acfca1c5d579ba506b6028ae693e96ee2e1f
• GitHub Actions validation run #27 (29953282833) succeeded
• Manifest generation/drift checks, ShellCheck, yamllint, security static checks, session transport checks, reaper checks, Python manifest tests, and mocked package tamper/round-trip tests are green

This PR intentionally remains a draft. Promotion still requires evidence from a real Incus environment: clean-host bootstrap, all six image builds, cross-host import, network negative/positive tests, abnormal-session TTL cleanup, broker/OpenBao scope and revocation tests, and SBOM/scan/signature verification on real artifacts. GitHub draft-release atomic publication, snapshot mirrors, the tokenless guest relay, and OpenFGA-backed fleet authorization remain follow-on promotion gates rather than completed claims.