[njhensley]

Summary

Adds a harness-compat floor file, tests/uat/compat.yaml, that sits next to the UAT harness. Nightly and manual UAT release cells below a lane's floor are skipped visibly instead of running red. The existing nightly-intent-min-versions registry field moves into this file.

Motivation / Context

Release cells pin the aicr binary and images to a release tag, but they run main's tests/uat/** fixtures and harness. A breaking fixture or harness change therefore turns that lane's release cell permanently red until the next tag. gcp-h100 training @ v0.21.1 was red six nights running after #2705 added spec.recipe.configuration.gke.tcpxoInterfaces. An interim per-incident nightly-intent-min-versions gate on gcp-h100 training (>= v0.22.0) silenced that one case. This PR replaces it with a general mechanism.

Fixes: #2860
Related: #2630 / #2989

Type of Change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change that fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change that adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• Documentation update
• Refactoring (no functional changes)
• Build/CI/tooling

Component(s) Affected

• CLI (cmd/aicr, pkg/cli)
• API server (cmd/aicrd, pkg/server)
• Recipe engine / data (pkg/recipe)
• Bundlers (pkg/bundler, pkg/component/*)
• Collectors / snapshotter (pkg/collector, pkg/snapshotter)
• Validator (pkg/validator)
• Core libraries (pkg/errors, pkg/k8s)
• Docs/examples (docs/, examples/)
• Other: UAT harness and broker (pkg/uatbroker, tools/uat-broker, tests/uat, infra/uat/reservations.yaml, .github/workflows/uat-{nightly-batch,run}.yaml, new .github/workflows/compat-floor-check.yaml)

Implementation Notes

Options evaluated (from the issue)

• Option 1: pin tests/uat/** to the tag. Rejected. The tag's harness and main's workflows also move together, so pinning only the harness recreates the same skew one layer up. For example, ci(uat): split readiness gate into its own phase and step #2989 adds a readiness phase that older harnesses lack. It would also leave a tag's harness unfixable, because there are no release branches.
• Option 2: repoint actions/checkout ref:. Rejected (as in the issue). It swaps the ./.github/actions/* CI code that installs the release under test.
• Option 3: path-diff auto-skip. Rejected. The shared tests/uat/lib/phases.sh churns on almost every UAT PR, so a git diff <tag>..HEAD -- tests/uat/<cloud>/ guard would skip nearly every release cell. That hides the coverage it was meant to keep.
• Option 4: generalized floor bookkeeping. Chosen, reframed. The floor lives in tests/uat/compat.yaml, next to the harness. A breaking change and its floor land in the same commit and get reviewed together. There's no separate infra edit for someone to notice later.

Data model

• tests/uat/compat.yaml has one row per (lane = reservation cloud = tests/uat/<lane>/, intents) → min-release + reason.
• It is decoded strictly (KnownFields). Each (lane, intent) pair may appear once. min-release must be a stable v-prefixed semver, and reason is required.
• nightly-intent-min-versions is migrated wholesale out of infra/uat/reservations.yaml and uatbroker.Reservation. The migrated floors are gcp training v0.22.0, azure training and inference v0.18.0, and kind v0.18.0. The strict registry decode now rejects the old key, so it can't come back quietly.
• The interim gcp-h100 training >= v0.22.0 gate is subsumed by the gcp row in compat.yaml. It still matters for previous_n >= 2 batches that reach v0.21.1.

Broker (tools/uat-broker, pkg/uatbroker)

• uat-broker schedule --compat <file> applies the floors. Each cell's JSON reports the skipped (version × intent) pairs with floor and reason. --ignore-floor-lines un-honors specific rows.
• New uat-broker compat list|check|gate:
  • list emits line lane intent floor rows for the workflow's blame loop.
  • check runs the pure over-high floor check.
  • gate exits non-zero with a coded INVALID_REQUEST naming the floor when a version is below it.
• pkg/uatbroker keeps its no-git / no-network invariant. git blame (the commit that last touched each min-release line) and git tag --contains run in the workflow, and their results reach the package as data.

Floor correctness (over-high is the dangerous direction)

• Over-high floors are NOT honored. That covers a floor that is neither a shipped tag nor the next release (IncPatch/IncMinor/IncMajor of the latest stable), and a floor whose commit an earlier shipped tag already contains. The cell runs and shows its real color, and the leg ends red with an ::error naming the correct floor (expected <= vX).
• A git lookup failure means the floor is unverifiable. It is treated the same way: not honored, and the leg goes red. It never skips silently.
• An under-low floor shows up as a red cell, which is the safe direction.

Visibility

• Every skipped (version × intent) emits a ::notice title=UAT release cell skipped (compat floor). The drive leg's step summary gets a table of reservation, version, intent, floor, and reason. This replaces the previous silent continue for fully gated cells.

Dispatch surfaces

• uat-run.yaml refuses a release below its floor unless the new allow_below_compat_floor input is set (on both workflow_dispatch and workflow_call). With the override it only warns. main (empty aicr_version) is never gated.
• uat-{aws,gcp,azure}.yaml are workflow_call-only on this base, so the spec's warn-only direct-dispatch step was dropped as unreachable. TestCloudPipelinesOnlyReachableThroughUATRun enforces that they stay that way, which keeps uat-run.yaml the single gated entry point.
• compat-floor-check.yaml is a paths-filtered PR check (fetch-depth: 0) that runs the over-high check before merge. It is advisory: it is not added to merge-gate.yaml.

Docs

• docs/contributor/uat.md documents the contract: when to add a floor, the schema, what shows up where, and floor correctness.
• It also corrects the previous_n default from 2 to 1, matching the workflow.
• tools/uat-broker/README.md covers the new flags and subcommands.

Acceptance criteria

1. A breaking tests/uat/** change doesn't redden pre-change tags. The same-commit floor row makes the nightly planner drop those (version × intent) cells, and uat-run.yaml refuses a manual below-floor dispatch.
2. Reduced coverage is visible. Each skip emits one ::notice and appears in the step-summary table. A refused uat-run raises ::error, or ::warning with the override. The silent continue is gone.
3. Release cells either test matching fixtures or don't run. Each (release, lane, intent) is either at or above the floor, where main's fixtures are declared compatible with that binary, or it doesn't run.
4. docs/contributor/uat.md documents the contract. Done, in the new release-cell harness-compat section.
5. The interim gcp-h100 gate is removed or subsumed. It is subsumed into compat.yaml. The field is deleted from the registry and the code, and strict decoding blocks a comeback.

Testing

make qualify

• make qualify passed using the repo-pinned tool versions. The local golangci-lint and helm were stale, so the pinned versions were used, and oasdiff was installed.
• Total coverage is 84.7%.
• Package coverage:
  • pkg/uatbroker: 96.9% → 98.0% (+1.1%)
  • tools/uat-broker: 92.9% → 94.8% (+1.9%)
• I smoke-tested the nightly compat step in a throwaway clone with real tags:
  • The real floors are accepted, and they are inert at previous_n=1.
  • An over-high v0.25.0 floor is rejected with expected <= v0.23.0 and not honored.
  • A forced git blame failure is treated as unverifiable and not honored.
  • The notices and the step-summary table rendered.
• The known flake TestApplyCRDsScript_BoundsStalledApply failed once and passed on rerun. It is unrelated to this change.

Risk Assessment

• Low — Isolated change, well-tested, easy to revert
• Medium — Touches multiple components or has broader impact
• High — Breaking change, affects critical paths, or complex rollout

Rollout notes:

• Any out-of-tree --file registry that still sets nightly-intent-min-versions now fails to parse (loudly). Fix it by moving those floors into a compat file.
• This PR overlaps PR ci(uat): split readiness gate into its own phase and step #2989 in docs/contributor/uat.md, so whichever merges second rebases. If ci(uat): split readiness gate into its own phase and step #2989's readiness phase is harness-breaking for v0.22.0, it should add a floor row in its own commit.
• Revert is a clean revert of this PR.

Checklist

• Tests pass locally (make test with -race)
• Linter passes (make lint)
• I did not skip/disable tests to make CI green
• I added/updated tests for new functionality
• I updated docs if user-facing behavior changed
• Changes follow existing patterns in the codebase
• Commits are cryptographically signed (git commit -S) — GPG signing info

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The change adds tests/uat/compat.yaml and broker commands to list, check, and gate compatibility floors. The broker applies floors to release-cell scheduling and records skipped intents. Pull-request and nightly workflows check floor correctness. Manual and reusable dispatches reject below-floor releases unless the override is enabled. The change removes registry-level nightly minimum-version gates and updates related tests and documentation.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~55 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Suggested reviewers: arangogutierrez

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to ac159

The extracted broker build works without a pre-existing bin directory. No actionable merge-blocking risk remains; merge after normal checks pass.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description check	✅ Passed	The description clearly explains the compatibility-floor changes, affected workflows and code, motivation, testing, and rollout impact. It is directly related to the changeset.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely summarizes the primary change: gating UAT release cells on a harness-compatibility floor.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Issue #2860 requires release cells to avoid false failures from incompatible tests/uat/** changes, show reduced coverage, document the contract, and remove or subsume the gcp-h100 interim gate. `t…
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes stay within Issue #2860. Compatibility parsing, validation, scheduling, reporting, and dispatch gating implement the requested release-cell compatibility mechanism. Registry changes remove…

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🟡 Minor · Pass the floor override for nightly UAT cells. · uat-nightly-batch.yaml:460-463

.github/workflows/uat-nightly-batch.yaml:460-463
🎯 Functional Correctness | 🟡 Minor | ⚡ Quick win

Pass the floor override for nightly UAT cells.

When --ignore-floor-lines makes a below-floor release-intent cell eligible, this dispatch omits allow_below_compat_floor. uat-run.yaml defaults that input to false and rejects the release before reservation resolution, so the cell does not execute UAT. This reduces bounded nightly UAT coverage without changing production release gating.

Pass the override only from this nightly caller. Manual dispatches retain the false default.

Suggested fix

                -f reservation="$RESERVATION" -f aicr_version="$ver" \
                -f intent="$intent" \
+               -f allow_below_compat_floor=true \
                -f dispatch_key="$dispatch_key"

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Review comment at @.github/workflows/uat-nightly-batch.yaml around lines 460 -
463:
Update the nightly dispatch in the workflow run command to pass
allow_below_compat_floor=true, so eligible below-floor release-intent cells can
proceed; keep this override limited to this nightly caller and leave manual
dispatch defaults unchanged.

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Inline comments:
Review comments at @pkg/uatbroker/compat.go:
- Around line 143-152: Update recordLines to reject any compatibility floor
whose Line remains zero after processing the YAML mappings, returning an
invalid-request error that identifies the floor index; preserve the existing
line-recording behavior for floors with a recorded min-release line.

---

Outside diff comments:
Review comments at @.github/workflows/uat-nightly-batch.yaml:
- Around line 460-463: Update the nightly dispatch in the workflow run command
to pass allow_below_compat_floor=true, so eligible below-floor release-intent
cells can proceed; keep this override limited to this nightly caller and leave
manual dispatch defaults unchanged.

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• infra/uat/reservations.yaml
• pkg/uatbroker/compat.go
• pkg/uatbroker/compat_test.go
• pkg/uatbroker/doc.go
• pkg/uatbroker/model.go
• pkg/uatbroker/registry.go
• pkg/uatbroker/registry_test.go
• pkg/uatbroker/schedule.go
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• tests/uat/compat.yaml
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[njhensley]

Force-pushed 381381a30 → 163df1cc3. The branch had conflicts with main (#3026 had edited the docs/contributor/uat.md lane table), so I rebased onto main and dropped the "Update branch" merge commit. Conflict resolution: kept #3026's aws-h100-ct-2 row, and pointed the gcp/azure/kind release gates at the harness-compat floor. The three original commits are otherwise unchanged.

Two commits appended for the CodeRabbit review:

• 4c077b338 rejects compat floors whose min-release arrives through a YAML alias or merge key (inline thread).
• 163df1cc3 fixes the out-of-diff finding on uat-nightly-batch.yaml. Cells kept in the schedule by --ignore-floor-lines were still refused by uat-run's own compat gate, so a rejected floor stayed honored. The nightly dispatch now passes allow_below_compat_floor=true, but only when this run ignores a floor, so the uat-run gate stays a backstop otherwise. A TestNightlyBatchCompatWiring assertion pins the guard.

[yuanchen8911]

Reviewed at ac159082a. Approve after rebase and green checks. The design is sound and the fail-closed choices are right; every claim in the body I could check against the code holds. One mechanical blocker, one pre-existing race worth a follow-up, and three take-or-leave suggestions.

Blocking

Merge conflict with main in docs/contributor/uat.md. #3053 renamed the aws-h100 examples to aws-h100-ct-2 and rewrote the kind-h100 table row; this PR edits the same rows and it is the only overlapping file. Suggested resolution: take main's rename in the by-hand example at uat.md:279 and this PR's floor wording in the nightly table. Since this is a gate-required rebase on a non-draft PR, please note the old and new SHA here when you force-push.

Non-blocking

Planning and dispatch can read different floors. The drive job dispatches with REF: ${{ github.ref_name }} (uat-nightly-batch.yaml:469), so each gh workflow run uat-run.yaml --ref main resolves to main's tip at dispatch time, while the schedule was computed once from the drive job's own checkout. If a merge raises a lane's floor above an already-scheduled release mid-batch, uat-run's gate refuses that cell and leg_failed turns the leg red instead of skipping.

This is limited to batches spanning the merge (nightly, manual, or rerun), and it is not new: the refused cell would have run red anyway because uat-run also checks out main's tip for tests/uat/**. The PR makes that failure fast and names the floor in the error, which is an improvement. --ref accepts only a branch or tag, so a same-revision fix needs an explicit checkout-revision input and belongs in a follow-up. A sentence in the docs noting the limitation would be enough for this PR.

If a follow-up converts the refusal into a visible skip, it should key on the confirmed below-floor refusal only. The gate step also fails on a malformed compat file, a non-semver version, and a reservation lookup error, and those must stay red. The distinct annotation titles (UAT release below compat floor vs UAT compat gate failed) already give that a hook.

RC dispatches of the floor release are refused. Compat.Gate keeps the pre-release segment, so v0.24.0-rc.1 is below a v0.24.0 floor. Floors point at the next release while it is unreleased, which is exactly when its RCs are validated by hand. The override exists and the error names the floor, so this is friction rather than a defect. One sentence in "What you'll see" telling RC testers to pass allow_below_compat_floor=true would close it.

Editing a min-release line re-anchors blame. Any later edit to that line moves blame to a newer commit and the over-high proof is lost for that row. One sentence in "Floor correctness" (uat.md:317) saying not to touch a min-release line you are not changing would make the limitation explicit.

Nit, optional. readBounded duplicates the unexported readFileBounded; both are new in this PR. Exporting one would remove the copy. Fine to ignore.

Verified, no action needed

• Each cloud has exactly one nightly-enrolled reservation, so moving floors from per-reservation to per-lane widens no skip today.
• The nightly drive job already checks out with fetch-depth: 0, and the PR check sets it explicitly. A shallow checkout surfaces as inconclusive and is rejected, not honored.
• The uat-run gate runs before "Resolve reservation row", whose output gates the always() cloud jobs, so a refusal cannot leak into a dispatch. The repo test pins the ordering.
• The over-high logic in compat.go:328 is right for the cases I traced, including a next-release floor that ships under a different number and the migrated floors after this PR's squash commit is tagged.
• A malformed compat.yaml fails the whole nightly leg before any dispatch, but TestCommittedCompatFile runs under make test, a required gate, so such a file cannot merge.
• Latest tag on origin is v0.22.0; with previous_n=1 all four floors are inert today, as the body says. The PR-time floor check on this head reported all floors verified.

Out of scope for this PR

• Code changes for planning-and-dispatch revision consistency. Pre-existing failure mode; follow-up issue recommended.
• Reader deduplication as a required change.
• Making compat-floor-check.yaml a required merge-gate check. It is deliberately advisory; the Go tests cover the required gate.
• Automatic detection of a tests/uat/** change lacking a floor. The docs assign that to author and reviewer.

[njhensley]

@yuanchen8911 thanks for the thorough review. All points are addressed.

Force-pushed ac159082a → 0547361e3. This was the gate-required rebase onto main. Six commits were replayed and two appended. The range-diff shows only the conflict resolution.

Blocking: docs/contributor/uat.md conflict. Resolved as you suggested. main's aws-h100-ct-2 rename stays in the by-hand example (L279), and the nightly table takes this PR's floor wording. The only change #3053 made to the kind-h100 row was dropping the stale "until v0.18.0 ships" clause, which this PR's wording already omits.

Non-blocking, in 5858fe4f7:

• Planning vs dispatch reading different floors: "What you'll see" now says the schedule is computed from the batch's checkout while each dispatch runs at main's tip, and what that means for a floor raised mid-batch. Filed ci(uat): keep nightly planning and dispatch on one compat-floor revision #3059 for the fix, including your point that any refusal-to-skip conversion must key on the confirmed below-floor refusal only, keeping the other gate failures red.
• RC dispatches of the floor release: the uat-run.yaml bullet now tells RC testers to pass allow_below_compat_floor=true.
• Blame re-anchoring: "Floor correctness" now says not to touch a min-release line you are not changing, since that drops the over-high check for that row.

Nit, in 0547361e3: I took it. The CLI's readBounded is gone. compat check now uses a new uatbroker.LoadContainingFile, which reuses readFileBounded.

Local results: go test -race passes for pkg/uatbroker (98.6%), tools/uat-broker (95.3%) and tests/uat. golangci-lint v2.14.0 reports 0 issues, and make test-shell passes.

[yuanchen8911]

rebase needed