branch.sh, finish.sh, release.sh, runner-image.sh and release-notes.sh
carried multi-paragraph 'how we got here / rejected' essays in comments. They
now live in the matching development/ category file, and each script keeps a
one-line pointer so the rationale is single-homed and cannot drift.
setup-node never consults `node` on PATH; its only fast path is a probe of
/opt/hostedtoolcache, which the ephemeral act_runner job containers always
miss, so every job paid a ~50 MB Node download. docker/Dockerfile extends the
runner's default catthehacker/act image with the Node distribution overlaid at
the exact tool-cache layout, so setup-node finds 26.8.2 and skips the fetch
while node-version-file, cache: npm and registry-url keep working unchanged.
Image layers dedupe against the base the host already pulled and prune via
normal docker hygiene — the cleanup story a host bind of /opt/hostedtoolcache
lacks. To make the bake deterministic, .node-version is pinned to the exact
26.8.2 the image carries; scripts/runner-image.sh guards that coupling and
builds/pushes the tag the three node jobs now reference via container.image.
Ops follow-up (outside the repo): build once with
`npm run build:runner-image -- --push` on a machine with registry creds. If
the package is private, the runner needs container registry credentials in
its config.
tmu