[vaibhavsrv]

Why this matters

In ods/scripts/register-model-store.py, register() reads the existing model store registry via registry_path.read_text() without specifying an explicit encoding. On Python's default behavior, read_text() uses the locale-preferred encoding — cp1252 on Windows, ascii in some minimal containers — rather than UTF-8. When a registry file contains non-ASCII characters in stored host paths (e.g. paths with accented characters or emoji), read_text() raises an unhandled UnicodeDecodeError, aborting model store registration even though the registry was written correctly as UTF-8.

This patch adds encoding='utf-8' to the registry_path.read_text() call at line 50, matching the encoding used by all other JSON reads in the script and ensuring portable, platform-independent registry access.

Validation

• Repro baseline: Wrote a registry file containing a non-ASCII hostPath (/models/café-models) as UTF-8 bytes; confirmed that read_text() without encoding raised UnicodeDecodeError in locales where the default encoding is not UTF-8.
• Post-fix: Verified ods/tests/test_register_model_store_encoding.py passes with exit code 0; non-ASCII paths round-trip correctly and the missing-file fallback continues to produce the default empty registry.
• Model store suites: 3 passed. New-test syntax and diff checks pass; new regressions wired into Linux CI.

Overlap check

• fix(model-stores): guard missing env and strip export prefix in compose flag resolver #5874 (vaibhavsrv): Addressed .env file-not-found guard and export prefix in compose flag resolver; zero overlap in registry read logic.
• Probe the live model on the real llama-server host port #5860 (0xacee): Addressed LLM port fallback in build-installation-context.py without overlap in register-model-store.py.
• Authenticate Windows Lemonade status probes #5862 (0xacee): Addressed LITELLM_LEMONADE_API_KEY resolution in ods-host-agent.py without overlap in model store registry.

Risk / AI disclosure

AI-assisted investigation, implementation and CLI regressions. This strengthens portable JSON reading in model store registration; runtime daemon behavior, docker execution, and installed model catalogs are not altered. Independent human review and platform/runtime qualification remain gates. No running configuration, deployment or upstream merge changed.

Follow-up integration evidence

Composed with #5876 at d1f6b0b06 without conflicts. Production and test diffs passed together; adjacent model store compose flags and registry contracts remain intact.
Backlog composition was local-only (production/test diffs, excluding workflow/Makefile wiring); it is not an upstream merge or independent human approval. Declared live-review gates remain open.

[Lightheartdevs]

Thanks for this contribution. public-beta was promoted into main on 2026-09-24 and no longer receives changes, so we're closing pull requests that target it. This isn't a judgment on the change itself. If it's still needed, please rebase onto main and open a focused PR. See #7253 for details and the contribution policy.