Automate Firefox releases and qualify browser release checks

[abduljawada]

Stable version tags now validate the release commit and matching package/manifest versions, build and qualify both browser packages, and submit listed Firefox updates with the official web-ext tool, source archive, and release notes. Manual status/retry operations inspect store state first; pending or uncertain submissions cannot silently upload again. Chrome V2 publishing is prepared behind an explicit disabled setting. Packages, checksums, commit metadata, and submission results are retained as artifacts.

The required release gate runs eight controlled configurations: pinned original Asteroids (JavaScript), Breakout (WebAssembly), Interactive Buddy (AVM1), and Bloons TD3 (AVM2), each in Firefox and Chrome. Buddy replaced only the AVM1 slot after complete gameplay/edit, pause/cancel, lifecycle, and loaded-byte provenance qualification passed in both browsers. Xeno remains optional with its failed and incomplete evidence preserved. A separate advisory workflow visits the actual websites and retains blocked sites and compatibility failures without treating them as core passes.

Qualification also repairs three product races: paused Ruffle players accepting activation input, asynchronous reset cleanup erasing a newer scan, and stale background snapshots replacing an active scan request. Regression tests cover each. Browser test fixes wait for rendered gameplay/UI readiness, actual response capture, and fixture reload completion. Cancel reacts to visible partial progress and still requires explicit acknowledgement plus a public suspended sample inside actual busy-state transitions. Chrome observes the original request stream; aborted responses require complete unencoded declared length, and all loaded bytes must match the unchanged pins. Browser profiles are muted.

Validation on this branch:

• 200 unit tests passed; three browser-only tests skipped in that invocation. The focused capture/diagnostic suite passed 22 checks, including real Chrome wrapped-stream compilation, and both actual browser/frame integration cases passed.
• Build, source archive, package checks, and Firefox lint passed with zero errors or warnings.
• Buddy completed the final same-recipe Firefox and Chrome cases, including fresh write/restore readings, previously unaffordable purchases, three distinct purchases while frozen, and actual cancellation acknowledgement. Numeric OCR still requires at least 85% confidence; all 110 retained cash images passed the standard word observer.
• Bloons completed all 38 checks in the final Chrome case, including cash, lives, pause/cancel, lifecycle, and exact streamed runtime provenance. Latest prior CI passed Bloons Firefox. The prior matrix still failed Buddy cancellation and Chrome capture; those failures and earlier screenshot timeouts remain retained evidence. The fresh current-head core CI passed all eight required configurations.
• The Chrome fixture reload race failed deterministically with a delayed script and passed after the readiness fix, including worker recovery.

Current-head verification (core passed; advisory remains failed): required core CI and advisory live-site compatibility.

The final advisory run retained one PASS, four BLOCKED, and three FAIL: Asteroids Chrome navigation and both Breakout security screens were blocked; Buddy Firefox lacked an observed cancellation-pause sample and Chrome shop OCR was below threshold; Bloons Firefox had an unavailable Pause control and Chrome a screenshot timeout. These are not counted as core passes.

This setup does not create a release tag or publish the current candidate. Mozilla credentials are configured in repository secrets; Chrome publishing remains disabled. After required CI passes, the approved merge is followed by the read-only store-setup workflow on main.