[Codename-11]

Summary

Refs #495 and #528. Follow-up to #571.

Android 1.16.0 admitted foreground Gateway observation before gateway.ready, but production still deferred that socket behind the exact profile-scoped Dashboard session directory. HermesRuntimeBinder started the directory from activeEndpoint, which belongs to the optional Relay socket and remains null on a valid Dashboard-only LAN connection. The directory and Gateway could therefore wait on each other until a lifecycle or route change retriggered binding.

Start the directory from the effective Dashboard origin instead. This preserves the existing profile-settle fence and directory ownership checks while allowing a standard Dashboard-only connection to reach the passive Gateway observation socket without a background/resume cycle.

Changes

• Drive cold profile/session hydration from effectiveDashboardUrl, not the optional Relay endpoint.
• Add policy coverage for Dashboard publication before Gateway readiness.
• Add an API 36 Compose/instrumentation regression that starts from profile/session hydration, holds the directory read, and proves the socket opens after exact-owner publication without session.resume, session.activate, prompt.submit, or session.interrupt.
• Extend the vanilla Gateway fixture with the independent profile-scoped session-directory read used before passive socket observation.
• Add an Unreleased changelog entry.

Verification

Exact PR head: 68fce1b1dabe1a8dd1f9f6a7a1999938dd1d09bb.

• scripts/android-lane.ps1 gradle :app:testSideloadDebugUnitTest --tests 'com.hermesandroid.relay.runtime.HermesRuntimeBinderSessionDirectoryPolicyTest' --tests 'com.hermesandroid.relay.viewmodel.ChatViewModelGatewayInboundTurnTest' --console=plain — 128 tests passed; zero failures/errors/skips.
• scripts/android-lane.ps1 gradle :app:testGooglePlayDebugUnitTest --tests 'com.hermesandroid.relay.runtime.HermesRuntimeBinderSessionDirectoryPolicyTest' --tests 'com.hermesandroid.relay.viewmodel.ChatViewModelGatewayInboundTurnTest' --console=plain — 128 tests passed; zero failures/errors/skips.
• scripts/android-lane.ps1 gradle :app:compileSideloadDebugAndroidTestKotlin --console=plain — passed.
• scripts/android-lane.ps1 gradle :app:standardPhoneApi36SideloadDebugAndroidTest '-Pandroid.testInstrumentationRunnerArguments.class=com.hermesandroid.relay.viewmodel.GatewayForegroundRecoveryInstrumentedTest#dashboardOnlyColdLaunch_waitsForExactDirectoryThenOpensObservationSocket' --rerun-tasks --console=plain — one API 36 test passed. The first invocation assembled successfully but the managed emulator package service returned an ADB streamed-install broken pipe and produced no test result; the clean retry is the claimed result.
• scripts/android-lane.ps1 gradle :app:lintSideloadDebug :app:lintGooglePlayDebug :app:assembleSideloadDebug :app:assembleGooglePlayDebug --console=plain — passed.
• python -m unittest discover -s test-fixtures/vanilla-gateway/tests -p 'test_*.py' — 28 tests passed.
• python -m unittest scripts.tests.check_gateway_scenario_conformance_test — 8 tests passed.
• python scripts/check-gateway-scenario-conformance.py <clean-current-upstream> --scenario-manifest test-fixtures/vanilla-gateway/vanilla_gateway/scenarios/cold_start_observation.json — passed against clean NousResearch/hermes-agent commit 6c3d4a4af70d76b7365bf19e9420ffdcbb9830ad; Gateway runtime and provider calls were not started.
• python scripts/check-android-locales.py — 12 catalogs passed.
• python scripts/check-user-docs-locales.py — five locales and five core pages passed.
• python scripts/check-android-collection-apis.py — passed.
• python scripts/check-android-release-notes.py — passed.
• python scripts/check-version-tracks.py — passed.
• git diff --check — passed.

Screenshots

No visual change.

Compatibility / risk

Current upstream keeps authenticated GET /api/sessions?profile=..., ticket minting, /api/ws, gateway.ready, and session.active_list independent. The official Dashboard/Desktop path opens the socket directly and reserves resume/activate for explicit session ownership. This change keeps Android on those upstream surfaces and adds no Hermes-Relay Plugin dependency or API/SSE fallback.

Route/credential ownership, profile/session generations, drafts/history, terminal auth and unsupported dispositions, bounded reconnect cooldowns, and lifecycle recovery are unchanged. The cold path remains socket-only after the exact directory barrier.

Physical Android 16 LAN/Tailscale certification remains outstanding. No phone install, release, deployment, merge, or issue mutation was performed.

Lineage / contributor credit

• Source PR(s): fix(android): wake gateway on cold foreground #571 established visibility/client order independence; this follow-up covers the production directory-bootstrap path its manually bound tests bypassed.
• Attribution preserved by: no contributor history was rewritten.

Checklist

• Target branch is dev, unless this is a dev → main release PR or a focused production-tag hotfix PR to main
• Scope is focused and related issues/PRs are linked
• Android changes: lint, focused tests for both flavors, both debug assemblies, and focused API 36 instrumentation passed
• Translation changes: N/A; locale validators also passed
• Server/plugin changes: N/A
• Desktop changes: N/A
• Docs/site changes: changelog only; release-note and version checks passed
• UI changes were tested on API 36; physical LAN/Tailscale acceptance remains explicitly outstanding
• Commit messages follow Conventional Commits
• CHANGELOG.md is updated for user-visible changes
• Public writing hygiene checked: no secrets, private infrastructure, personal names, or AI/process narration
• Salvaged/replacement work links source PRs and preserves contributor authorship, or N/A