fix(release): retry the post-publish npm check, and verify all 69 packages instead of 1

.github/workflows/lint.yml

@@ -2745,6 +2745,30 @@ jobs:
       - name: Release-body limit guard
         run: pnpm check:release-body
 
+      # Post-publish npm verification (#15321). The last thing the `publish` job
+      # does is prove every published package is readable on npm. That check ran
+      # as one `npm view` of @objectstack/cli and failed the 17.3.0 release,
+      # which had succeeded completely: npm committed cli@17.3.0 at 10:53:25.108
+      # and the read at 10:53:32 got an absence, because the write path and the
+      # CDN-fronted read path are eventually consistent. Worse, it looked at 1
+      # package of 69, so the one failure it exists to catch — a package that
+      # genuinely did not publish — is the one it could not see, and the false
+      # red on `cli` would have masked it.
+      #
+      # scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs replaces it with bounded backoff over the
+      # whole derived publishable set. Its --self-test is the ONLY instrument on
+      # that logic: the production path runs once per release, on a runner, with
+      # npm's real timing, so nothing else can tell a working retry loop from a
+      # broken one. It drives the real code with a stub registry — the #15321
+      # cold read reproduced through the OLD parameters (one target, no retry,
+      # which is a red on a healthy package) and then absorbed by the new ones,
+      # plus the partial publish the old shape reported green.
+      #
+      # Invoked as `node` rather than through a `pnpm check:*` alias: see the
+      # GATE INVOCATION IDIOM note at the top of this file.
+      - name: Post-publish npm verification self-test
+        run: node scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs --self-test
+
       # #3825 Node-version drift guard: a runtime pin is 18 separate string
       # literals across .github/workflows, so a split is invisible until someone
       # greps for it. One did open — every PR gate sat on Node 20 (EOL

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -1224,10 +1224,47 @@ jobs:
 
           # `changeset publish` skips versions already on the registry, so a
           # re-dispatch over a partially-published release is a repair, not a
-          # duplicate. What is NOT optional is that the version is on npm when
+          # duplicate. What is NOT optional is that EVERY package is on npm when
           # this step ends.
-          if ! npm view "@objectstack/cli@$VERSION" version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-            echo "::error::publish ran but @objectstack/cli@$VERSION is still not on npm"
+          #
+          # ⚠️ This checks what happens AFTER a publish, never WHETHER one runs.
+          # The gating above it — `environment: release`, the `publish-pending`
+          # predicate and its parenthesisation, `force`'s dispatch-only
+          # semantics — is the "ONLY A HUMAN PUBLISHES" invariant and is not
+          # this check's business.
+          #
+          # It used to be one `npm view` of @objectstack/cli, and #15321 is the
+          # two ways that failed on the 17.3.0 release, which had succeeded
+          # completely:
+          #
+          #   ① It raced the registry. npm committed cli@17.3.0 at 10:53:25.108
+          #      and this read at 10:53:32 — seven seconds later — and got an
+          #      absence. The write path and the CDN-fronted read path are
+          #      eventually consistent; a single shot immediately after a
+          #      69-package burst bets the release on how fast reads settle.
+          #      scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs retries with bounded backoff for
+          #      15 minutes, derived from that release's own npm `time` field:
+          #      the last package (@objectstack/runtime) committed 7m07s after
+          #      the first read.
+          #
+          #   ② It looked at 1 package of 69. Had a package genuinely failed to
+          #      publish, this step could not have seen it — and the false red
+          #      on `cli` would have MASKED it. The verifier now derives the
+          #      whole publishable set from the workspace (never a transcribed
+          #      list) and names, on failure, exactly which packages are absent,
+          #      so the `force` repair dispatch has something to act on.
+          #
+          # ⛔ It still fails CLOSED. The retry absorbs LATENCY, never absence:
+          # a package still missing when the budget is spent exits non-zero, and
+          # so does a registry that could not be read at all. No `|| true`, no
+          # downgrade to a warning — the value of this step is that it reds.
+          # `published=true` below is written only on its success.
+          #
+          # `$VERSION` is handed over as RELEASE_VERSION — the spelling the two
+          # steps below already use for the same value — so the verifier refuses
+          # outright if the workspace it derives targets from disagrees with the
+          # version this run was approved for.
+          if ! RELEASE_VERSION="$VERSION" node scripts/release-verify-npm.mjs; then
             exit 1
           fi
           echo "published=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"