Merge pull request 'fix(release): preflight credentials and recover the orphaned v0.1.0 tag' (#8) from fix/release-credential-preflight into main

Reviewed-on: #8
Reviewed-by: Colby Whitlock <whitlocktech@gmail.com>

.gitea/workflows/release.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,427 @@
+# Automated release for the deployable ServUO overlay.
+#
+# Trigger: every push to `main` (i.e. every merged PR).
+#
+# Why this exists: the Runic Gateway installer deploys the plugin from a release
+# tarball, not from git — the shard host gets no git and no Gitea credentials
+# (docs/installer/PLAN.md §1, §5 Phase 0.1). Until this workflow, `link` was the
+# only repo that published releases, so there was nothing for the installer to
+# fetch. This is Phase 0 item 1.
+#
+# Flow (two conceptual halves, kept separate on purpose):
+#
+#   ┌── RELEASE ENGINE (language-agnostic) ─────────────────────────────┐
+#   │  reads: latest v* git tag + conventional-commit subjects          │
+#   │  produces: next version, changelog, and (at the end) the release  │
+#   └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
+#   ┌── OVERLAY ADAPTER (the only repo-specific part) ──────────────────┐
+#   │  consumes: the version                                            │
+#   │  produces: runicgateway-overlay-<ver>.tar.gz + SHA256SUMS         │
+#   └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
+#
+# The engine is `link/.gitea/workflows/release.yml`'s, reused as its own header
+# anticipated — the plan and release steps consume only {version, changelog,
+# artifacts} and know nothing about what is inside the artifacts.
+#
+# ── Three differences from link's copy, all forced by this repo ──────────────
+#
+# 1. NO BUILD. The plugin ships as C# source and ServUO compiles it at boot; it
+#    needs ServUO reference assemblies, so there is no way to compile it here.
+#    The build gates are replaced by the structural gates below, which is the
+#    most this repo can honestly assert about an artifact.
+#
+# 2. NO BUMP COMMIT, and so no push to `main`. link has to write the version
+#    into Cargo.toml because the binary embeds it; a tarball embeds nothing but
+#    the manifest.json this job generates, so the git tag IS the version. That
+#    removes a failure mode outright: this workflow never needs `main` to accept
+#    a direct push, so no branch-protection exception is required for it.
+#
+# 3. A MANIFEST. The tarball carries manifest.json — version, commit, declared
+#    protocol version, ServUO compatibility, and a SHA256 for every file. The
+#    installer needs it because the plugin announces no version on the wire and
+#    none is queryable before ServUO boots (PLAN.md §2.6): the manifest is the
+#    only thing that lets the bundle CI verify sidecar/overlay protocol
+#    agreement BEFORE an operator installs the pair (PLAN.md §7.1, gate 1).
+#
+# Version bump (conventional commits since the last v* tag):
+#   feat!: / BREAKING CHANGE  -> major     feat: -> minor     fix|perf: -> patch
+#   nothing releasable        -> no release is cut (a docs:/chore:-only merge
+#                                deliberately does NOT cut one — PLAN.md §7.3)
+#   (first ever run, no tag)  -> releases SEED_VERSION below
+#
+# Prerequisites (Settings → Actions → Secrets on RunicGateway/servuo-plugins):
+#   REGISTRY_TOKEN  — Gitea access token with `write:repository`, to push the
+#                     tag and create the release.
+#   REGISTRY_USER   — the Gitea username that token belongs to.
+#
+# These are checked by an explicit preflight step rather than left to fail
+# wherever they happen to be used first — see the comment on that step for why
+# an absent token does NOT simply fail the tag push.
+#
+# TODO (Phase 0 item 3): once the installer repo's bundle workflow exists, append
+# a final step here that POSTs to its workflow-dispatch endpoint, so a new
+# overlay release recomposes the bundle immediately instead of waiting for the
+# nightly cron (PLAN.md §7.2). Deliberately absent until there is something to
+# dispatch — a step that 404s every release is worse than no step.
+
+name: Release overlay
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+  workflow_dispatch: {}
+
+concurrency:
+  group: release-overlay
+  cancel-in-progress: false
+
+env:
+  GITEA_HOST: gitea.whitlocktech.com
+  REPO: RunicGateway/servuo-plugins
+  # Artifact naming per PLAN.md §3.
+  ARTIFACT: runicgateway-overlay
+  # Used only for the very first release, when no v* tag exists yet. Matches the
+  # house style set by link (pre-1.0; the release version is independent of the
+  # protocol version, which lives in overlay.toml).
+  SEED_VERSION: "0.1.0"
+
+jobs:
+  release:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Check out full history (need tags + commit log for the bump)
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      # ── RELEASE ENGINE: decide the next version + changelog ──────────────
+      - name: Plan the release (version + changelog)
+        id: plan
+        env:
+          REGISTRY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          mkdir -p dist
+          git fetch --tags --force >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+
+          LAST_TAG="$(git describe --tags --match 'v*' --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || true)"
+          if [ -n "$LAST_TAG" ]; then RANGE="${LAST_TAG}..HEAD"; else RANGE="HEAD"; fi
+
+          SUBJECTS="$(git log --no-merges --format='%s' $RANGE || true)"
+          BODIES="$(git log --no-merges --format='%B' $RANGE || true)"
+
+          BUMP=none
+          if echo "$BODIES"   | grep -qE 'BREAKING[ -]CHANGE'          ; then BUMP=major; fi
+          if echo "$SUBJECTS" | grep -qE '^[a-z]+(\([^)]+\))?!:'       ; then BUMP=major; fi
+          if [ "$BUMP" = none ] && echo "$SUBJECTS" | grep -qE '^feat(\([^)]+\))?:'      ; then BUMP=minor; fi
+          if [ "$BUMP" = none ] && echo "$SUBJECTS" | grep -qE '^(fix|perf)(\([^)]+\))?:'; then BUMP=patch; fi
+
+          bump() { # <x.y.z> <major|minor|patch> -> bumped
+            IFS=. read -r MA MI PA <<< "$1"
+            case "$2" in
+              major) echo "$((MA+1)).0.0" ;;
+              minor) echo "${MA}.$((MI+1)).0" ;;
+              patch) echo "${MA}.${MI}.$((PA+1))" ;;
+            esac
+          }
+
+          RELEASE=true
+          if [ -z "$LAST_TAG" ]; then
+            VERSION="$SEED_VERSION"                  # first release: seed
+          elif [ "$BUMP" = none ]; then
+            RELEASE=false                            # no feat/fix/breaking since last tag
+            VERSION="${LAST_TAG#v}"
+          else
+            VERSION="$(bump "${LAST_TAG#v}" "$BUMP")"
+          fi
+
+          # An existing tag is NOT automatically "nothing to do". A tag with no
+          # release behind it means a previous run tagged and then died before
+          # publishing — which is exactly what happened on the first run here,
+          # when the missing REGISTRY_* secrets took the release API call to 401
+          # after the tag had already been pushed. Standing down on the tag alone
+          # would make that state permanent: every later run would see the tag,
+          # set RELEASE=false, and the release would never appear. So distinguish
+          # the two cases and finish the job the earlier run started.
+          # Note this OVERRIDES the RELEASE=false decided just above. With the tag
+          # already in place there are no releasable commits after it, so the
+          # normal path stands down — which is precisely why the stuck state
+          # could never clear itself. Recovery has to be able to say "yes,
+          # publish" for a version the bump logic considers already done.
+          REUSE_TAG=false
+          if git rev-parse -q --verify "refs/tags/v${VERSION}" >/dev/null; then
+            REL_HTTP="$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' \
+              -H "Authorization: token $(printf '%s' "${REGISTRY_TOKEN:-}" | tr -d '\r\n')" \
+              "https://${GITEA_HOST}/api/v1/repos/${REPO}/releases/tags/v${VERSION}" || echo 000)"
+            if [ "$REL_HTTP" = "200" ]; then
+              echo "Tag v${VERSION} already has a release — nothing to do."
+              RELEASE=false
+            elif [ "$REL_HTTP" = "404" ]; then
+              echo "::warning::Tag v${VERSION} exists but has no release — a previous run failed after tagging. Reusing the tag and publishing the release it is missing."
+              REUSE_TAG=true
+              RELEASE=true
+            else
+              # Anything else (000 from a network failure, 401/403 from a bad
+              # token) is not evidence of absence. Guessing "no release" here
+              # would re-publish over a good one, so refuse instead.
+              echo "::error::Could not determine whether a release exists for v${VERSION} (HTTP ${REL_HTTP}). Refusing to guess."
+              exit 1
+            fi
+          fi
+
+          # Changelog range. A recovery run has nothing after the tag, so
+          # summarize what the tag itself contains rather than emitting an empty
+          # list: the range that produced it, i.e. previous-tag..this-tag.
+          if [ "$REUSE_TAG" = true ]; then
+            PREV_TAG="$(git describe --tags --match 'v*' --abbrev=0 "v${VERSION}^" 2>/dev/null || true)"
+            if [ -n "$PREV_TAG" ]; then CL_RANGE="${PREV_TAG}..v${VERSION}"; else CL_RANGE="v${VERSION}"; fi
+            SINCE="$PREV_TAG"
+          else
+            CL_RANGE="$RANGE"
+            SINCE="$LAST_TAG"
+          fi
+          CL_SUBJECTS="$(git log --no-merges --format='%s' $CL_RANGE || true)"
+
+          {
+            echo "## ${ARTIFACT} v${VERSION}"
+            echo
+            FEATS="$(echo "$CL_SUBJECTS" | grep -E '^feat'        || true)"
+            FIXES="$(echo "$CL_SUBJECTS" | grep -E '^(fix|perf)'  || true)"
+            [ -n "$FEATS" ] && { echo "### Features";  echo "$FEATS" | sed 's/^/- /'; echo; }
+            [ -n "$FIXES" ] && { echo "### Fixes";     echo "$FIXES" | sed 's/^/- /'; echo; }
+            echo "### All changes"
+            if [ -n "$SINCE" ]; then echo "Since ${SINCE}:"; fi
+            echo "$CL_SUBJECTS" | sed 's/^/- /'
+          } > dist/CHANGELOG.md
+
+          echo "version=${VERSION}"     >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "tag=v${VERSION}"        >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "release=${RELEASE}"     >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "bump=${BUMP}"           >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "reuse_tag=${REUSE_TAG}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "==> release=${RELEASE} version=${VERSION} bump=${BUMP} reuse_tag=${REUSE_TAG} last_tag=${LAST_TAG:-<none>}"
+
+      # ── Credential preflight ─────────────────────────────────────────────
+      # Runs BEFORE anything is built or pushed, and only when this run intends
+      # to publish, so a docs:/chore:-only merge stays green on a repo that has
+      # no secrets.
+      #
+      # This exists because of how the first run failed. REGISTRY_USER and
+      # REGISTRY_TOKEN were empty, but the tag push SUCCEEDED anyway:
+      # actions/checkout leaves an `http.<host>.extraheader` credential in the
+      # local git config, so `git remote set-url` to a URL with empty
+      # credentials still authenticated through that leftover header. The
+      # release API call had no such fallback and returned 401 — so the run
+      # tagged the repo and then failed, which is the worst of both outcomes.
+      # Checking the secrets up front turns that into an immediate, legible
+      # failure instead of a half-published release.
+      - name: Verify release credentials are configured
+        if: ${{ steps.plan.outputs.release == 'true' }}
+        env:
+          REGISTRY_USER: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_USER }}
+          REGISTRY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          MISSING=""
+          [ -n "$(printf '%s' "${REGISTRY_USER:-}"  | tr -d '\r\n')" ] || MISSING="${MISSING} REGISTRY_USER"
+          [ -n "$(printf '%s' "${REGISTRY_TOKEN:-}" | tr -d '\r\n')" ] || MISSING="${MISSING} REGISTRY_TOKEN"
+          if [ -n "$MISSING" ]; then
+            echo "::error::Missing Actions secret(s):${MISSING}. Set them under Settings → Actions → Secrets on ${REPO}. REGISTRY_TOKEN needs the write:repository scope to push the tag and create the release."
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "Release credentials present."
+
+      - name: Install jq
+        if: ${{ steps.plan.outputs.release == 'true' }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 && exit 0
+          SUDO=""; [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ] && SUDO="sudo"
+          $SUDO apt-get update -qq
+          $SUDO apt-get install -y -qq --no-install-recommends jq
+
+      # ── OVERLAY ADAPTER: gates ───────────────────────────────────────────
+      # There is no compiler to run, so these assert the things that CAN be
+      # checked without a ServUO tree — and each one has actually been a way to
+      # ship a broken overlay:
+      #
+      #   • overlay/ mirrors the server root; if Bridge.cfg or the Bridge scripts
+      #     go missing the deploy silently no-ops (PLAN.md §2.1).
+      #   • overlay/Scripts/Scripts.csproj is Phase 0 of the plugin itself — it
+      #     overwrites a stock file to fix ServUO's silent script-build bug. An
+      #     overlay shipped without it installs code that never compiles, and
+      #     ServUO reports success anyway.
+      #   • a malformed .patch is invisible until an operator runs the patch tier
+      #     on their live shard. `git apply --stat` parses the diff without
+      #     needing the target files present.
+      #   • each patch's companion .cs must exist, since it references symbols
+      #     the patch introduces and is meaningless without it (PLAN.md §2.2).
+      - name: Validate the overlay and patch tier
+        if: ${{ steps.plan.outputs.release == 'true' }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          fail() { echo "::error::$*"; exit 1; }
+
+          [ -f overlay/Config/Bridge.cfg ]        || fail "overlay/Config/Bridge.cfg is missing"
+          [ -f overlay/Scripts/Scripts.csproj ]   || fail "overlay/Scripts/Scripts.csproj is missing (the silent-build-bug fix)"
+          [ -d overlay/Scripts/Custom/Bridge ]    || fail "overlay/Scripts/Custom/Bridge/ is missing"
+
+          CS_COUNT="$(find overlay/Scripts/Custom/Bridge -name '*.cs' | wc -l)"
+          [ "$CS_COUNT" -gt 0 ] || fail "overlay/Scripts/Custom/Bridge/ contains no .cs files"
+          echo "overlay: ${CS_COUNT} bridge script(s)"
+
+          for p in patches/*.patch; do
+            [ -e "$p" ] || fail "patches/ contains no .patch files"
+            echo "--- ${p}"
+            git apply --stat "$p" || fail "${p} is not a parseable unified diff"
+          done
+
+          # Companion files that can only be copied after their patch lands.
+          for f in patches/BridgeVendorSale.cs patches/BridgeModerationAudit.cs; do
+            [ -f "$f" ] || fail "${f} is missing (a patch's companion source)"
+          done
+
+          [ -f overlay.toml ] || fail "overlay.toml is missing (protocol + ServUO declarations)"
+
+      # ── OVERLAY ADAPTER: stage, manifest, package ────────────────────────
+      # The tarball has a FIXED top-level directory (runicgateway-overlay/), not a
+      # versioned one: the installer extracts and then looks for overlay/,
+      # patches/ and manifest.json at known paths, and a version-dependent prefix
+      # would make it parse the very version it is trying to read.
+      #
+      # tar flags pin ownership, mtime and member order so the same tree produces
+      # a byte-identical tarball — a checksum that changes only when content
+      # changes is worth more than one that changes every run.
+      - name: Build manifest.json and the release tarball
+        if: ${{ steps.plan.outputs.release == 'true' }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          VERSION="${{ steps.plan.outputs.version }}"
+          STAGE="dist/stage/${ARTIFACT}"
+
+          mkdir -p "${STAGE}"
+          cp -r overlay  "${STAGE}/overlay"
+          cp -r patches  "${STAGE}/patches"
+
+          # Declarations from overlay.toml. Read, don't hardcode — the point of
+          # that file is that the protocol number lives in one place.
+          PROTOCOL="$(grep -m1 -E '^protocol[[:space:]]*=' overlay.toml | sed -E 's/[^0-9]//g')"
+          MIN_SERVUO="$(grep -m1 -E '^min_servuo_version[[:space:]]*=' overlay.toml | sed -E 's/.*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')"
+          PATCHED_AGAINST="$(grep -m1 -E '^patches_verified_against[[:space:]]*=' overlay.toml | sed -E 's/.*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')"
+          [ -n "$PROTOCOL" ] || { echo "::error::could not read protocol from overlay.toml"; exit 1; }
+          [ -n "$MIN_SERVUO" ] || { echo "::error::could not read min_servuo_version from overlay.toml"; exit 1; }
+          [ -n "$PATCHED_AGAINST" ] || { echo "::error::could not read patches_verified_against from overlay.toml"; exit 1; }
+          echo "==> protocol=${PROTOCOL} min_servuo=${MIN_SERVUO} patches_verified_against=${PATCHED_AGAINST}"
+
+          # Per-file SHA256 of everything shipped, as a {path: sha} object. The
+          # installer records these in install.json so a later `doctor` can tell
+          # "operator edited a deployed file" from "the overlay drifted".
+          # The `\*?` is not paranoia: sha256sum marks binary mode by prefixing the
+          # path with `*` (`<hash> *path`) instead of the two-space text-mode
+          # separator. Coreutils on Linux defaults to text mode, but a build host
+          # that doesn't would otherwise put a leading `*` on EVERY key here and
+          # silently produce a manifest whose paths match nothing.
+          FILES="$(cd "${STAGE}" \
+            && find overlay patches -type f -print0 | LC_ALL=C sort -z | xargs -0 sha256sum \
+            | jq -R -s '
+                split("\n") | map(select(length > 0))
+                | map(capture("^(?<sha>[0-9a-f]+)[ \t]+\\*?(?<path>.+)$"))
+                | map({ (.path): .sha }) | add')"
+
+          jq -n \
+            --arg    component "servuo-plugins-overlay" \
+            --arg    version   "${VERSION}" \
+            --arg    commit    "${GITHUB_SHA}" \
+            --arg    repo      "${REPO}" \
+            --argjson protocol "${PROTOCOL}" \
+            --arg    min_servuo "${MIN_SERVUO}" \
+            --arg    patched_against "${PATCHED_AGAINST}" \
+            --argjson files    "${FILES}" \
+            '{
+               component: $component,
+               version:   $version,
+               commit:    $commit,
+               repo:      $repo,
+               protocol:  $protocol,
+               servuo: {
+                 min_version:              $min_servuo,
+                 patches_verified_against: $patched_against
+               },
+               files: $files
+             }' > "${STAGE}/manifest.json"
+
+          echo "----- manifest.json (files elided) -----"
+          jq 'del(.files) + {file_count: (.files | length)}' "${STAGE}/manifest.json"
+
+          TARBALL="${ARTIFACT}-${VERSION}.tar.gz"
+          tar --sort=name --mtime='UTC 1970-01-01' \
+              --owner=0 --group=0 --numeric-owner \
+              -czf "dist/${TARBALL}" -C dist/stage "${ARTIFACT}"
+
+          ( cd dist && sha256sum "${TARBALL}" > SHA256SUMS )
+          echo "tarball=${TARBALL}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          ls -l dist && echo "----" && cat dist/SHA256SUMS
+        id: package
+
+      # ── RELEASE ENGINE: tag ──────────────────────────────────────────────
+      # Tag only — no bump commit, so `main` is never pushed to (see header).
+      - name: Push the release tag
+        if: ${{ steps.plan.outputs.release == 'true' }}
+        env:
+          REGISTRY_USER: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_USER }}
+          REGISTRY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          TAG="${{ steps.plan.outputs.tag }}"
+          # Secrets can arrive with a trailing newline (depending on how they were
+          # pasted); a stray CR/LF corrupts the remote URL ("credential url cannot
+          # be parsed"). Strip line breaks before building the URL.
+          CI_USER="$(printf '%s' "${REGISTRY_USER}" | tr -d '\r\n')"
+          CI_TOKEN="$(printf '%s' "${REGISTRY_TOKEN}" | tr -d '\r\n')"
+          git config user.name  "servuo-plugins-ci"
+          git config user.email "ci@whitlocktech.com"
+          git remote set-url origin \
+            "https://${CI_USER}:${CI_TOKEN}@${GITEA_HOST}/${REPO}.git"
+
+          # The tag may already exist when we are finishing a run that died after
+          # tagging (see the plan step). `git tag` on an existing name fails under
+          # `set -e`, and pushing an identical existing tag is a harmless no-op —
+          # so create it only if it is new, then push either way. A push that
+          # fails here means the remote tag points somewhere else, which SHOULD
+          # stop the run.
+          if git rev-parse -q --verify "refs/tags/${TAG}" >/dev/null; then
+            echo "Tag ${TAG} already exists — reusing it."
+          else
+            git tag "${TAG}"
+          fi
+          git push origin "${TAG}"
+
+      # ── RELEASE ENGINE: create the Gitea release + upload assets ─────────
+      - name: Create Gitea release and upload assets
+        if: ${{ steps.plan.outputs.release == 'true' }}
+        env:
+          REGISTRY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          TAG="${{ steps.plan.outputs.tag }}"
+          TARBALL="${{ steps.package.outputs.tarball }}"
+          API="https://${GITEA_HOST}/api/v1/repos/${REPO}"
+          BODY="$(cat dist/CHANGELOG.md)"
+          # Same newline hygiene as the tag step: a stray CR/LF in the token would
+          # corrupt the Authorization header.
+          CI_TOKEN="$(printf '%s' "${REGISTRY_TOKEN}" | tr -d '\r\n')"
+
+          REL_ID="$(curl -sSf -X POST "${API}/releases" \
+            -H "Authorization: token ${CI_TOKEN}" \
+            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+            -d "$(jq -n --arg tag "$TAG" --arg body "$BODY" \
+                   '{tag_name:$tag, name:$tag, body:$body, draft:false, prerelease:false}')" \
+            | jq -r '.id')"
+          echo "Created release ${TAG} (id=${REL_ID})"
+
+          for f in "${TARBALL}" SHA256SUMS; do
+            curl -sSf -X POST "${API}/releases/${REL_ID}/assets?name=${f}" \
+              -H "Authorization: token ${CI_TOKEN}" \
+              -F "attachment=@dist/${f}" >/dev/null
+            echo "  uploaded ${f}"
+          done

.gitignore

@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@ obj/
 *.exe
 *.pdb
 *.log
+dist/

README.md

@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ integration guide, protocol spec, research — with full history preserved).
 | `patches/` | Unified diffs against stock ServUO for files we must modify rather than add. |
 | `tools/` | Never deployed. Test scaffolding (C# probes + PowerShell stub sidecars) and anything else that must not reach a server. |
 | `deploy.ps1` | Copies `overlay/` into a server root. `-Verify` diffs instead of writing. |
+| `overlay.toml` | Release metadata: the wire-protocol version this overlay speaks, and its ServUO compatibility. Read by CI into the release manifest — see [Releases](#releases). |
+| `.gitea/workflows/release.yml` | Publishes `runicgateway-overlay-<ver>.tar.gz` on every merge to `main`. |
 | [INTEGRATION.md](https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/INTEGRATION.md) | **Website integration guide** — the WebSocket feed, REST endpoints, auth, event catalog, and examples. |
 | [PLAN.md](https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/PLAN.md) | Implementation plan, measured performance budget, and the full data catalog. |
 | [RESEARCH.md](https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/RESEARCH.md) | Original source-level research. Partly superseded — see the corrections table in `PLAN.md` §8. |
@@ -41,8 +43,9 @@ The two are deployed **together** but built **independently**:
 
 - **This plugin** is deployed as *source* — `deploy.ps1` copies `overlay/` into the ServUO server
   root, and ServUO compiles it at boot (`Scripts.csproj`; see [Phase 0](#phase-0--what-it-fixes)).
-  There is no separate build artifact and no CI build — it cannot be compiled standalone without the
-  ServUO reference assemblies.
+  There is **no CI build** — it cannot be compiled standalone without the ServUO reference
+  assemblies. CI does publish a *source* tarball for the installer to fetch; see
+  [Releases](#releases).
 - **The sidecar** is a standalone Rust binary, released from its own repo.
 
 The **only** coupling is the loopback JSON protocol (the shard dials out to the sidecar on
@@ -59,6 +62,54 @@ without the sidecar running.
 .\deploy.ps1 -ServerPath <servuo>           # write
 ```
 
+`deploy.ps1` is the **developer-facing** tool and stays that way. Operators get the
+[Runic Gateway installer](https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/installer), which does the
+same sync cross-platform from the release tarball below.
+
+## Releases
+
+Every merge to `main` that carries a releasable conventional commit (`feat:`, `fix:`, `perf:`, or a
+breaking change — a `docs:`/`chore:`-only merge deliberately cuts nothing) publishes a Gitea release:
+
+```
+runicgateway-overlay-<ver>.tar.gz
+└── runicgateway-overlay/
+    ├── manifest.json
+    ├── overlay/        # exactly what deploy.ps1 would copy
+    └── patches/        # the opt-in stock-file diffs + their companion sources
+SHA256SUMS
+```
+
+This is a **source** tarball, not a build — nothing here is compiled. It exists so the installer can
+deploy the plugin onto a shard host that has no git and no Gitea credentials.
+
+`manifest.json` is what makes the tarball self-describing:
+
+```json
+{
+  "component": "servuo-plugins-overlay",
+  "version": "0.1.0",
+  "commit": "968b526…",
+  "protocol": 3,
+  "servuo": { "min_version": "57.4", "patches_verified_against": "57.4" },
+  "files": { "overlay/Config/Bridge.cfg": "32718424…", … }
+}
+```
+
+- **`protocol`** comes from `overlay.toml` and is the plugin half of the compatibility contract. The
+  plugin announces no version on the wire and none is queryable before ServUO boots, so this
+  declaration is the only way the installer can check it against the sidecar's `PROTOCOL_VERSION`
+  *before* an operator installs the pair. **When the protocol changes, bump it in the same PR that
+  changes the emitters.**
+- **`files`** carries a SHA256 per shipped file, so a deployment can later tell "an operator edited
+  this" from "the overlay moved on".
+
+The version is derived from git tags — there is no version to maintain by hand and no bump commit,
+so this workflow never pushes to `main`.
+
+The tarball is byte-reproducible for a given tree (`tar --sort=name`, pinned mtime and ownership), so
+its checksum changes only when its contents do.
+
 ## Status
 
 | Phase | State |

overlay.toml

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Release metadata for the deployable overlay.
+#
+# Consumed by .gitea/workflows/release.yml, which folds these values into the
+# manifest.json shipped inside runicgateway-overlay-<ver>.tar.gz. The Runic
+# Gateway installer reads that manifest to decide what it is deploying and
+# whether it is compatible with the sidecar it is about to install
+# (docs/installer/PLAN.md §5 Phase 0, §7.1).
+#
+# There is deliberately NO version key here. The release version is derived from
+# git tags and conventional commits by the release workflow, so there is no bump
+# commit to keep in sync and no way for this file to disagree with the tag.
+
+# ── The loopback wire-protocol version this overlay speaks ───────────────────
+#
+# This is the plugin half of the compatibility contract. It MUST equal the
+# sidecar's PROTOCOL_VERSION (link/sidecar/src/main.rs) for a deployment to
+# work: the sidecar rejects a mismatch with 409 rather than mis-parsing.
+#
+# The C# plugin has no queryable version before ServUO boots — it does not
+# announce one on the wire — so this declaration is the only thing that lets the
+# installer's bundle CI check the pair BEFORE an operator installs them
+# (docs/installer/PLAN.md §2.6, §7.1 gate 1). Keeping it honest is therefore a
+# manual duty: when the protocol changes, bump it here in the same PR that
+# changes the emitters, exactly as link bumps PROTOCOL_VERSION.
+#
+# Current: 3 — see docs/link/v3.md (world.ruleset, points.board, vendor.listing).
+protocol = 3
+
+# ── ServUO compatibility ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+#
+# The base overlay (Config/Bridge.cfg + Scripts/Custom/Bridge/*.cs) only ADDS
+# files and is expected to work on any reasonably current ServUO. This is the
+# oldest version it is known good on.
+min_servuo_version = "57.4"
+
+# The patches/ tier is a different matter: those are unified diffs against STOCK
+# ServUO files, so they are verified against exactly one version and nothing
+# else. On any other version the installer skips the whole tier with a warning
+# and completes the base install (docs/installer/PLAN.md §1, §2.2) — losing
+# vendor.sale events and in-game moderation-audit forwarding, but never
+# half-patching an unknown tree.
+patches_verified_against = "57.4"

overlay/Config/Bridge.cfg

@@ -83,6 +83,29 @@ PointsProfileEnabled=true
 # board for anyone in the top N.
 PointsProfileRank=false
 
+# Player-vendor market index (https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/v3.md §8). Every player vendor's shop name,
+# owner, location and priced inventory, published as one vendor.listing frame per vendor so the
+# website can offer the search the in-game Vendor Search gump offers. Honours each player's own
+# in-game opt-out (the vendor's VendorSearch flag) — hide your vendor in game and it is hidden
+# on the site too.
+MarketEnabled=true
+
+# Sweep interval. UNLIKE every other sweep here, a tick does NOT walk the whole world: it
+# inventories at most MarketSweepBatch vendors and a persistent cursor round-robins through the
+# rest, so the per-tick cost is bounded by the batch rather than by how many vendors exist. Full
+# coverage takes ceil(vendors / batch) x MarketSweepSeconds — 500 vendors at the defaults is one
+# complete pass every 20 minutes, and the site labels the data with how stale it may be.
+#
+# Lower this (or raise the batch) for faster coverage; both trade directly against per-tick cost,
+# and the expensive part is the item walk, which recurses into every container a vendor is selling.
+MarketSweepSeconds=60
+MarketSweepBatch=25
+
+# Per-vendor listing cap, after which the frame carries "truncated": true. A commodity reseller
+# with thousands of stacked resources is a real thing, and an uncapped frame for one is measured
+# in megabytes. Clamped to 1..5000.
+MarketMaxListings=250
+
 # Shard ruleset (https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/v3.md §5). One world.ruleset frame — expansion, which
 # systems are on, skill/stat caps, account and house limits, champion scroll rules —
 # emitted on every sidecar connect (and on [bridge reload), so the website's rules page

overlay/Scripts/Custom/Bridge/BridgeBoot.cs

@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ namespace Server.Custom.Bridge
                     BridgePresence.Rearm();
                     BridgeHousing.Rearm();
                     BridgePoints.Rearm();
+                    BridgeMarket.Rearm();
                     // Not a sweep, so it has nothing to re-arm — but an operator who just edited a
                     // .cfg wants the change on the site now, not after a shard restart.
                     BridgeRuleset.Emit();
@@ -186,6 +187,7 @@ namespace Server.Custom.Bridge
                     BridgePresence.SweepOnce();
                     BridgeHousing.SweepOnce();
                     BridgePoints.SweepOnce();
+                    BridgeMarket.SweepOnce();
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: ran one sweep of each stream.");
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgeSweeps.Status());
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgeChamps.Status());
@@ -194,6 +196,7 @@ namespace Server.Custom.Bridge
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgePresence.Status());
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgeHousing.Status());
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgePoints.Status());
+                    e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgeMarket.Status());
                     break;
 
                 default:
@@ -209,6 +212,7 @@ namespace Server.Custom.Bridge
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgePresence.Status());
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgeHousing.Status());
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgePoints.Status());
+                    e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgeMarket.Status());
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgePages.Status());
                     e.Mobile.SendMessage("Bridge: {0}", BridgeRuleset.Status());
                     break;

overlay/Scripts/Custom/Bridge/BridgeConfig.cs

@@ -36,6 +36,12 @@ namespace Server.Custom.Bridge
         public static int PresenceSweepSeconds { get; private set; }
         public static int HousingSweepSeconds { get; private set; }
         public static int PointsSweepSeconds { get; private set; }
+        public static int MarketSweepSeconds { get; private set; }
+
+        // ---- player-vendor market index (https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/v3.md §8) ----
+        public static bool MarketEnabled { get; private set; }
+        public static int MarketSweepBatch { get; private set; }
+        public static int MarketMaxListings { get; private set; }
 
         // ---- points / loyalty leaderboards (https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/v3.md §7) ----
         public static bool PointsLeaderboardEnabled { get; private set; }
@@ -149,6 +155,36 @@ namespace Server.Custom.Bridge
             // on every profile build. See BridgeProfile.WritePoints.
             PointsProfileRank = Config.Get("Bridge.PointsProfileRank", false);
 
+            // Player-vendor market index. Unlike every other sweep, this one does NOT walk its whole
+            // collection per tick: MarketSweepBatch caps how many vendors are inventoried, and a
+            // persistent cursor round-robins through the rest, so the per-tick cost is bounded by
+            // the batch rather than by how many vendors the world holds.
+            MarketEnabled = Config.Get("Bridge.MarketEnabled", true);
+
+            MarketSweepSeconds = Config.Get("Bridge.MarketSweepSeconds", 60);
+            if (MarketSweepSeconds < 1)
+                MarketSweepSeconds = 1;
+
+            // Bounded below at 1 (a batch of 0 would advance the cursor nowhere and publish nothing,
+            // silently) and above at 500, past which the batch stops bounding anything on any
+            // realistic shard and the tick is a whole-world pass by another name.
+            MarketSweepBatch = Config.Get("Bridge.MarketSweepBatch", 25);
+            if (MarketSweepBatch < 1)
+                MarketSweepBatch = 1;
+            if (MarketSweepBatch > 500)
+                MarketSweepBatch = 500;
+
+            // Per-vendor listing cap. BridgeJson.Parse caps INBOUND frames at 1 MB; outbound is
+            // uncapped and the sidecar's read_line will allocate whatever arrives, so the cap here
+            // is what keeps one commodity reseller with 8,000 stacked resources from emitting a
+            // multi-megabyte frame. Over the cap the frame carries "truncated": true and the site
+            // says so.
+            MarketMaxListings = Config.Get("Bridge.MarketMaxListings", 250);
+            if (MarketMaxListings < 1)
+                MarketMaxListings = 1;
+            if (MarketMaxListings > 5000)
+                MarketMaxListings = 5000;
+
             // The ruleset frame is not a sweep — it is emitted once per sidecar connect (and on
             // `[bridge reload`), so it has no interval. PublicConnectAddress is the ONE connection
             // detail the bridge will publish, and only because an operator typed it here for that

overlay/Scripts/Custom/Bridge/BridgeMarket.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,591 @@
+using System;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Text;
+
+using Server.Items;
+using Server.Mobiles;
+using Server.Multis;
+using Server.Engines.VendorSearching;
+
+namespace Server.Custom.Bridge
+{
+    /// <summary>
+    ///     The shard-wide player-vendor index (https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway/docs/src/branch/main/link/v3.md §8). Every player vendor's
+    ///     shop name, owner, location and priced inventory, published as one authoritative
+    ///     <c>vendor.listing</c> frame per vendor, so the website can offer the search the in-game
+    ///     Vendor Search gump offers — from outside the game.
+    ///
+    ///     ---- Why this is a sweep and not an RPC ----
+    ///
+    ///     The obvious shape is a <c>market.snapshot</c> request/reply like vendor.snapshot next
+    ///     door. It cannot work: the sidecar's rpc router correlates on the FIRST frame carrying a
+    ///     matching reqId and resolves a single oneshot, so a chunked reply sharing one reqId would
+    ///     deliver chunk 1 to the HTTP caller and LEAK chunks 2..N onto the broadcast feed. A
+    ///     whole-world snapshot in one frame is not an option either — the reply timeout is 10 s and
+    ///     40,000 listings do not serialize in time.
+    ///
+    ///     So it is a diff sweep on the broadcast stream, shaped like <see cref="BridgeHousing"/>:
+    ///     one frame per vendor, authoritative for that vendor, plus vendor.listing.remove when one
+    ///     goes away. The per-account <c>vendor.snapshot</c> RPC is untouched; the player portal
+    ///     keeps using it.
+    ///
+    ///     ---- The two perf traps, and what this does about them ----
+    ///
+    ///     1. **VendorSearch.GetItemName is a packet builder, not a field read.** It constructs an
+    ///        ObjectPropertyList, calls GetProperties, serialises it and then byte-parses the
+    ///        resulting packet — PER ITEM. Across a full pass that is a multi-hundred-millisecond
+    ///        stall on the Core thread. It is never called here. The frame carries `itemId`, `hue`,
+    ///        `amount`, `price`, the plain `item.Name` field (null for most items) and
+    ///        `item.LabelNumber`; the website resolves display names against its own cliloc table,
+    ///        exactly as char.profile.equipment already does.
+    ///
+    ///        (On any modern client the call would not even work: every current client ships its
+    ///        Cliloc.* files compressed, ServUO's bundled Ultima.StringList reads only the old plain
+    ///        layout, so VendorSearch.StringList is null and GetItemName returns item.Name anyway.
+    ///        The in-game gump has the same gap.)
+    ///
+    ///     2. **A full pass is unbounded in world size.** 500 vendors × 80 listings is ~40,000 item
+    ///        reads, and the reusable public GetItems(Container, List&lt;Item&gt;) recurses into
+    ///        sub-containers, so the real count runs ABOVE the top-level pack.Items a naive estimate
+    ///        would use. So the sweep is amortized: a persistent round-robin cursor over
+    ///        PlayerVendor.PlayerVendors advances at most MarketSweepBatch vendors per tick, which
+    ///        makes the PER-TICK cost bounded independently of how many vendors exist. Full coverage
+    ///        takes ceil(vendors / batch) × MarketSweepSeconds. This is the one genuinely new pattern
+    ///        versus the other sweeps, which all walk their whole collection every tick.
+    ///
+    ///     ---- Privacy ----
+    ///
+    ///     `pv.VendorSearch` is ServUO's own per-vendor opt-out and DoSearch filters on it, so a
+    ///     player who hid their vendor in game is hidden on the website too: an opted-out vendor is
+    ///     skipped entirely and the seen-set removal then drops it from the board. Map.Internal and
+    ///     a null Backpack are skipped for the same reason DoSearch skips them.
+    ///
+    ///     Owner is written as flat `ownerSerial`/`ownerName` — never through BridgeJson.Actor,
+    ///     which would add `acct` and `webId`. Same argument BridgePoints makes: this is the widest-
+    ///     audience surface the bridge has, and the site resolves serial → user from its own
+    ///     shard_account_links mirror when staff need it.
+    /// </summary>
+    public static class BridgeMarket
+    {
+        private static Timer _timer;
+
+        // vendor serial -> last-emitted signature.
+        private static readonly Dictionary<Serial, string> _last = new Dictionary<Serial, string>();
+
+        // Round-robin cursor: an INDEX into PlayerVendor.PlayerVendors, not a serial. The list is
+        // mutated by placement/deletion between ticks, so the cursor is a hint, not a promise — it
+        // is wrapped and clamped every tick, and a shifted list at worst re-visits or defers a
+        // vendor by one cycle. Tracking a serial instead would cost a lookup to find "where was I"
+        // and buy nothing: the sweep is idempotent per vendor.
+        private static int _cursor;
+
+        private static long _sweeps, _emitted, _removed, _scanned, _skipped, _truncated;
+
+        // Per-tick cost, in milliseconds. Reported by `[bridge status` because the
+        // whole design of this sweep is a claim about that number — the batch cap is what makes it
+        // independent of world size — and an operator tuning MarketSweepBatch is otherwise tuning
+        // blind. `_maxMs` is the one that matters: the Core thread runs this between frames, so the
+        // worst tick is the budget, not the average.
+        private static double _lastMs, _maxMs;
+        private static readonly System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch _clock = new System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch();
+
+        // Reused across ticks. The item walk is single-threaded (Core thread) and the list is
+        // cleared before each vendor, so one buffer serves the whole sweep — the alternative is a
+        // fresh List<Item> per vendor per tick, which at 25 vendors × every 60 s is pure garbage.
+        private static readonly List<Item> _items = new List<Item>();
+
+        public static void Initialize()
+        {
+            if (!BridgeConfig.Enabled)
+                return;
+
+            EventSink.ServerStarted += OnServerStarted;
+        }
+
+        private static void OnServerStarted()
+        {
+            BridgeLink.Connected_Core += OnConnected;
+            Rearm();
+        }
+
+        private static void OnConnected()
+        {
+            // A new sidecar knows nothing, so drop the diff state and start the round-robin from
+            // the top. The re-emit of the whole world is self-throttled by the batch window — this
+            // is the one place the amortized sweep pays for itself twice, because a reconnect on a
+            // whole-world sweep would otherwise be the biggest burst the bridge ever produces.
+            _last.Clear();
+            _cursor = 0;
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>Stops and recreates the timer from current config. Called by `[bridge reload`.</summary>
+        public static void Rearm()
+        {
+            Stop();
+
+            _timer = Timer.DelayCall(
+                TimeSpan.FromSeconds(BridgeConfig.MarketSweepSeconds),
+                TimeSpan.FromSeconds(BridgeConfig.MarketSweepSeconds),
+                MarketSweep);
+        }
+
+        public static void Stop()
+        {
+            if (_timer != null) { _timer.Stop(); _timer = null; }
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     A bare (key-less) string value, or JSON null.
+        ///
+        ///     <see cref="BridgeJson.Escape"/> takes a non-null string — it dereferences
+        ///     <c>value.Length</c> immediately — and <see cref="BridgeJson.Str"/> writes the `,"key":`
+        ///     prefix itself, so neither serves a value written inside a hand-built object. Most of
+        ///     what this frame writes is legitimately null (an item's plain Name is null for nearly
+        ///     every item, a vendor standing in the street has no house), so this is the common path
+        ///     rather than an edge case.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static void Text(StringBuilder sb, string value)
+        {
+            if (value == null)
+                sb.Append("null");
+            else
+                BridgeJson.Escape(sb, value);
+        }
+
+        public static string Status()
+        {
+            var all = PlayerVendor.PlayerVendors;
+
+            return String.Format(
+                "market(enabled={0} sweeps={1} scanned={2} emitted={3} removed={4} skipped={5} truncated={6} tracked={7} vendors={8} cursor={9} batch={10} lastMs={11:F2} maxMs={12:F2})",
+                BridgeConfig.MarketEnabled, _sweeps, _scanned, _emitted, _removed, _skipped,
+                _truncated, _last.Count, all == null ? 0 : all.Count, _cursor,
+                BridgeConfig.MarketSweepBatch, _lastMs, _maxMs);
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>Runs one sweep now. Wired into `[bridge sweepnow`.</summary>
+        public static void SweepOnce()
+        {
+            MarketSweep();
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     One tick: at most <c>MarketSweepBatch</c> vendors starting at the cursor, then the
+        ///     removal pass.
+        ///
+        ///     The removal pass is the part the batching makes subtle. `_last` holds every vendor
+        ///     seen in ANY previous tick, but this tick only visited a window — so "not in this
+        ///     tick's seen set" does NOT mean gone. Removals are therefore decided against the
+        ///     CURRENT vendor list (plus the opt-out/validity rules), not against the window, which
+        ///     is a cheap pass over serials rather than a second inventory walk.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static void MarketSweep()
+        {
+            try
+            {
+                if (!BridgeConfig.MarketEnabled)
+                    return;
+
+                _sweeps++;
+
+                if (!BridgeLink.Connected)
+                    return; // nothing is listening; do not fill the queue with perishable snapshots
+
+                _clock.Restart();
+
+                var all = PlayerVendor.PlayerVendors;
+
+                if (all == null || all.Count == 0)
+                {
+                    Reap(null);
+                    return;
+                }
+
+                // A live set of every serial that SHOULD be on the board right now, built as the
+                // window is walked plus a cheap pass over the rest. Built here rather than reusing
+                // a field so a throwing vendor cannot leave a half-built set behind.
+                var present = new HashSet<Serial>();
+
+                var count = all.Count;
+                var batch = Math.Min(BridgeConfig.MarketSweepBatch, count);
+
+                if (_cursor >= count)
+                    _cursor = 0;
+
+                for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
+                {
+                    var vendor = all[i];
+
+                    if (Eligible(vendor))
+                        present.Add(vendor.Serial);
+                }
+
+                for (int n = 0; n < batch; n++)
+                {
+                    var index = (_cursor + n) % count;
+                    var vendor = all[index];
+
+                    if (!Eligible(vendor))
+                    {
+                        _skipped++;
+                        continue;
+                    }
+
+                    // One bad vendor must not cost the rest of the window: the item walk touches
+                    // arbitrary Item subclasses on a shard running modified scripts.
+                    try
+                    {
+                        SweepVendor(vendor);
+                    }
+                    catch (Exception ex)
+                    {
+                        Console.WriteLine("[Bridge] market sweep threw for 0x{0:X}: {1}",
+                            vendor.Serial.Value, ex.Message);
+                    }
+                }
+
+                _cursor = count == 0 ? 0 : (_cursor + batch) % count;
+
+                Reap(present);
+            }
+            catch (Exception ex)
+            {
+                Console.WriteLine("[Bridge] market sweep threw: {0}", ex.Message);
+            }
+            finally
+            {
+                // In `finally` so a throwing tick still records what it cost — a sweep that blows
+                // the budget and then throws is exactly the one worth seeing in the status line.
+                if (_clock.IsRunning)
+                {
+                    _clock.Stop();
+                    _lastMs = _clock.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds;
+                    if (_lastMs > _maxMs)
+                        _maxMs = _lastMs;
+
+                    WarnIfSlow();
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     Per-tick budget, milliseconds. The batch cap exists to hold a tick under this
+        ///     regardless of world size, so exceeding it means MarketSweepBatch is too large for
+        ///     this shard's shops — the one thing an operator needs told, and the one thing
+        ///     `[bridge status` cannot tell them unprompted. Generous: a tick is off the frame
+        ///     budget, and the alternative to a rare 50 ms tick is a permanently stale market.
+        /// </summary>
+        private const double SlowTickMs = 50.0;
+
+        // At most one warning a minute. A shard whose batch is genuinely too big would otherwise
+        // print every MarketSweepSeconds forever, and a log nobody can read is a log nobody reads.
+        private static DateTime _lastWarn = DateTime.MinValue;
+
+        private static void WarnIfSlow()
+        {
+            if (_lastMs <= SlowTickMs)
+                return;
+
+            var now = DateTime.UtcNow;
+
+            if (now - _lastWarn < TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1))
+                return;
+
+            _lastWarn = now;
+
+            Console.WriteLine(
+                // ASCII only. The ServUO console writes in the OS code page, so an em dash here
+                // renders as "???" in the log an operator would paste into an issue.
+                "[Bridge] market sweep took {0:F1} ms (budget {1:F0} ms) - lower Bridge.MarketSweepBatch (now {2}) if this persists",
+                _lastMs, SlowTickMs, BridgeConfig.MarketSweepBatch);
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     The same filter DoSearch applies, so the website's index is the in-game index.
+        ///     <c>VendorSearch</c> is the player's own opt-out toggle and is honoured first.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static bool Eligible(PlayerVendor vendor)
+        {
+            return vendor != null
+                && !vendor.Deleted
+                && vendor.VendorSearch
+                && vendor.Map != null
+                && vendor.Map != Map.Internal
+                && vendor.Backpack != null;
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     Drops from the board every tracked vendor that is no longer eligible.
+        ///     <paramref name="present"/> null means "there are no vendors at all", which clears it.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static void Reap(HashSet<Serial> present)
+        {
+            if (_last.Count == 0)
+                return;
+
+            List<Serial> gone = null;
+
+            foreach (var serial in _last.Keys)
+            {
+                if (present != null && present.Contains(serial))
+                    continue;
+
+                if (gone == null)
+                    gone = new List<Serial>();
+
+                gone.Add(serial);
+            }
+
+            if (gone == null)
+                return;
+
+            for (int i = 0; i < gone.Count; i++)
+            {
+                _last.Remove(gone[i]);
+                BridgeLink.Emit(BridgeJson.Begin("vendor.listing.remove").Ser("serial", gone[i]).End());
+                _removed++;
+            }
+        }
+
+        private static void SweepVendor(PlayerVendor vendor)
+        {
+            _scanned++;
+
+            CollectItems(vendor);
+
+            var sig = Signature(vendor);
+
+            string prior;
+            if (_last.TryGetValue(vendor.Serial, out prior) && prior == sig)
+                return; // nothing about this shop changed since it was last published
+
+            _last[vendor.Serial] = sig;
+            BridgeLink.Emit(WriteVendor(vendor));
+            _emitted++;
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     Every sellable item on one vendor, into the shared buffer.
+        ///
+        ///     Mirrors VendorSearch's own private GetItems(PlayerVendor): the vendor's own movable
+        ///     equipment (minus the backpack itself and hair layers, which are not merchandise)
+        ///     followed by a recursive walk of the backpack. The recursion uses the PUBLIC
+        ///     GetItems(Container, List&lt;Item&gt;) rather than a hand-rolled one so that ServUO's
+        ///     rule about which containers are sold whole (quivers, seed boxes, jewelry boxes, …)
+        ///     stays ServUO's to define — the predicate that decides it is private, and a copy here
+        ///     would silently diverge the first time that list changes.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static void CollectItems(PlayerVendor vendor)
+        {
+            _items.Clear();
+
+            var own = vendor.Items;
+
+            if (own != null)
+            {
+                for (int i = 0; i < own.Count; i++)
+                {
+                    var item = own[i];
+
+                    if (item == null || !item.Movable || item == vendor.Backpack)
+                        continue;
+
+                    if (item.Layer == Layer.Hair || item.Layer == Layer.FacialHair)
+                        continue;
+
+                    _items.Add(item);
+                }
+            }
+
+            if (vendor.Backpack != null)
+                VendorSearch.GetItems(vendor.Backpack, _items);
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     A listing's price, and whether it was priced by an enclosing container.
+        ///
+        ///     ServUO prices a container as a unit: an item inside a priced bag has no VendorItem of
+        ///     its own and inherits the bag's price, which DoSearch surfaces as `isChild`. Reproduced
+        ///     exactly, because a website that priced every item in a 40k bag at 40k would be lying
+        ///     about the shard.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static int PriceOf(PlayerVendor vendor, Item item, out bool child)
+        {
+            child = false;
+
+            var vi = vendor.GetVendorItem(item);
+
+            if (vi != null)
+                return vi.Price;
+
+            var parent = item.Parent as Container;
+
+            while (parent != null)
+            {
+                vi = vendor.GetVendorItem(parent);
+
+                if (vi != null)
+                {
+                    child = true;
+                    return vi.Price;
+                }
+
+                parent = parent.Parent as Container;
+            }
+
+            return 0;
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     The diff key. Location, shop name and owner are in it because they move a vendor's
+        ///     row on the site; every listing's serial, price and amount are in it because those are
+        ///     what a shopper searches on.
+        ///
+        ///     Built over the SAME buffer the frame is written from, in the same order, so a
+        ///     signature match really does mean an identical frame — a cheaper hash (count + a sum
+        ///     of serial^price, as §8.3 first proposed) collides on the common case of two items
+        ///     swapping prices, which is exactly what re-pricing a shop looks like.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static string Signature(PlayerVendor vendor)
+        {
+            var sb = new StringBuilder(256);
+
+            sb.Append(vendor.ShopName ?? "").Append('|');
+            sb.Append(vendor.Owner == null ? 0 : vendor.Owner.Serial.Value).Append('|');
+            sb.Append(vendor.Map == null ? "" : vendor.Map.Name).Append('|');
+            sb.Append(vendor.X).Append(',').Append(vendor.Y).Append('|');
+
+            var limit = Math.Min(_items.Count, BridgeConfig.MarketMaxListings);
+
+            sb.Append(_items.Count).Append('|');
+
+            for (int i = 0; i < limit; i++)
+            {
+                var item = _items[i];
+
+                if (item == null || item.Deleted)
+                    continue;
+
+                bool child;
+                var price = PriceOf(vendor, item, out child);
+
+                if (price <= 0)
+                    continue;
+
+                sb.Append(item.Serial.Value.ToString("X")).Append(':')
+                  .Append(price).Append(':')
+                  .Append(item.Amount).Append(';');
+            }
+
+            return sb.ToString();
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        ///     One vendor frame — authoritative for that vendor, so the website replaces its whole
+        ///     listing set from it rather than merging.
+        ///
+        ///     `location` is one nested object rather than flat map/x/y/region because it is ONE
+        ///     admin-configurable field on the site (`market.location`): the visibility projection
+        ///     matches literal JSON keys, so a nested object is what lets a single rule hide a
+        ///     vendor's whereabouts on both the live frame and the stored read model. Flat keys
+        ///     would need five rules that could drift apart.
+        ///
+        ///     `count` is the number of listings PUBLISHED, and `truncated` says the shop holds
+        ///     more. A shop over the cap is a real thing (commodity resellers run thousands of
+        ///     stacks) and the site says so rather than quietly showing a partial shop as complete.
+        /// </summary>
+        private static string WriteVendor(PlayerVendor vendor)
+        {
+            var sb = BridgeJson.Begin("vendor.listing")
+                .Ser("serial", vendor.Serial)
+                .Str("shopName", vendor.ShopName);
+
+            var owner = vendor.Owner;
+
+            if (owner != null)
+            {
+                sb.Ser("ownerSerial", owner.Serial);
+                sb.Str("ownerName", owner.Name);
+            }
+
+            sb.Append(",\"location\":{\"map\":");
+            Text(sb, vendor.Map == null ? null : vendor.Map.Name);
+            sb.Append(",\"x\":").Append(vendor.X);
+            sb.Append(",\"y\":").Append(vendor.Y);
+            sb.Append(",\"z\":").Append(vendor.Z);
+
+            var region = vendor.Region;
+            sb.Append(",\"region\":");
+            Text(sb, region == null ? null : region.Name);
+
+            // The house name is the sign's, which is what a player would be told to look for
+            // ("Bob's Villa"), not the house type. Null for a vendor standing outside one.
+            var house = vendor.House;
+            var sign = house == null ? null : house.Sign;
+            sb.Append(",\"house\":");
+            Text(sb, sign == null ? null : sign.GetName());
+
+            sb.Append('}');
+
+            var max = BridgeConfig.MarketMaxListings;
+            var published = 0;
+            var considered = 0;
+
+            var items = new StringBuilder(512);
+
+            for (int i = 0; i < _items.Count; i++)
+            {
+                var item = _items[i];
+
+                if (item == null || item.Deleted)
+                    continue;
+
+                bool child;
+                var price = PriceOf(vendor, item, out child);
+
+                // Unpriced items are inventory, not listings — DoSearch drops them the same way.
+                if (price <= 0)
+                    continue;
+
+                considered++;
+
+                if (published >= max)
+                    continue;
+
+                if (published > 0)
+                    items.Append(',');
+
+                items.Append("{\"serial\":\"0x").Append(item.Serial.Value.ToString("X")).Append('"');
+                items.Append(",\"itemId\":").Append(item.ItemID);
+                items.Append(",\"hue\":").Append(item.Hue);
+                items.Append(",\"amount\":").Append(item.Amount);
+                items.Append(",\"price\":").Append(price);
+
+                // The PLAIN Name field, which is null for most items — never GetItemName, which
+                // builds and parses a property packet per item. LabelNumber is the cliloc the
+                // website resolves against its own table.
+                items.Append(",\"name\":");
+                Text(items, item.Name);
+                items.Append(",\"cliloc\":").Append(item.LabelNumber);
+
+                if (child)
+                    items.Append(",\"child\":true");
+
+                items.Append('}');
+
+                published++;
+            }
+
+            sb.Num("count", published);
+            sb.Num("total", considered);
+            sb.Bool("truncated", considered > published);
+
+            if (considered > published)
+                _truncated++;
+
+            sb.Append(",\"items\":[").Append(items).Append(']');
+
+            return sb.End();
+        }
+    }
+}