fix(checks): read files through Gitea's contents endpoint, not raw

The three checks that read another repository -- checkFacts, checkQuickstart,
checkReference -- fetched source files from the API's `raw` route, which answers
`Cache-Control: public, max-age=21600`. The CDN in front of Gitea caches that,
so the checks can read a blob most of a working day old.

It bit on cutover day. checkFacts reported

    FAIL  moduleApi
          platform.json says : 1.9.0
          website main:server/src/modules/version.js says : 1.6.0

against a `main` that says 1.9.0 -- the served copy was two weeks old
(`cf-cache-status: HIT`, `Age: 15713`, `last-modified: 18 Aug`). No edit in this
repository could have made it pass, and the same run reported a bundle triple
that had already been republished as still current: a stale read fails BOTH
ways, and the false pass is the dangerous one.

The `contents` endpoint answers `private, must-revalidate`, which the CDN
bypasses, so it is always the ref's current blob. The cost is a JSON parse and a
base64 decode. checkReference's canonical-document existence loop already used
it, which is why that half was never affected.

PLAN.md 12 records the finding next to the check it constrains.

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

PLAN.md

@@ -1622,6 +1622,17 @@ a mechanism rather than diligence:
   replaceable by a file copy, and that promise survives exactly as long as nobody types the address
   into a paragraph. Same argument as `checkTokens.mjs` and colour literals — the check is the
   mechanism, diligence is not.
+
+  **All three network checks read a file through Gitea's `contents` endpoint, never `raw`** —
+  `checkFacts.mjs`, `checkQuickstart.mjs`, `checkReference.mjs`. Phase 12b found the reason.
+  `raw` answers with `Cache-Control: public, max-age=21600`, so the CDN in front of Gitea keeps
+  a copy for six hours: on cutover day this check read `website`'s `version.js` from a fortnight
+  earlier and failed the site for saying Module API 1.9.0 when `main` said 1.6.0 — except that
+  `main` said 1.9.0, and nothing anyone could edit here would have made it pass. `contents`
+  answers `private, must-revalidate` and is not cached, at the cost of a base64 decode. Same
+  argument as `checkLinks.mjs` fetching nothing: a check that goes red on someone else's
+  infrastructure is a check people learn to ignore, and one that goes red on a stale copy is
+  worse — it is indistinguishable from the failure it exists to report.
 - **`scripts/checkLinks.mjs`** — every internal link resolves; every outbound link into a
   `RunicGateway` repo points at a branch path, not a commit permalink. **Built in phase 4** (D23),
   and it reads `dist/client` rather than `src/`: half the links these pages carry are assembled from

scripts/checkFacts.mjs

@@ -60,8 +60,28 @@ async function api(pathname) {
   return res;
 }
 
-const raw = async (repo, filePath, ref) =>
-  (await api(`${repo}/raw/${filePath}?ref=${encodeURIComponent(ref)}`)).text();
+/**
+ * A file's bytes, read through the `contents` endpoint rather than `raw`.
+ *
+ * `raw` answers with `Cache-Control: public, max-age=21600`, so the CDN in front of Gitea
+ * serves a copy for six hours and this check can read a blob most of a working day old.
+ * That is not theoretical: on the day of the engagement cutover it reported website's
+ * MODULE_API_VERSION as 1.6.0 -- the value from two weeks earlier -- and failed a site
+ * whose number was right. A check that goes red on stale data is a check people learn to
+ * ignore, which is the one failure mode this file exists to avoid.
+ *
+ * `contents` answers `private, must-revalidate`, which the CDN does not cache, so it is
+ * always the ref's current blob. The cost is a JSON parse and a base64 decode.
+ */
+async function raw(repo, filePath, ref) {
+  const meta = await json(`${repo}/contents/${filePath}?ref=${encodeURIComponent(ref)}`);
+  if (meta.encoding !== 'base64' || typeof meta.content !== 'string') {
+    throw new Error(
+      `${repo}:${filePath}@${ref} did not come back as a base64 file (encoding ${meta.encoding}).`
+    );
+  }
+  return Buffer.from(meta.content, 'base64').toString('utf8');
+}
 
 const json = async (pathname) => (await api(pathname)).json();
 

scripts/checkQuickstart.mjs

@@ -55,12 +55,18 @@ const checked = [];
 const ok = (what) => checked.push(what);
 const fail = (what, detail) => failures.push({ what, detail });
 
-/** Same raw-file accessor checkFacts.mjs uses, and for the same reason. */
+/** Same file accessor checkFacts.mjs uses, and for the same reason -- including the CDN one. */
 async function raw(repo, filePath, ref) {
-  const url = `${BASE}/api/v1/repos/${ORG}/${repo}/raw/${filePath}?ref=${encodeURIComponent(ref)}`;
+  const url = `${BASE}/api/v1/repos/${ORG}/${repo}/contents/${filePath}?ref=${encodeURIComponent(ref)}`;
   const res = await fetch(url, { headers: { Authorization: `token ${TOKEN}` } });
   if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${res.status} ${res.statusText} for ${url}`);
-  return res.text();
+  const meta = await res.json();
+  if (meta.encoding !== 'base64' || typeof meta.content !== 'string') {
+    throw new Error(
+      `${repo}:${filePath}@${ref} did not come back as a base64 file (encoding ${meta.encoding}).`
+    );
+  }
+  return Buffer.from(meta.content, 'base64').toString('utf8');
 }
 
 /**

scripts/checkReference.mjs

@@ -53,12 +53,18 @@ const checked = [];
 const ok = (what) => checked.push(what);
 const fail = (what, detail) => failures.push({ what, detail });
 
-/** Same raw-file accessor checkFacts.mjs and checkQuickstart.mjs use. */
+/** Same file accessor checkFacts.mjs and checkQuickstart.mjs use, CDN caveat included. */
 async function raw(repo, filePath, ref = 'main') {
-  const url = `${BASE}/api/v1/repos/${ORG}/${repo}/raw/${filePath}?ref=${encodeURIComponent(ref)}`;
+  const url = `${BASE}/api/v1/repos/${ORG}/${repo}/contents/${filePath}?ref=${encodeURIComponent(ref)}`;
   const res = await fetch(url, { headers: { Authorization: `token ${TOKEN}` } });
   if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${res.status} ${res.statusText} for ${url}`);
-  return res.text();
+  const meta = await res.json();
+  if (meta.encoding !== 'base64' || typeof meta.content !== 'string') {
+    throw new Error(
+      `${repo}:${filePath}@${ref} did not come back as a base64 file (encoding ${meta.encoding}).`
+    );
+  }
+  return Buffer.from(meta.content, 'base64').toString('utf8');
 }
 
 /**