The manifest advertises exactly one version, so publishing .123 (new-key
signed) removed the only stepping stone across the rotation. A node on
.121 pins the OLD root, fetches the .123 manifest, fails signature
verification and refuses — permanently, because .122 is no longer offered
anywhere. Reproduced against the live URL: 'signed_by does not match the
pinned release-root anchor'. archy-shorty-s (.228) is on 1.7.121-alpha-dev
and in exactly this state.
Restoring the old-key-signed .122 manifest as the OTA pointer lets those
nodes take .122, which installs the new pin; .123 is republished once the
fleet has crossed. Safe in both directions: is_newer() is a strict
greater-than on the version triple, so a node already on .123 sees .122 as
older and does not downgrade.
The .123 release itself is untouched — tag, assets and catalog stand; only
the pointer moves.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
