fix(image): preserve sandbox base layer compatibility

[senthilr-nv]

Summary

Group related sandbox-base build inputs so published images retain the established layer layout. Package paths, pins, checksums, remediation commands, audits, and the final filesystem scan remain unchanged.

Changes

• Copy each OpenClaw and mcporter manifest-lock pair in one layer.
• Copy the three reviewed npm remediation helpers in one layer.
• Keep the completed sandbox-base stage at 24 layer-producing instructions.
• Add a layer-budget regression test and update supply-chain contracts for grouped or legacy copy syntax.

Type of Change

• Code change (feature, bug fix, or refactor)
• Code change with doc updates
• Doc only (prose changes, no code sample modifications)
• Doc only (includes code sample changes)

Quality Gates

• Tests added or updated for changed behavior
• Existing tests cover changed behavior — justification:
• Tests not applicable — justification:
• Docs updated for user-facing behavior changes
• Docs not applicable — justification: This build-layout change does not change a user command, output, configuration, workflow, or supported behavior.
• Sensitive paths changed (security, policy, credentials, preflight, onboarding, inference, runner, sandbox, or messaging)
• Sensitive-path review completed or maintainer-approved waiver recorded — reviewer/approval link/justification:
• Non-success, skipped, or missing CI check accepted by maintainer — check name, approval link, and follow-up issue:

Documentation Writer Review

• Documentation writer subagent reviewed the completed changes
• Result: no-docs-needed
• Evidence: Signed rebase preserved both patches exactly. Grouped COPY instructions preserve all package, checksum, remediation, audit, and scan contracts while keeping the established 24-layer sandbox-base layout. The test fallback changes no user-facing behavior. Focused tests pass 79/79; git diff --check passes; prior Biome, Hadolint, gitleaks, repository, source-shape, test-size, test-title, Vitest membership, and commit-hook evidence remains patch-identical.
• Agent: Codex Desktop

DGX Station Hardware Evidence

• Tested on DGX Station
• Tested commit:
• Station profile/scenario:
• Result:
• Supporting evidence:

Verification

• PR description includes a Signed-off-by: line and every commit appears as Verified in GitHub
• Normal pre-commit, commit-msg, and pre-push hooks passed, or npm run check:diff passed when hooks were skipped or unavailable
• Targeted behavior tests pass for the current change set, or tests are marked not applicable above — After the signed base refresh, 79 tests pass across eight image and security contract files.
• Applicable broad gate passed — npm test for broad runtime/test-harness changes; npm run check for repo-wide validation/coverage changes — command/result:
• Quality Gates section completed with required justifications or waivers
• No secrets, API keys, or credentials committed
• npm run docs builds without warnings (doc changes only)
• Doc pages follow the style guide (doc changes only)
• New doc pages include SPDX header and frontmatter (new pages only)

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Signed-off-by: Senthil Ravichandran senthilr@nvidia.com

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Tests
  • Added a new check validating the final sandbox base image (node image pin) and ensuring an exact layer count/layout.
  • Updated Dockerfile contract tests to accept equivalent grouped vs separate COPY patterns for runtime package files and remediation/auditing helpers.
  • Improved robustness of Dockerfile inspections by normalizing whitespace and relaxing matching logic while keeping install/remediation ordering validations intact.
• Chores
  • Reformatted how runtime metadata and remediation/auditing helper artifacts are staged in the base Docker build via grouped COPY steps (no functional change intended).

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Dockerfile.base groups runtime and remediation artifact copies. Related tests accept grouped or legacy COPY formatting, and a new test validates the final stage base image and layer count.

Changes

Dockerfile COPY contracts

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Grouped artifact staging and contract matching Dockerfile.base, test/*dockerfile*.test.ts, test/openclaw-*.test.ts	Runtime package files and npm remediation helpers use grouped COPY blocks; contract tests normalize whitespace and accept grouped or legacy forms.
Final-stage image layout validation test/sandbox-base-image-layout.test.ts	Adds assertions for the final Node base image and exactly 24 ADD, COPY, or RUN instructions.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• NVIDIA/NemoClaw#6830: Related Dockerfile artifact-copy layout changes.
• NVIDIA/NemoClaw#7461: Related reviewed npm artifact detection changes in Dockerfile contract tests.
• NVIDIA/NemoClaw#7502: Related npm remediation COPY and ordering expectations.

Suggested labels: bug-fix

Suggested reviewers: cv, prekshivyas, ericksoa

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly matches the PR’s goal of preserving the sandbox base image layer layout and compatibility.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

---

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[github-actions]

PR Review Advisor — No blocking findings reported

Advisor assessment: No blocking advisor findings reported
Next action: No advisor follow-up needed.
Findings: 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions

Model lanes

• GPT-5.6 Terra (primary): Completed · high confidence · 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions
• Nemotron 3 Ultra (second opinion): Completed · high confidence · 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions
• Model comparison: normalized findings match; normalized E2E selections differ; severity counts match.

Nemotron output stays in workflow artifacts and does not change the assessment above.

E2E guidance

Advisory only. E2E / PR Gate selects and runs jobs independently.

Recommended E2E: cloud-onboard

Workflow run details

This automated review informs maintainers. Warnings and suggestions do not require a response. A maintainer decides whether to merge.

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@test/openclaw-dependency-review.test.ts`:
- Around line 437-441: Update the helper COPY detection around helperCopy to
recognize both the grouped three-file COPY instruction and the supported legacy
openclaw-npm-remediation.mts-only form. Derive an effective helper-copy position
from whichever form is present, then use effectiveHelperCopy in the ordering
assertions against helperInvocation while preserving the existing validation
behavior.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Enterprise

Run ID: ae3760f0-c172-4301-bee6-48a2491809b4

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between a8748ab and f6152cd.

📒 Files selected for processing (6)

• Dockerfile.base
• test/mcporter-supply-chain.test.ts
• test/node-tar-dockerfile-contract.test.ts
• test/openclaw-dependency-review.test.ts
• test/openclaw-locked-install.test.ts
• test/sandbox-base-image-layout.test.ts