ci: route jobs to secure self-hosted Podman runners

[karutoil]

What

Route CI jobs to a secure self-hosted runner (ephemeral rootless Podman containers on the dev box) instead of GitHub-hosted ubuntu-latest, which were slow (cold caches + queue/provisioning time).

How the runner works

• Ephemeral rootless Podman: each job runs in a fresh container that is --rm'd after the job — no persistence for backdoors, no root daemon, isolated from the host's home dir / secrets / other services. Container root is mapped to the unprivileged host user via the user namespace.
• 2 concurrent slots, each with its own persistent /cache volume (warm Rust/Go/build caches → fast rebuilds).
• A systemd user service (gh-runner.service, lingered) supervises a pool that mints a fresh 1-hour registration token per spawn via gh api. The high-value gh PAT stays on the host supervisor and never enters the containers.
• Toolchains (Rust + clippy/rustfmt, Go 1.24, buildah) are baked into the image.

Changes in this PR

• All jobs: runs-on: ubuntu-latest → runs-on: [self-hosted, Linux, X64].
• docker image job: replaced Docker buildx (setup-buildx-action + build-push-action) with buildah build --isolation chroot --storage-driver vfs — nested OCI build that works under rootless Podman without extra privileges (build-check only, no push).

Notes

• release.yml is intentionally left on ubuntu-latest for now — it needs exotic packaging tools (AppImage/FUSE, xorriso DMG, msitools MSI) that may not all work in a rootless container; converting it is a follow-up.
• First run after this merges will be cold (caches empty); subsequent runs are fast.
• Runner infra lives in ~/gh-self-hosted/ (outside the repo) with a runbook at ~/gh-self-hosted/README.md.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Updated CI and container image builds to use self-hosted Linux x64 runners and a rootless-friendly Buildah flow.
• New Features
  • Added a blocking “ask” modal flyout with submit/skip handling and inline validation.
  • Introduced a /context modal showing context token-usage breakdown, plus Auto Compact and /compact instruction support.
  • Added “workspace activity” to display other active sessions.
• Bug Fixes & Tests
  • Improved ask keyboard navigation and focus; added regression tests for ask interactions.
  • Truncate very large tool outputs to keep the UI responsive.
• Documentation
  • Added secure self-hosted runner and blocking ask flyout documentation.

[coderabbitai]

Caution

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ℹ️ Recent review info

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Configuration used: defaults

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Run ID: 16ba764a-959a-4c6b-b4d9-af80770f3bd9

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 2c92b9c and 5da7ce2.

⛔ Files ignored due to path filters (1)

• core/Cargo.lock is excluded by !**/*.lock

📒 Files selected for processing (43)

• .catalyst-code/skills/add-core-background-task/SKILL.md
• .catalyst-code/skills/git-commit-all/SKILL.md
• .catalyst-code/skills/production-readiness-review/SKILL.md
• .catalyst-code/skills/ttft-prompt-caching-audit/SKILL.md
• .github/workflows/ci.yml
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md
• README.md
• core/Cargo.toml
• core/src/config.rs
• core/src/fetch_tool.rs
• core/src/fsutil.rs
• core/src/main.rs
• core/src/memory.rs
• core/src/oauth.rs
• core/src/pattern_log.rs
• core/src/plugins.rs
• core/src/presence.rs
• core/src/protocol.rs
• core/src/provider.rs
• core/src/staging.rs
• core/src/subagent.rs
• core/src/tools.rs
• core/src/workspace.rs
• install.ps1
• tui/blocks.go
• tui/extras_test.go
• tui/handlers.go
• tui/keybinds.go
• tui/keybinds_test.go
• tui/login_key_entry_test.go
• tui/main.go
• tui/mention.go
• tui/mention_test.go
• tui/modal.go
• tui/pin_test.go
• tui/protocol.go
• tui/settings.go
• web/src/components/chat.tsx
• web/src/lib/commands.ts
• web/src/lib/reducer.ts
• web/src/lib/types.ts
• web/src/lib/use-agent.ts

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The PR updates core compaction/context plumbing, plugin and workspace presence handling, and TUI/web flows for ask, compact, and context actions. It also rewrites documentation, CI, and the Windows installer around the new runner and workflow setup.

Changes

Core runtime plumbing

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Atomic writes and locked persistence core/src/fsutil.rs, core/src/config.rs, core/src/memory.rs, core/src/oauth.rs, core/src/pattern_log.rs, core/src/staging.rs, core/src/provider.rs	Shared filesystem helpers are added and then used for secure atomic writes and cross-process locking across config, memory, oauth, pattern logs, staging, and provider cache writes.
Compact and context command plumbing core/src/protocol.rs, core/src/provider.rs, core/src/main.rs, core/src/subagent.rs	The protocol, provider, and main core path now accept optional compaction instructions, emit compacting and context breakdown events, and thread the new command shapes through turn handling and subagent compaction.
Plugins, presence, and workspace activity core/src/plugins.rs, core/src/presence.rs, core/src/workspace.rs, core/src/tools.rs, core/src/main.rs	Plugin manifests and runtime tool lists now carry disable, override, and system prompt data; the core also publishes workspace presence, exposes workspace_activity, and uses unconfined workspace resolution under Approval::Never.
Fetch host filtering core/src/fetch_tool.rs	The fetch tool now treats IPv6 literals and private, loopback, and link-local addresses as blocked by default when the allowlist is empty, with matching denial messages and updated tests.

TUI and web command flow

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Startup, caching, and output limits tui/main.go, tui/mention.go, tui/blocks.go, tui/settings.go, tui/extras_test.go	The TUI adds watchdog-backed core startup, atomic process teardown, background mention cache refresh, capped tool output storage, and safer settings persistence.
Ask prompt flow tui/ask.go, tui/handlers.go, tui/render.go, tui/ask_test.go	The ask flyout now parses blocking requests, routes keys into the prompt state, renders the overlay, and shows inline validation errors instead of transcript spam.
Context modal and compact command wiring tui/handlers.go, tui/modal.go, tui/protocol.go, web/src/components/chat.tsx, web/src/lib/commands.ts, web/src/lib/reducer.ts, web/src/lib/types.ts, web/src/lib/use-agent.ts, tui/keybinds.go, tui/keybinds_test.go, tui/login_key_entry_test.go, tui/pin_test.go	The TUI adds context modal rendering, auto compact settings, compact instructions, and the matching web command and API updates.

Docs, skills, CI, and installer updates

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Project documentation and skill guides .catalyst-code/skills/*, README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md	The README, contributing guide, code of conduct, and skill documents are rewritten or added to cover runner setup, review procedures, TTFT auditing, background tasks, and contributor workflow.
CI workflow runner and build changes .github/workflows/ci.yml	The CI workflow moves build jobs to self-hosted Linux X64 runners, adds a gofmt check for TUI, and switches the Docker build job to buildah.
Windows installer flow install.ps1	The PowerShell installer adds versioned download, checksum verification, web service installation, update, uninstall, state persistence, and help handling.

Estimated code review effort: 5 (Critical) | ~120 minutes

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