[shuv1337]

Problem

Nightly .121 failed Windows packaging after #429: 99 physical payload files exceeded our 96-file budget.

This is not three new runtime files. Comparing the Windows installer file lists in runs 42727099653 (.120, validator reports 91 files) and 42804832381 (.121, 99 files) shows eight net additional prepared server bytecode cache entries: 14 → 22. All non-cache paths are unchanged. The other 77 files comprise 76 runtime files and the cache manifest. The old limit had five spare slots, hence only three over budget.

Under resources/server-compile-cache/, added hashes: 05831047, 12ed5f76, 1be4418f, 21b18bac, 39ee2808, 3e3f1edf, 547bdf01, 5637e6e0, 5fcf1a7b, 6497ea8c, 8e501452, 9a6b6714, a5d596d2, b48ced3e, c9e834b1, da1a3588, f734d659, f7fd019d. Removed hashes: 4437dca0, 4f1fa954, 7b51c80a, 8a659a27, 8b72c771, 8cca60fd, 8eec54db, d9aa06c0, ee1287c5, eef8fe89. Four entries and manifest.json retain their paths. These names are generated cache keys, not source modules.

Fix

Set the physical-file budget to the measured 99, without adding speculative headroom or excluding intended startup bytecode. The afterPack hook deliberately generates this cache using packaged Electron; removing it would discard the startup optimization. Preserve all existing sidecar/native/WSL validation.

Compared read-only with upstream main 61cb845d9699d0ecce5a9b660d3b32907914df8b: scripts/build-desktop-artifact.ts still has an 80-file cap and counts all physical payload files, including the cache. Upstream uses the same afterPack cache hook; it does not have an updated manifest or cache exemption to adopt. Our fork already had 96 because of its additional native payload. No upstream changes or PRs.

Verification

• Extended the existing Windows native payload test: accept 99 files including prepared cache files, reject 100 with file-limit-exceeded.
• Before fix: fails with the exact release error, 99 files; expected at most 96.
• After fix: all 71 build-desktop-artifact tests pass.
• vp run check:changed: format, affected typecheck and tests pass; knip reports existing workspace-wide findings with reused dependencies. Initial lint couldn't resolve the plugin dependency in the fresh worktree; linking the existing plugin dependencies fixes it and focused lint passes. No dependencies installed.

Separately, .121 publish logs show npm promotion was attempted and deferred for registry visibility (npm pending review), not skipped because Windows failed. The standalone promotion job only runs with promote_version input.

Model: gpt-6-astra; harness: pi.