# Live Interoperability Test Matrix

This matrix proves `slskr` behavior against itself and adjacent/community clients without copying upstream implementation code.

## Credential source

- Local env file: `.env` at the repo root, gitignored.
- OpenBao is intentionally skipped for now.
- Four accounts are used so login, listener, probe, room/chat, and transfer actors can run without self-collisions.

## Checkout roles

Paths use portable checkout labels rather than machine-specific absolute paths.

| Client | Role in matrix | Checkout reference | Current status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `slskr` | Rust rewrite under test | `the slskr checkout` | Present |
| `slskr` | Community daemon/client parity target | `the slskr checkout` | Present |
| `slskr` | Sister fork parity target | `the slskr checkout` | Present |
| `dotnet reference suite` | Upstream .NET library parity target | `the .NET reference checkout` | Present |
| `slskNet.Runtime` | Runtime fork parity target | `the slskNet.Runtime checkout` | Present |

## Capability matrix

| Area | Required proof | `slskr` coverage | Cross-client coverage |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Login/session | New/existing account login succeeds, server greeting/hash parsed, relogin behavior handled | `login smoke`, live matrix | Unit suites plus daemon login/address probes |
| Keepalive/status | Ping, user status, stats, and share counts exchange without disconnect | `soak live`, unit/client tests | Daemon runtime coverage and peer metadata probes |
| Peer metadata | Server returns regular and obfuscated listener metadata | `probe peer-address` | `slskr -> slskr`, `slskr -> slskr` address probes |
| Plain peer messaging | Plain `PeerInit` and `UserInfoRequest` round-trip | `probe plain-peer` | `slskr -> slskr`, `slskr -> slskr` plain probes |
| Obfuscated peer messaging | Type-1 obfuscated `PeerInit` and `UserInfoRequest` round-trip | `probe obfuscated-peer` | `slskr -> slskr` attempted when the daemon advertises/runtime-enables it |
| Indirect connection | `ConnectToPeer` / `PierceFirewall` works for firewalled/NAT paths | `probe indirect-peer`, local peer smoke | `slskr` self-smoke proves protocol; daemon payload coverage now uses queued direct/NAT-PMP transfer probes |
| Distributed path | Distributed `D` peer init accepts ping/probe traffic | `probe distributed-peer` | Runtime/library unit coverage; daemon live probe still optional |
| File-transfer init | Transfer `F` peer init is accepted only as part of a real queued transfer | `probe file-transfer-peer` against `slskr` self-smoke | Raw token-echo closes with EOF against `slskr`/`slskr` as expected; queued payload transfer proof now covers daemon bytes |
| Search | Server search request emits usable result events | `soak live` with `SLSK_SOAK_SEARCH_QUERY` | Fixture search against daemon shares passes as open-commons search soak when indexing is timely |
| Browse | Browse request returns shared folder/file payloads | `probe browse-peer` added | Daemon browse proof runs after target advertises a live listener |
| Download/upload bytes | Queued download opens transfer path, moves bytes, reports completion | `probe download-peer` added for negotiated file payload reads | Daemon payload proof runs after browse exposes exact fixture path and target remains connected |
| Private chat | Direct private message send/receive/ack works | `probe private-message` in VPN-backed live matrix | Passed with fresh account pair |
| Rooms | Join/leave/list/message flows work | `probe room-message` in VPN-backed live matrix | Passed with fresh account |
| User controls | Watch/unwatch, stats, browse, ban/ignore semantics align | Unit/API coverage plus browse/stat live probes | Ban/ignore mutation remains an API policy surface, not a blocking Soulseek interop gap |
| Web/API/UI/player | Web UI drives search, transfers, chat, rooms, settings, player surfaces | Web tests/build plus maintained Playwright specs: [`smoke-auth`](../web/e2e/smoke-auth.spec.ts), [`core-pages`](../web/e2e/core-pages.spec.ts), [`library`](../web/e2e/library.spec.ts), [`search`](../web/e2e/search.spec.ts), [`multippeer-sharing`](../web/e2e/multippeer-sharing.spec.ts), [`streaming`](../web/e2e/streaming.spec.ts), and [`policy`](../web/e2e/policy.spec.ts) | Browser/player E2E passes against adjacent `slskr` daemon-hosted bundle |
| Durability | Searches/transfers/messages/rooms survive restart where supported | Unit/API coverage | Cross-client restart matrix passes for daemon metadata, browse, search, and queued payload transfer after restart |
| Failure modes | Bad auth, occupied user, offline peer, closed ports, bad obfuscation, and negative indirect fail safely | `negative-indirect`, unit coverage | Cross-client negative probes remain to add |

## Automation

Primary runners:

- `scripts/run-live-interop-matrix.sh`: `slskr` account login and local peer smoke.
- `scripts/run-live-interop-matrix.sh`: now also runs private-message and room-message probes after login/local-peer checks.
- The credential file must include the configured base account range plus every selected probe index. The default base range is accounts 1–6, so non-VPN mode needs accounts 1–6; VPN mode needs accounts 1–8. Missing probe accounts are rejected before public-host DNS lookup.
- `scripts/run-cross-client-validation.sh`: adjacent checkout validation, runtime/library unit validation, daemon peer probes, daemon browse probes, and daemon fixture-download probes.
- `.github/workflows/live-parity.yml`: scheduled/manual CI proof for the Rust web UI headless parity audit plus hermetic local `slskd_api` automation-client smoke, with screenshots, web assets, and daemon logs uploaded as artifacts. It also runs the credentialed public live matrix when the `SLSKR_LIVE_INTEROP_ENV` secret is configured, or uploads a skipped TSV when live credentials are intentionally absent.
- `scripts/fetch-open-commons-fixtures.sh`: downloads hash-pinned public-domain/CC0 media fixtures into ignored local storage for realistic share/search/transfer payloads.
- `scripts/verify-open-commons-fixtures.sh`: validates local fixture files, byte sizes, SHA-256 hashes, and emitted license metadata without needing the Soulseek network.
- `slskr smoke fixture-peer`: local peer-message and file-transfer smoke using the Commons binary fixture, without needing public Soulseek login or peer metadata.

The cross-client runner writes machine-readable TSV under `target/live-interop/cross-client-validation.tsv` and daemon logs under `target/live-interop/`.
By default it stages open commons fixtures from `target/open-commons-fixtures` into each daemon share under `open-commons/`; set `SLSKR_USE_OPEN_COMMONS_FIXTURES=0` to skip external fixture downloads.
When daemon readiness succeeds, the runner also attempts non-blocking `open-commons-browse` and `open-commons-download` checks against `commons-click-track.ogg` with SHA-256 verification.
It also attempts a non-blocking `open-commons-search` soak query for `commons-click-track.ogg`; this is useful evidence when public search indexing is timely, but it is not treated as a blocking result.

## Live-run stabilization knobs

Use these when public Soulseek resets or throttles daemon sessions:

| Variable | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| `SLSKR_SLSKR_ACCOUNT_INDEX` | Soulseek account index used by the `slskr` daemon target; default `4`. |
| `SLSKR_SLSKR_PROBE_ACCOUNT_INDEX` | Soulseek account index used by `slskr` when probing `slskr`; default `2`. |
| `SLSKR_DAEMON_PREFLIGHT_ATTEMPTS` | Local daemon HTTP/log readiness attempts before peer-address probes; default `24`. |
| `SLSKR_DAEMON_READINESS_ATTEMPTS` | Public peer-address attempts after daemon preflight; default `36`. |
| `SLSKR_DAEMON_COOLDOWN_SECONDS` | Cooldown between daemon targets; default `20`. |
| `SLSKR_DAEMON_VPN_ENABLED` | Run daemon targets inside Proton WireGuard namespaces; use `1` for isolated live interop. |
| `SLSKR_PROBE_VPN_ENABLED` | Run `slskr` probe clients inside separate Proton WireGuard namespaces; use `1` for isolated live interop. |
| `SLSK_DOWNLOAD_QUEUE_ATTEMPTS` | Attempts for queued daemon downloads before recording a bounded live-network retry failure; default `8` in the matrix. |
| `SLSK_DOWNLOAD_QUEUE_RETRY_SECONDS` | Delay between queued download attempts; default `4` in the matrix. |

Example bounded public-live rerun:

```bash
env \
  SLSKR_SKIP_ADJACENT_TESTS=1 \
  SLSKR_RUN_ADJACENT_DAEMONS=1 \
  SLSKR_DAEMON_PREFLIGHT_ATTEMPTS=12 \
  SLSKR_DAEMON_READINESS_ATTEMPTS=12 \
  SLSKR_DAEMON_COOLDOWN_SECONDS=60 \
  SLSK_DOWNLOAD_QUEUE_ATTEMPTS=10 \
  SLSK_DOWNLOAD_QUEUE_RETRY_SECONDS=6 \
  scripts/run-cross-client-validation.sh
```

For account rotation, add more `SLSKR_TEST_N_USERNAME` / `SLSKR_TEST_N_PASSWORD` pairs to `.env`, then point the index variables above at non-colliding accounts. For VPN rotation, keep each daemon/probe account pinned to one stable egress for the duration of a run; do not change egress mid-session.

## Pairwise execution plan

| Phase | Checks |
| --- | --- |
| 1. Bootstrap | Start clients with isolated credentials, state dirs, ports, and fixture shares |
| 2. Discovery | Login, watch target, request target metadata, verify plain/obfuscated port advertisement |
| 3. Peer | Plain peer, obfuscated peer where supported, distributed peer, file-transfer peer, indirect peer |
| 4. Search/browse | Search for fixture token, browse target shares, verify expected fixture path/metadata |
| 5. Transfer | Download fixture from target, verify byte-for-byte hash, verify progress and completion events |
| 6. Chat/rooms | Send private message, ack it, join test room, send room message, leave room |
| 7. API/Web | Drive equivalent HTTP/Web UI operations for daemon clients with web surfaces |
| 8. Restart | Restart client under test and verify persisted records and clean reconnect |
| 9. Negative | Offline target, blocked transfer, bad room, bad peer token, closed listener, auth failure |

## Execution status through 2026-08-20

| Scope | Result | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `slskr` Rust formatting | Passed | `scripts/check-rust-format.sh` |
| `slskr` Rust workspace tests | Passed | `cargo test --workspace`: all protocol, client, daemon, API smoke, and Soulfind contract tests passed |
| `slskr` web tests | Passed | `web npm test`: 82 files, 508 tests passed |
| `slskr` web production build | Passed | `web npm run build` |
| `slskr` live account login | Passed | `scripts/run-live-interop-matrix.sh`: four generated `slskrtest20260504_*` accounts logged in |
| `slskr` live account login over VPN | Passed | 2026-05-04 VPN-backed live matrix: accounts 5-8 logged in through fresh Proton namespaces |
| `slskr` live peer smoke | Passed | 2026-05-04 VPN-backed live matrix: direct peer-message, obfuscated peer-message, file-transfer init, and indirect peer-message passed with fresh accounts |
| `slskr` private-message live proof | Passed | 2026-05-04 VPN-backed live matrix: sender and receiver fresh accounts completed private-message probe |
| `slskr` room-message live proof | Passed | 2026-05-04 VPN-backed live matrix: fresh account joined `slskr-live-interop` and completed room-message probe |
| browser/player E2E against daemon state | Passed | 2026-05-04 historical Playwright result; the old `live-surfaces.spec.ts` source path is not retained. Current coverage is the seven maintained specs in the capability row above. The [2026-09-14 live-parity artifact](https://github.com/snapetech-org/slskr/actions/runs/34865016805/artifacts/10356417233) is dated evidence, and the [live-parity workflow](../.github/workflows/live-parity.yml) uploads `live-parity-<run_id>` artifacts for new runs. |
| `slskr -> slskr` daemon plain peer | Passed over VPN-isolated daemon/probe namespaces | 2026-05-04 focused run: `slskr` logged in through p7, probe p5 resolved advertised `55100`, and plain `UserInfoRequest` passed through the daemon namespace host override |
| `slskr -> slskr` daemon browse | Passed over VPN-isolated daemon/probe namespaces | 2026-05-04 focused run: browse preview included `slskr\open-commons\commons-click-track.ogg` |
| `slskr -> slskr` live search soak | Passed over VPN-isolated probe namespace | 2026-05-04 focused run: server event stream completed; incidental indirect peer reset is now informational |
| `slskr -> slskr` daemon queued payload transfer | Passed over VPN-isolated daemon/probe namespaces | 2026-05-04 focused run: probe claimed Proton NAT-PMP port, advertised it as wait port, accepted daemon `PeerInit F`, sent offset, received text fixture, and matched SHA-256 |
| `slskr -> slskr` open-commons payload transfer | Passed over VPN-isolated daemon/probe namespaces | 2026-05-04 focused run: received `slskr\open-commons\commons-click-track.ogg`, 7640 bytes, SHA-256 `e5e09f8ef9617a355e71e2d0b00f2554201aa124a9a821c4a7f76f0441a369a0` |
| consolidated `slskr -> slskr`/`slskr` cross-client pass | Passed over VPN-isolated daemon/probe namespaces | 2026-05-04 consolidated run: both daemon targets passed peer-address, plain peer, browse, queued text download, open-commons binary download, and search; `slskr` also passed obfuscated peer via plain-response fallback |
| restart/persistence matrix | Passed over VPN-isolated daemon/probe namespaces | 2026-05-04 restart runs: `slskr` and `slskr` restarted with preserved app/share directories, republished peer metadata, served browse responses, completed open-commons queued payload downloads, and completed search soaks |
| daemon raw transfer-token probe | Diagnostic-only non-blocking row | `slskr` and `slskr` close the raw token echo probe with EOF because no transfer is queued; real payload proof is now covered by queued requester-listener probes |
| `slskr -> slskr` obfuscated peer-message response | Passed with compatibility fallback | 2026-05-04 focused VPN run: type-1 obfuscated init and obfuscated request succeeded; `slskr` returned the peer message as a plain frame, and `slskr` completed via plain-response fallback |
| `slskr` live login after repeated daemon retries | Mitigated by VPN account pool | Fresh p5-p8 accounts avoid the prior host-egress reset path for focused daemon/probe runs; raw public-host reruns may still reset under heavy retry |
| `slskr` unit tests | Passed | `the slskr checkout`: 3863/3863 passed |
| `slskr` live `slskd_api` automation client smoke | Passed | 2026-07-15 local daemon rerun with Python `slskd_api` 0.2.4 passed all 91 client calls across application, session, server, search, transfer, room, conversation, user, file, relay, share, options, events, logs, and telemetry APIs. The rerun uses real storage fixtures and proves compatibility with the client's newline-terminated base64 file-route segments. |
| Foundation certification | Passed, 8/8 | `target/certify/summary-20260716-001206.json`: live public-server login, public listener, true type-1 obfuscated request/response, indirect exchange, room/private-message paths, and the bounded listener soak passed. |
| Phase C certification | Passed, 6/6 | `target/certify/summary-20260716-001539.json`: public-server wishlist interval/search, queued/open-commons transfer fixtures, and the remaining phase checks passed. |
| Full seven-phase certification | Passed, 39/39; zero failures/skips | `target/certify/summary-20260716-103416.json`: four isolated public logins; direct, type-1 obfuscated, and indirect peer paths; transfers; live room traffic and user-watch/stats plus deterministic room-create/rejection protocol; deterministic distributed-tree round trips; cleanup-aware NAT-PMP claim/renew/collision/soaks; bounded server/listener soaks; explicit relog/reconnect; and all negative frame/metadata paths passed in 442 seconds. |
| current working-tree `slskr <-> slskdN` cross-client matrix | Passed, 60/60 functional checks; bounded process peak 282.5 MiB | 2026-08-17 fresh run against the current slskdN checkout. It proves bidirectional Soulseek workflows, transfers, distributed peer, messages/rooms, signed capability exchange, Pods, private gateway, signed DHT Store, mesh health/stats/transport, and stream tickets. Evidence: `target/live-interop-universal-20260817-slskdn-guarded-current-final/slskr-slskdn-cross-client-interop.tsv`. |
| pinned `slskr <-> slskdN` cross-client matrix | Closed with 44 positive and 13 expected-negative checks | 2026-08-17 fresh rerun against the exact `65a14a8b821de4df4ab7ef3ab3b156d7206837a3` source build. Browse, search, exact-hash downloads, private messages, queued backfill, distributed peer, signed capability exchange, pinned overlay `dht.Ping`, authenticated signed DHT Store, mesh content bytes, mesh health/stats/transport, stream tickets, and the post-transfer soak passed. The pinned target returned the documented disabled/not-found/identity-mismatch responses for VirtualSoulfind, Pods, and private-gateway. `scripts/audit-parity-manifest.py` now source-validates those exact responses as `negative-target-contract` proof. Evidence: `target/live-interop-universal-20260817-slskdn-pinned-rerun/slskr-slskdn-cross-client-interop.failed-19885.tsv`. |
| ordinary frozen-ledger audit | Passed; 19,216/19,216 materialized cases complete | 2026-08-17 fresh audit completed every differential slice and its browser workflow; peak was 2.0 GiB with zero swap. Configuration, live interop, operator packaging, persistence, protocol, security, both controller profiles, and Web UI workstreams all report zero partial, missing, or needs-proof cases. This is the ordinary ledger result, not the strict universal gate. |
| strict universal live-evidence audit | Closed; 11/11 transport/lifecycle records pass, all 22 lifecycle cases pass, and the live UI comparison passes 9/9 workflow-health cases with zero semantic mismatches across 18 target/profile comparisons. Target-negative transports are explicitly classified from the frozen source. | `target/universal-transport-evidence-20260820-frozen-slskdn-mesh-retry.json`, `target/universal-transport-capability-evidence-20260820-frozen-slskdn-mesh-retry.json`, and `target/frozen-target-ui-comparison-universal-20260820-fresh12/audit.json`. |
| vendored `slskNet.Runtime` library build | Passed | `the slskr checkout`: `dotnet build vendor/slskNet.Runtime/src/Soulseek.csproj`, 0 warnings/errors |
| vendored `slskNet.Runtime` unit behavior | Passed | `the slskr checkout`: 2303/2303 passed |
| standalone `dotnet reference suite` unit behavior | Passed | `the .NET reference checkout`: 2246/2246 passed |

## Bugs fixed during matrix execution

| Area | Bug | Fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Live harness | `scripts/run-live-interop-matrix.sh` had a malformed command substitution after warning filtering was added. | Rewrote the runner with temp files and sanitized summaries so credentials are not printed and compiler warnings do not pollute TSV detail fields. |
| Web UX | Room unread/activity alert missed migrated `slskr` localStorage state because only the new `slskr.rooms.lastSeenActivity` key was read. | Added fallback read from `slskr.rooms.lastSeenActivity` while continuing to write the current `slskr` key. |
| Rust formatting | Existing Rust sources had trailing whitespace that blocked the Rust formatter. | Stripped trailing whitespace and reran the changed-file formatter check. |
| Runtime unit tests | `SearchInternal` mismatched-token test expected an exception even though current behavior safely ignores stale token responses. | Updated the test expectation to assert no exception and no callback. |
| slskd automation files API | Python `slskd_api` 0.2.4 uses MIME-style base64 with newline wrapping for file-management route segments; the strict HTTP target validator rejected the encoded newline before routing. | Scoped percent-encoded ASCII whitespace acceptance to the final base64 segment of slskd file-management routes, stripped base64 whitespace before decoding, and changed the smoke to use real raw directory/file names and storage fixtures. |
| Queued cross-client downloads | slskdN generates a new upload token after returning `Queued`; slskR incorrectly required that token to equal its original download-request token and closed the peer-message connection. | Validate the initial queued response against the request token, then adopt the nonzero collision-free upload token from the matching follow-up request. A focused regression and the bidirectional live hash transfer pass. |
| VirtualSoulfind v2 activation | slskdN's v2 controller injected a separate unbound options type whose default disabled the API even though the configured processor/backends were enabled. Its hard-coded `/api/v1` route also still requires an explicit API-version query. | Bind the controller monitor to the root VirtualSoulfind v2 options and make the cross-client probe send `api-version=1`. Both clients now pass the same bounded create/plan/process/statistics workflow. |
| Cross-client harness accuracy | Mixed auth headers blocked slskR readiness, compilation after slskdN startup consumed its endpoint-override cache lifetime, the slskR download assertion used a Windows path on Linux, mesh health omitted its required API version, and Bash conditional errexit recorded an HTTP 400 as `ok`. | Use one bearer credential only for slskR and no credential for the auth-disabled slskdN fixture, build before launching daemons, check the normalized Linux path, request mesh health with `api-version=1.0`, and explicitly reject failed or malformed mesh responses. |
| Capability and overlay discovery | slskR only answered `KSDN` messages; its active rendezvous flag was never enabled or wired to a network probe. The overlay certificate is created lazily, so hashing an absent file produced the SHA-256 of empty input instead of a usable pin. | Active discovery and explicit mesh sync now queue bounded signed probes, enforce acknowledgement type and nonce, verify the descriptor, and persist it. The harness first triggers lazy certificate creation, then extracts and enforces the actual DER fingerprint before the frozen overlay service call. |
| Backfill compatibility | slskR exposed candidate-count placeholders but lacked slskdN's backfill controls, scheduler, peer limits, and FLAC-header probe. | Added the sibling-shaped control routes, idle scheduler, bounded restart-safe daily counters, two-probe concurrency cap, exact FLAC/32 KiB SHA-256 policy, durable HashDB merge, and queued upload-token handling. The current-client matrix proves the live slskR-to-slskdN header exchange and byte hash. |
| Private-gateway production path | slskdN registered neither the Pod/gateway overlay services nor a usable production gateway identity, treated a committed Pod message as failed when best-effort fan-out failed, and re-resolved approved tunnel hostnames while dialing, creating a DNS-rebinding TOCTOU gap and mapped-address false rejection. | Register all mesh services, retain committed-message success independently of fan-out, bind gateway authorization to the signed local profile, dial only the already validated IP addresses, and compare parsed IP addresses semantically. Focused tests and the live exact-byte tunnel workflow pass. |
| Runtime unit tests | Reconfigure download/upload speed tests used AutoData, which can generate the same speed as the initial value and make the changed assertion flaky. | Replaced changed-speed AutoData with deterministic non-equal inline values. |
| Runtime analyzer debt | Vendored runtime unit tests emitted CA2012 warnings from `ValueTask` test doubles. | Suppressed the existing analyzer debt in the vendored unit-test project so normal test runs are clean. |
| Cross-client harness | Daemon readiness accepted stale `port=0` metadata and hid probe stderr. | Readiness now requires a nonzero advertised listener, failures include stderr detail, and live-environment daemon failures are recorded without aborting the whole matrix. |
| Obfuscated metadata probe | `slskr probe obfuscated-peer` could fail during transient Soulseek metadata reads before reaching the target obfuscated listener. | Added bounded metadata retries before attempting the obfuscated TCP exchange. |
| Browse/download coverage | The matrix only had synthetic peer and raw transfer-token probes. | Added `browse-peer` and `download-peer`; daemon runner now attempts browse fixture proof and negotiated fixture download before the legacy raw token probe. |
| Chat/room coverage | Private-message and room flows were only API/unit covered. | Added `private-message` and `room-message` live probes and wired them into the live matrix. |
| Live failure observability | Public-server login/reset failures were blank in TSV output. | Live runner now records stderr tails; cross-client runner records peer-address last detail and daemon log tails. |
| Proton WireGuard netns | Fresh Proton configs handshook only after bypassing the host VPN policy route. | Netns runner now installs a temporary host `/32` endpoint route via the main default route and supports cross-namespace extra routes. |
| Host-egress live smoke resets | `scripts/run-live-interop-matrix.sh` could still fail on account/login or social probes when public server reset host-egress connections. | Added optional `SLSKR_LIVE_VPN_ENABLED=1` mode that wraps login, local peer, private-message, and room-message probes in Proton namespaces, resolves the Soulseek server outside the namespace, and defaults to fresh accounts 5-8. |
| VPN-isolated daemon/probe routing | Daemon and probe namespaces could not reach each other by private namespace IP. | Cross-client runner now assigns stable daemon/probe subnets and injects reciprocal namespace routes for host-overridden direct peer probes. |
| Browser/player E2E gap | Browser/player coverage stopped at unit/build checks and did not mount this repo's bundle against daemon state. | Added a Playwright live-surface spec and made the slskr E2E harness portable: it can build this repo's `web` bundle, host it from adjacent `slskr`, and assert route/player shell behavior. |
| Restart/persistence gap | Daemon adapter restarts wiped app state and did not re-probe after process restart. | Cross-client runner now preserves daemon app/share dirs across restart and re-runs peer metadata, browse, open-commons queued transfer, and search checks after restart. |
| Restart log diagnostics | slskr restart logs contained null padding and HTTP readiness relied on logs because the daemon bound HTTP to loopback inside the namespace. | TSV sanitization now strips null bytes, and daemon launches set `ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://0.0.0.0:$port` for reachable HTTP readiness where the target honors ASP.NET Core URL binding. |
| Cross-client search soak | Optional account commands still used host egress and the default Soulseek server. | `run_account_command_optional` now uses the same probe VPN wrapper and resolved daemon Soulseek server as peer probes. |
| Live soak indirect chatter | Search soak failed when incidental indirect peer-message sockets reset or requested user info. | Soak now answers inbound `UserInfoRequest` and treats peer reset/timeout during incidental indirect handling as informational. |
| Queued daemon payload transfer | Direct retry probes proved queue placement but not payload transfer because daemons initiate the eventual upload back to the requester. | `download-peer` now has a queued requester mode: it advertises a Proton NAT-PMP wait port, keeps the peer-message negotiation alive, accepts daemon `PeerInit F`, sends offset, reads payload bytes, and verifies SHA-256. |
| Probe port metadata lag | Back-to-back payload probes could advertise different forwarded ports faster than public-server peer metadata converged. | Daemon download probes reuse the same local NAT-PMP port per target run so the forwarded public port remains stable for text and binary fixture transfers. |
| `slskr` obfuscated response framing | Diagnostic mode proved `slskr` accepts obfuscated init/request but sends `UserInfoResponse` as a plain frame on that connection. | `obfuscated-peer` now falls back to a plain peer-message response after the primary obfuscated-response read times out or EOFs, preserving compatibility without weakening the initial obfuscated request path. |

## Historical residual diagnostics

The older 2026-08-17 working-tree and pinned slskdN diagnostics are retained
for provenance and are not the current frozen universal-replacement result.
At that checkpoint the pinned run reported 13 target-version failures:
VirtualSoulfind v2 is disabled by the target's unbound options monitor, the
target does not register its `pods` or `private-gateway` mesh services, its
no-auth gateway identity path rejects the harness identity. The strict DHT
signature failure is now gone in a fresh rebuilt slskR binary.
The raw `file-transfer-peer` row remains diagnostic-only because `slskR` and
the frozen targets correctly require an actual queued transfer before opening
`F` payload sockets; queued payload transfer is covered by `download-peer` and
open-commons download probes.

The authoritative frozen status is closed by the 2026-08-20 transport,
lifecycle, and UI artifacts listed in the strict-audit row above. The retained
target-negative behavior is an explicit compatibility contract, not an open
parity gap.