The desktop app already had Tauri updater plumbing, but the
release pipeline was not emitting signed updater artifacts and
the UI exposed only a thin auto-check path. This change restores
a working updater release path, rotates to a new updater public
key, and adds a shared update flow with manual check/install
controls for testing.
Constraint: Original updater private key is unavailable, so a new public key had to be embedded and old installs cannot trust new signatures
Constraint: Must not add new dependencies or require main-branch rollout before validation
Rejected: Keep the old pubkey and skip signing | would leave release builds unable to publish valid updater artifacts
Rejected: Add a manual download fallback flow | user explicitly deferred that work
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Reversibility: clean
Directive: Preserve the new updater private key and password outside the repo; losing them again will break future in-app updates for installed builds
Tested: desktop unit test for updater store; desktop TypeScript no-emit; desktop production build
Not-tested: end-to-end updater install against a real GitHub Release on this branch
The current release lane is aimed at manual downloads and command-line usage, not notarized distribution or in-app auto-updates. This change removes Apple certificate import and updater signing from GitHub Actions, and forces release builds to disable updater artifacts so unsigned release bundles can still be produced consistently.
Constraint: Repository does not have working Apple signing certs or updater signing keys
Rejected: Keep signing requirements and document the secrets problem | blocks every release on infra the project does not plan to maintain
Rejected: Remove the GitHub release workflow entirely | still need a repeatable packaging path for downloadable artifacts
Confidence: high
Scope-risk: moderate
Reversibility: clean
Directive: If signed distribution or in-app updates are added later, restore signing in workflow together with validated secrets and release metadata
Tested: git diff --check; YAML parse of release-desktop workflow; manual inspection that updater artifacts are disabled via tauri.release-ci.json and signing env/steps are removed
Not-tested: Live GitHub Actions run after workflow update
