Desktop users can carry provider indexes, managed settings, localStorage state, and native update state from builds that no longer match current readers. This adds startup migrations and recovery paths before server and React state are consumed, plus a persistence upgrade gate so future storage protocol changes ship with old-format fixtures.
Constraint: Existing installs may contain malformed or legacy JSON/localStorage that must not block startup.
Constraint: Local verify should evaluate the current worktree diff rather than unrelated detached-worktree history.
Rejected: Treat invalid persisted state as fatal | reproduces white-screen and startup failure behavior for existing users.
Rejected: Bypass PR policy locally | hides real gate behavior and does not fix detached-worktree false positives.
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Directive: Any local JSON, localStorage, or app config shape change must add a migration fixture and keep `bun run check:persistence-upgrade` green.
Tested: bun run check:persistence-upgrade; bun run check:policy; bun run check:desktop; bun run check:server; bun run check:native; bun run verify (9 passed, 1 coverage baseline failure)
Not-tested: Live provider baseline; existing user configs beyond covered fixtures
Contributors and coding agents need one local command that both reports and enforces the quality contract. This change turns the PR gate into the shared verification entrypoint, adds path-selected local lanes, tightens coverage accounting around changed lines, and documents the repair loop in contributor and agent-facing guidance.
Constraint: Ordinary PR verification must stay non-live and runnable without provider credentials
Constraint: Coverage policy updates in this commit require maintainer approval before push/merge
Rejected: Keep quality guidance only in docs | agents need executable scripts and AGENTS.md instructions to follow the loop consistently
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: broad
Directive: Do not bypass `bun run verify` for production changes; fix failed lanes and coverage reports instead of lowering thresholds
Tested: bun run check:policy
Tested: ALLOW_CLI_CORE_CHANGE=1 ALLOW_COVERAGE_BASELINE_CHANGE=1 bun run verify
Not-tested: live provider baseline; no provider credentials were required for this non-live PR gate
