diff --git a/.forgejo/workflows/build.yml b/.forgejo/workflows/build.yml
index c6bd756..cd895f2 100644
--- a/.forgejo/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.forgejo/workflows/build.yml
@@ -651,6 +651,41 @@ jobs:
           if [ "$CHANNEL" = "main" ]; then T=latest; else T=dev; fi
           echo "channel_ref=$IMAGE:$T" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
+          # WHERE THE BUILD PUBLISHES, which is not always the channel — and
+          # whether the channel then has to be written separately.
+          #
+          # On a push the build writes the channel tag directly: the bytes came
+          # from a commit, and a commit is the thing CI tests. Nothing to hold
+          # it behind.
+          #
+          # On the scheduled refresh it writes a CANDIDATE tag instead. A
+          # refresh rebuilds against freshly resolved base images, and the web
+          # image's runtime is a line of UNPINNED Debian packages (ffmpeg,
+          # libjpeg62-turbo, libpq5, megatools…) re-resolved on every build.
+          # Nothing in ci.yml can see that: its lanes run on ci-python:3.14 and
+          # install requirements.txt, and a base bump changes neither. So
+          # refreshed bytes have to be proven before :latest names them, and
+          # proving needs a moment between "built" and "published" to occupy.
+          # This is that moment; :latest goes on naming the build that works
+          # until something says otherwise.
+          #
+          # `:refresh-candidate` is one moving ref per image, overwritten in
+          # place, holding a build nobody is told to pull — the shape rule 145
+          # already allows for :buildcache, not the per-build tag family that
+          # milestone 318 withdrew.
+          #
+          # Both values are decided HERE, beside `hit`, for the reason the
+          # force/schedule branch below gives: one step decides what this job
+          # does. A promote condition derived independently could disagree with
+          # the tag the build actually wrote.
+          if [ "${EVENT:-}" = "schedule" ]; then
+            echo "build_ref=$IMAGE:refresh-candidate" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+            echo "promote=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          else
+            echo "build_ref=$IMAGE:$T" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+            echo "promote=false" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          fi
+
           # Compare VALUES, never exit codes. Measured on buildx v0.36.1
           # (run 4732): a missing key returns an empty string and exits 0, so
           # branching on the exit code would read "no label yet" as success.
@@ -817,7 +852,7 @@ jobs:
           # out of a local image store a registry-direct build never filled —
           # #3190, which cost `main` its :c-<sha> on 2026-08-29 while :latest
           # published perfectly well.
-          tags: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.channel_ref }}
+          tags: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.build_ref }}
           # The reuse key. Read back off the channel tag on the next push to
           # decide whether that push needs to build at all, so this is not
           # decoration — an unstamped image is one that will always rebuild.
@@ -864,6 +899,77 @@ jobs:
             FC_CHANNEL=${{ steps.tag.outputs.channel }}
             FC_VERSION=${{ steps.reuse.outputs.version }}
 
+      # Point the channel tag at the candidate the refresh just built.
+      #
+      # Unconditional TODAY, so this milestone never leaves the refresh in a
+      # state where it builds and publishes nothing. Step 4 wraps it in the
+      # smoke suite's verdict; until then the scheduled path behaves exactly
+      # as it did, just via two operations instead of one.
+      #
+      # NOT `imagetools create`. That wraps its source in an INDEX, and an
+      # indexed channel tag is the one thing this pipeline cannot survive:
+      # `.Image.Config.Labels` does not resolve through an index, so the
+      # fc.revision the reuse check reads off the channel tag would come back
+      # empty, every subsequent push would miss and rebuild, and nothing would
+      # go red. That is #3183, observed on run 4751 — reuse worked exactly once
+      # and the only symptom was the bill. The repoint step below excludes its
+      # own source tag for precisely this reason; a promote that re-introduced
+      # the wrap through a different door would undo that care.
+      #
+      # A manifest PUT is what "make this tag name that image" means at the
+      # registry level: the same bytes under the same media type, so the digest
+      # is identical, the media type is preserved, and no layer moves.
+      - name: Promote the refresh candidate to the channel
+        if: steps.reuse.outputs.promote == 'true'
+        env:
+          IMAGE: git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/fabledcurator
+          CHANNEL_REF: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.channel_ref }}
+          TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_TOKEN }}
+          ACTOR: ${{ github.actor }}
+        run: |
+          set -eu
+          REPO=${IMAGE#git.fabledsword.com/}
+          TAG=${CHANNEL_REF##*:}
+
+          # Registry auth is its own token exchange — the `docker login` above
+          # authenticates the docker client, not curl. Deadline on every call
+          # (rule 156): a registry that stops answering must fail this step,
+          # not hang the weekly refresh until the job times out.
+          BEARER=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 -u "$ACTOR:$TOKEN" \
+            "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/token?scope=repository:$REPO:pull,push&service=git.fabledsword.com" \
+            | python3 -c 'import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["token"])')
+
+          # Ask for the image manifest media types ONLY. Offering the index
+          # types too would let the registry hand back an index if one ever
+          # existed at this tag, and we would faithfully copy the thing we are
+          # trying not to create.
+          ACCEPT='application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json, application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.v2+json'
+          CT=$(curl -fsS --max-time 60 -o manifest.json -D headers.txt \
+                 -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Accept: $ACCEPT" \
+                 "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/refresh-candidate" \
+               && tr -d '\r' < headers.txt | awk -F': ' '/^[Cc]ontent-[Tt]ype:/{print $2}')
+          test -n "$CT"
+          SRC_DIGEST=$(tr -d '\r' < headers.txt | awk -F': ' '/^[Dd]ocker-[Cc]ontent-[Dd]igest:/{print $2}')
+          echo "promote: candidate is $SRC_DIGEST ($CT)"
+
+          curl -fsS --max-time 120 -X PUT \
+            -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Content-Type: $CT" \
+            --data-binary @manifest.json \
+            "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/$TAG"
+
+          # Read it back. A PUT that returned 2xx but landed something else is
+          # exactly the silent-and-plausible failure this pipeline keeps
+          # producing, and the check costs one request.
+          NOW=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 -o /dev/null -D - \
+                  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Accept: $ACCEPT" \
+                  "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/$TAG" \
+                | tr -d '\r' | awk -F': ' '/^[Dd]ocker-[Cc]ontent-[Dd]igest:/{print $2}')
+          if [ "$NOW" != "$SRC_DIGEST" ]; then
+            echo "promote: $IMAGE:$TAG is $NOW, expected $SRC_DIGEST" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "promote: $IMAGE:$TAG now names $NOW"
+
       # Every tag but the channel's own is written HERE, registry-side,
       # whether or not a build ran. Each -t becomes another reference to the
       # SAME manifest the channel tag holds, so :c-<sha> is byte-identical to
@@ -1121,6 +1227,41 @@ jobs:
           if [ "$CHANNEL" = "main" ]; then T=latest; else T=dev; fi
           echo "channel_ref=$IMAGE:$T" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
+          # WHERE THE BUILD PUBLISHES, which is not always the channel — and
+          # whether the channel then has to be written separately.
+          #
+          # On a push the build writes the channel tag directly: the bytes came
+          # from a commit, and a commit is the thing CI tests. Nothing to hold
+          # it behind.
+          #
+          # On the scheduled refresh it writes a CANDIDATE tag instead. A
+          # refresh rebuilds against freshly resolved base images, and the web
+          # image's runtime is a line of UNPINNED Debian packages (ffmpeg,
+          # libjpeg62-turbo, libpq5, megatools…) re-resolved on every build.
+          # Nothing in ci.yml can see that: its lanes run on ci-python:3.14 and
+          # install requirements.txt, and a base bump changes neither. So
+          # refreshed bytes have to be proven before :latest names them, and
+          # proving needs a moment between "built" and "published" to occupy.
+          # This is that moment; :latest goes on naming the build that works
+          # until something says otherwise.
+          #
+          # `:refresh-candidate` is one moving ref per image, overwritten in
+          # place, holding a build nobody is told to pull — the shape rule 145
+          # already allows for :buildcache, not the per-build tag family that
+          # milestone 318 withdrew.
+          #
+          # Both values are decided HERE, beside `hit`, for the reason the
+          # force/schedule branch below gives: one step decides what this job
+          # does. A promote condition derived independently could disagree with
+          # the tag the build actually wrote.
+          if [ "${EVENT:-}" = "schedule" ]; then
+            echo "build_ref=$IMAGE:refresh-candidate" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+            echo "promote=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          else
+            echo "build_ref=$IMAGE:$T" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+            echo "promote=false" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          fi
+
           # Compare VALUES, never exit codes. Measured on buildx v0.36.1
           # (run 4732): a missing key returns an empty string and exits 0, so
           # branching on the exit code would read "no label yet" as success.
@@ -1211,7 +1352,7 @@ jobs:
           # out of a local image store a registry-direct build never filled —
           # #3190, which cost `main` its :c-<sha> on 2026-08-29 while :latest
           # published perfectly well.
-          tags: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.channel_ref }}
+          tags: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.build_ref }}
           # The reuse key. Read back off the channel tag on the next push to
           # decide whether that push needs to build at all, so this is not
           # decoration — an unstamped image is one that will always rebuild.
@@ -1252,6 +1393,77 @@ jobs:
           cache-from: type=registry,ref=git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/fabledcurator-ml:buildcache
           cache-to: type=registry,ref=git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/fabledcurator-ml:buildcache,mode=max
 
+      # Point the channel tag at the candidate the refresh just built.
+      #
+      # Unconditional TODAY, so this milestone never leaves the refresh in a
+      # state where it builds and publishes nothing. Step 4 wraps it in the
+      # smoke suite's verdict; until then the scheduled path behaves exactly
+      # as it did, just via two operations instead of one.
+      #
+      # NOT `imagetools create`. That wraps its source in an INDEX, and an
+      # indexed channel tag is the one thing this pipeline cannot survive:
+      # `.Image.Config.Labels` does not resolve through an index, so the
+      # fc.revision the reuse check reads off the channel tag would come back
+      # empty, every subsequent push would miss and rebuild, and nothing would
+      # go red. That is #3183, observed on run 4751 — reuse worked exactly once
+      # and the only symptom was the bill. The repoint step below excludes its
+      # own source tag for precisely this reason; a promote that re-introduced
+      # the wrap through a different door would undo that care.
+      #
+      # A manifest PUT is what "make this tag name that image" means at the
+      # registry level: the same bytes under the same media type, so the digest
+      # is identical, the media type is preserved, and no layer moves.
+      - name: Promote the refresh candidate to the channel
+        if: steps.reuse.outputs.promote == 'true'
+        env:
+          IMAGE: git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/fabledcurator-ml
+          CHANNEL_REF: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.channel_ref }}
+          TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_TOKEN }}
+          ACTOR: ${{ github.actor }}
+        run: |
+          set -eu
+          REPO=${IMAGE#git.fabledsword.com/}
+          TAG=${CHANNEL_REF##*:}
+
+          # Registry auth is its own token exchange — the `docker login` above
+          # authenticates the docker client, not curl. Deadline on every call
+          # (rule 156): a registry that stops answering must fail this step,
+          # not hang the weekly refresh until the job times out.
+          BEARER=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 -u "$ACTOR:$TOKEN" \
+            "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/token?scope=repository:$REPO:pull,push&service=git.fabledsword.com" \
+            | python3 -c 'import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["token"])')
+
+          # Ask for the image manifest media types ONLY. Offering the index
+          # types too would let the registry hand back an index if one ever
+          # existed at this tag, and we would faithfully copy the thing we are
+          # trying not to create.
+          ACCEPT='application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json, application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.v2+json'
+          CT=$(curl -fsS --max-time 60 -o manifest.json -D headers.txt \
+                 -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Accept: $ACCEPT" \
+                 "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/refresh-candidate" \
+               && tr -d '\r' < headers.txt | awk -F': ' '/^[Cc]ontent-[Tt]ype:/{print $2}')
+          test -n "$CT"
+          SRC_DIGEST=$(tr -d '\r' < headers.txt | awk -F': ' '/^[Dd]ocker-[Cc]ontent-[Dd]igest:/{print $2}')
+          echo "promote: candidate is $SRC_DIGEST ($CT)"
+
+          curl -fsS --max-time 120 -X PUT \
+            -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Content-Type: $CT" \
+            --data-binary @manifest.json \
+            "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/$TAG"
+
+          # Read it back. A PUT that returned 2xx but landed something else is
+          # exactly the silent-and-plausible failure this pipeline keeps
+          # producing, and the check costs one request.
+          NOW=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 -o /dev/null -D - \
+                  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Accept: $ACCEPT" \
+                  "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/$TAG" \
+                | tr -d '\r' | awk -F': ' '/^[Dd]ocker-[Cc]ontent-[Dd]igest:/{print $2}')
+          if [ "$NOW" != "$SRC_DIGEST" ]; then
+            echo "promote: $IMAGE:$TAG is $NOW, expected $SRC_DIGEST" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "promote: $IMAGE:$TAG now names $NOW"
+
       # Every tag but the channel's own is written HERE, registry-side,
       # whether or not a build ran. Each -t becomes another reference to the
       # SAME manifest the channel tag holds, so :c-<sha> is byte-identical to
@@ -1501,6 +1713,41 @@ jobs:
           if [ "$CHANNEL" = "main" ]; then T=latest; else T=dev; fi
           echo "channel_ref=$IMAGE:$T" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
+          # WHERE THE BUILD PUBLISHES, which is not always the channel — and
+          # whether the channel then has to be written separately.
+          #
+          # On a push the build writes the channel tag directly: the bytes came
+          # from a commit, and a commit is the thing CI tests. Nothing to hold
+          # it behind.
+          #
+          # On the scheduled refresh it writes a CANDIDATE tag instead. A
+          # refresh rebuilds against freshly resolved base images, and the web
+          # image's runtime is a line of UNPINNED Debian packages (ffmpeg,
+          # libjpeg62-turbo, libpq5, megatools…) re-resolved on every build.
+          # Nothing in ci.yml can see that: its lanes run on ci-python:3.14 and
+          # install requirements.txt, and a base bump changes neither. So
+          # refreshed bytes have to be proven before :latest names them, and
+          # proving needs a moment between "built" and "published" to occupy.
+          # This is that moment; :latest goes on naming the build that works
+          # until something says otherwise.
+          #
+          # `:refresh-candidate` is one moving ref per image, overwritten in
+          # place, holding a build nobody is told to pull — the shape rule 145
+          # already allows for :buildcache, not the per-build tag family that
+          # milestone 318 withdrew.
+          #
+          # Both values are decided HERE, beside `hit`, for the reason the
+          # force/schedule branch below gives: one step decides what this job
+          # does. A promote condition derived independently could disagree with
+          # the tag the build actually wrote.
+          if [ "${EVENT:-}" = "schedule" ]; then
+            echo "build_ref=$IMAGE:refresh-candidate" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+            echo "promote=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          else
+            echo "build_ref=$IMAGE:$T" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+            echo "promote=false" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          fi
+
           # Compare VALUES, never exit codes. Measured on buildx v0.36.1
           # (run 4732): a missing key returns an empty string and exits 0, so
           # branching on the exit code would read "no label yet" as success.
@@ -1591,7 +1838,7 @@ jobs:
           # out of a local image store a registry-direct build never filled —
           # #3190, which cost `main` its :c-<sha> on 2026-08-29 while :latest
           # published perfectly well.
-          tags: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.channel_ref }}
+          tags: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.build_ref }}
           # The reuse key. Read back off the channel tag on the next push to
           # decide whether that push needs to build at all, so this is not
           # decoration — an unstamped image is one that will always rebuild.
@@ -1632,6 +1879,77 @@ jobs:
           cache-from: type=registry,ref=git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/fabledcurator-agent:buildcache
           cache-to: type=registry,ref=git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/fabledcurator-agent:buildcache,mode=max
 
+      # Point the channel tag at the candidate the refresh just built.
+      #
+      # Unconditional TODAY, so this milestone never leaves the refresh in a
+      # state where it builds and publishes nothing. Step 4 wraps it in the
+      # smoke suite's verdict; until then the scheduled path behaves exactly
+      # as it did, just via two operations instead of one.
+      #
+      # NOT `imagetools create`. That wraps its source in an INDEX, and an
+      # indexed channel tag is the one thing this pipeline cannot survive:
+      # `.Image.Config.Labels` does not resolve through an index, so the
+      # fc.revision the reuse check reads off the channel tag would come back
+      # empty, every subsequent push would miss and rebuild, and nothing would
+      # go red. That is #3183, observed on run 4751 — reuse worked exactly once
+      # and the only symptom was the bill. The repoint step below excludes its
+      # own source tag for precisely this reason; a promote that re-introduced
+      # the wrap through a different door would undo that care.
+      #
+      # A manifest PUT is what "make this tag name that image" means at the
+      # registry level: the same bytes under the same media type, so the digest
+      # is identical, the media type is preserved, and no layer moves.
+      - name: Promote the refresh candidate to the channel
+        if: steps.reuse.outputs.promote == 'true'
+        env:
+          IMAGE: git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/fabledcurator-agent
+          CHANNEL_REF: ${{ steps.reuse.outputs.channel_ref }}
+          TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_TOKEN }}
+          ACTOR: ${{ github.actor }}
+        run: |
+          set -eu
+          REPO=${IMAGE#git.fabledsword.com/}
+          TAG=${CHANNEL_REF##*:}
+
+          # Registry auth is its own token exchange — the `docker login` above
+          # authenticates the docker client, not curl. Deadline on every call
+          # (rule 156): a registry that stops answering must fail this step,
+          # not hang the weekly refresh until the job times out.
+          BEARER=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 -u "$ACTOR:$TOKEN" \
+            "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/token?scope=repository:$REPO:pull,push&service=git.fabledsword.com" \
+            | python3 -c 'import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["token"])')
+
+          # Ask for the image manifest media types ONLY. Offering the index
+          # types too would let the registry hand back an index if one ever
+          # existed at this tag, and we would faithfully copy the thing we are
+          # trying not to create.
+          ACCEPT='application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json, application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.v2+json'
+          CT=$(curl -fsS --max-time 60 -o manifest.json -D headers.txt \
+                 -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Accept: $ACCEPT" \
+                 "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/refresh-candidate" \
+               && tr -d '\r' < headers.txt | awk -F': ' '/^[Cc]ontent-[Tt]ype:/{print $2}')
+          test -n "$CT"
+          SRC_DIGEST=$(tr -d '\r' < headers.txt | awk -F': ' '/^[Dd]ocker-[Cc]ontent-[Dd]igest:/{print $2}')
+          echo "promote: candidate is $SRC_DIGEST ($CT)"
+
+          curl -fsS --max-time 120 -X PUT \
+            -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Content-Type: $CT" \
+            --data-binary @manifest.json \
+            "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/$TAG"
+
+          # Read it back. A PUT that returned 2xx but landed something else is
+          # exactly the silent-and-plausible failure this pipeline keeps
+          # producing, and the check costs one request.
+          NOW=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 -o /dev/null -D - \
+                  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER" -H "Accept: $ACCEPT" \
+                  "https://git.fabledsword.com/v2/$REPO/manifests/$TAG" \
+                | tr -d '\r' | awk -F': ' '/^[Dd]ocker-[Cc]ontent-[Dd]igest:/{print $2}')
+          if [ "$NOW" != "$SRC_DIGEST" ]; then
+            echo "promote: $IMAGE:$TAG is $NOW, expected $SRC_DIGEST" >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "promote: $IMAGE:$TAG now names $NOW"
+
       # Every tag but the channel's own is written HERE, registry-side,
       # whether or not a build ran. Each -t becomes another reference to the
       # SAME manifest the channel tag holds, so :c-<sha> is byte-identical to