History-free repository exports — one-shot implementation

2026-10-24. User authorized a one-shot archive-size fix and explicitly selected “omit .git.” This is separate from the pending retraction simplification Step 2; no retraction implementation or history purge is included.

Result

Both repository TAR.GZ and ZIP routes, with and without a pinned revision, use the same locked snapshot exporter. It excludes .git before traversal/capacity checks and copying. Git history, configuration, hooks, indexes and reflogs are absent; the source repository and its maintenance configuration are unchanged. Existing content capacity, dirty-record rejection, revision matching, failure cleanup and image inventory validation remain in effect.

Legacy posts receive portable records/post-timestamps/ metadata in the exported copy when needed; signed post/signature bytes remain unchanged. Modern posts do not trigger a legacy Git history walk. A small repository-snapshot.json records the source revision and a checksum of exported records so matching image archives can be verified/restored without Git. This is snapshot metadata, not an ongoing cleanup ledger or a replacement for trusted Git history. Existing Git-backed image restores remain supported, including .git pointer files.

The backup page and image recovery runbook now describe current-content exports. They explicitly exclude historical revisions and a complete instance backup. History-dependent acceptance evidence still needs a separate full Git backup; ordinary content import retains destination authority rules. No new dependency, schema, navigation destination, scheduled worker or production configuration.

Verification

• Focused PHP suite: 20/20 across repository exports, image backup/restore, archive validation, legacy timestamp imports, backup-page rendering and the two affected application smoke tests. Final image/export regression rerun: 7/7 after the Git-pointer compatibility adjustment.

• Both formats omit a synthetic 600 MiB .git file before export limits apply; source HEAD, signatures, records and Git contents remain unchanged. Pinned and unpinned actual application routes are covered, along with wrong revisions, dirty source rejection, history-free import, modified-snapshot rejection and restoration of actual images from the matching pair.

• QDB validation copy at 5661621eb648be28fc13884fac0145194e5eaa5b, recovered from the supplied archive: final TAR.GZ 7,032,777 bytes (6.7 MiB) and ZIP 19,959,902 bytes (19.0 MiB), versus original TAR.GZ 937,403,333 bytes. All 31,101 canonical files in the validation source match the original supplied archive byte-for-byte. TAR.GZ passes the existing bounded importer. All 18,931 post records retain exact bytes and creation dates; QDB needed no generated legacy date records. Separate legacy-date fixtures cover that compatibility path. Sizes are measured locally; compression timestamps can vary and local timings are not host SLAs.

• Chromium: 20 rendered states, widths 390/1440, Light/Dark/Word97/Chicago/ Midnight, image section present/absent, actual theme styles loaded, no horizontal overflow, correct descriptions and visible download controls. Inspected the Midnight phone and Light desktop screenshots. Browser stale-revision HTTP 409 recovery and both successful download actions pass.

• The first temporary browser harness omitted fingerprinted-asset routing; its results were discarded. The corrected FrontController harness verified styles loaded before recording the passing matrix. A temporary fixture setup error was also corrected; neither required application changes.

• PHP syntax and git diff --check pass. UI verification is indexed in ui_copy_audit_checklist.md. Full repository suite, physical devices and production deployment were not performed.

Delivery boundary

Implemented in /home/wsl/agent/v3-codex; user subsequently authorized committing and pushing the fix. Production deployment and mutation of the supplied archive or ~/v3 working repository remain outside this change. Private validation copies/artifacts live under /tmp. Existing retraction planning and effort-study edits are unrelated and must stay outside any implementation commit. Dependency delta: zero.

Commit and integration verification

Archive fix committed as 042e684a. Integrated remote main at 8d51a177 before push, retaining its canonical Railspike upgrade provenance when duplicate local upgrade notes conflicted. No archive implementation conflict. All 20 focused export/image/import/backup/application checks passed again on the combined tree. Retraction planning remains separately preserved and uncommitted.