refactor: retire the fabledcurator-ml image name entirely (4311)

Operator, 2026-09-23: *"we don't need to keep this as I'll be collapsing my
stack to the same consolidated version that we're building here."*

That was the only thing holding the name up. `fabledcurator-ml` has been the
same bytes as `fabledcurator` since milestone 422 step 6, and 8152684 had
already stopped rebuilding it — this removes the name.

Gone: the whole `build-ml` job (137 more lines), its entry in promote's
`needs` and in promote's tag loop, `ML_PATHS` and the `ml)` case in
artifacts.sh, the `ml` artifact in test_artifact_paths, the image in
release_notes.py and its test, and the README row. `docker-compose.yml`'s
ml-worker service now runs `fabledcurator:latest` with `command:
["ml-worker"]` — the service still exists for anyone who wants lane
separation, it just no longer needs a second image name.

Prose that said "all three images" is now "both", except where it means
three VALUES (revision/version/epoch) or records what happened on 2026-08-30,
when there genuinely were three.

Published tags are left alone. Nothing new goes to that name; what is already
in the registry stays pullable, so a stack that has not moved yet keeps
running rather than losing its image mid-flight.

## A latent trap this made reachable, found by running the script

`artifacts.sh revision ml` did not fail. It printed the usage line to stderr
and answered with **the newest commit in the whole repository** — a
real-looking 12-char sha on stdout, exit 0.

`newest()` inlined the path set as `git log ... -- $(cmd_paths "$1")`, and
`usage` exits from the command SUBSHELL, so the substitution came back empty
and `git log HEAD --` had no pathspec left to filter by. The reuse check
would have compared that answer against a published label, missed, and
rebuilt on every push forever with nothing going red.

It could not be fixed inside `newest`, which was my first attempt: every
caller wraps it in a substitution too, so its `exit` also died in a subshell —
stdout went empty but the status stayed 0. The guard has to run in the main
shell, so it validates the artifact name at dispatch. `newest` keeps a
defensive `|| exit 2` for a future caller that reaches it another way, and
the comment says which of the two is the real check.

Latent while every name callers passed was valid. Removing `ml` from the set
is what made a name that used to work start taking the silent path, so the
test that pins it lands here.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01LVjrnpQjRgHdvq95rASoiR

tests/test_artifact_paths.py

@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
 # artifact -> (dockerfile, build context relative to the repo root)
 ARTIFACTS = {
     "web": ("Dockerfile", ""),
-    "ml": ("Dockerfile", ""),
     "agent": ("agent/Dockerfile", "agent"),
 }
 
@@ -133,7 +132,7 @@ DERIVERS = [
     # orphaned. Guarded for web too, since web bundles what the extension makes.
     ("extension/scripts/packaging.sh", ("extension", "web")),
     # artifacts.sh decides the FC_VERSION baked into the web image (#3202).
-    # Web only, and deliberately: ml and agent ask this script for `revision`
+    # Web only, and deliberately: the agent asks this script for `revision`
     # alone, so they are covered by the self-correcting path above, and the
     # extension takes its version from packaging.sh. Milestone 318 step 5 is
     # the worked instance — b3989d0 and 5771fd5 share revision fb2c4d5b80be
@@ -197,3 +196,30 @@ def test_files_that_never_reach_an_image_do_not_version_it(artifact, path):
         f"image — it would re-version and rebuild {artifact} for a change it "
         f"does not ship."
     )
+
+
+def test_an_unknown_artifact_fails_instead_of_answering():
+    """It used to answer — with the newest commit in the whole repository.
+
+    `newest()` inlined the path set as `git log ... -- $(cmd_paths "$1")`.
+    `usage` exits from the command SUBSHELL, so an unknown name made the
+    substitution come back empty and `git log HEAD --` walked everything:
+    stdout got a real-looking 12-char sha, the exit code was 0, and the usage
+    line went to stderr where no caller reads it. A wrong answer shaped
+    exactly like a right one, which the reuse check would have compared
+    against a published label and quietly rebuilt on forever.
+
+    Latent while every name callers passed was valid. #4311 removed `ml` from
+    that set, which is what made a name that used to work start taking the
+    silent path.
+    """
+    out = subprocess.run(
+        ["sh", str(ROOT / "scripts" / "artifacts.sh"), "revision", "ml"],
+        capture_output=True, text=True, cwd=ROOT,
+    )
+    assert out.returncode != 0, (
+        f"an unknown artifact exited 0 and printed {out.stdout!r}"
+    )
+    assert not out.stdout.strip(), (
+        f"an unknown artifact printed {out.stdout!r} on stdout"
+    )

tests/test_release_notes.py

@@ -195,13 +195,13 @@ def test_a_non_tag_ref_renders_but_refuses_to_claim_it_published():
     body_of(out)
 
 
-def test_the_rollback_refs_name_all_three_images():
-    """Rule 145: `:c-<sha>` is the rollback unit, and the three images move
+def test_the_rollback_refs_name_both_images():
+    """Rule 145: `:c-<sha>` is the rollback unit, and both images move
     together. A release listing only the web image sends an operator into a
-    rollback that leaves ml and agent on the newer build — the exact mismatch
-    build.yml builds all three on every push to avoid."""
+    rollback that leaves the agent on the newer build — the exact mismatch
+    build.yml builds both on every push to avoid."""
     body = body_of(notes("HEAD"))
-    for image in ("fabledcurator", "fabledcurator-ml", "fabledcurator-agent"):
+    for image in ("fabledcurator", "fabledcurator-agent"):
         assert f"bvandeusen/{image}:c-" in body, f"{image} missing from the rollback refs"