Verification

New foundation compositions and standalone reference exports receive .github/workflows/verify.yml and .github/workflows/verify-nightly.yml from Base's matching export/ templates. They also receive the seed's verification.json, scripts/verify-ci.mjs and scripts/verify-app.mjs. Existing editions own their workflows: copy or merge these files, preserving their product-specific checks and supported Node and package-manager versions.

The two workflows use the same declared shards:

Release tags use Nightly journeys' full coverage. The nightly workflow calls Verify with the full tier. Verify plans its matrix from verification.json, then runs the shards in parallel on Ubuntu 24.04. Push shards have a 12-minute timeout; the nightly workflow allows longer for the full installation journeys. The final verify aggregate remains the stable required check as shard names change. It succeeds only when planning and every selected shard succeed; a failed or cancelled shard cannot produce a green aggregate.

Shard jobs restore the pnpm dependency store and, for browser shards, the Chromium cache. They install frozen dependencies and run the seed's deps script to prepare its declared RER tools. Browser shards install Chromium and its system dependencies; other shards do not need a browser installation. Caches reduce setup time without replacing the frozen install or verification. These package scripts work with both contained and packaged RER.

The template's application Node version remains 22.20.0 and pnpm remains 10.12.4. Preserve the seed's exact package pins and lockfile. The pinned checkout and setup-node v7 actions run their own code on Node 24; action runtime upgrades do not change application engines.

Declare and run shards

verification.json has two arrays, push and nightly. Each entry declares:

• name: a unique shard name across both arrays.
• browser: a boolean saying whether the job needs Chromium.
• hosted: a boolean selecting the RER hosted-output verification path.
• commands: a nonempty array of shell commands, run in order from the seed checkout root. A failure stops the shard and fails the job.

For example, this fragment describes a typecheck shard using the reference seed's existing package scripts:

{
  "name": "typecheck",
  "browser": false,
  "hosted": false,
  "commands": ["pnpm typecheck", "pnpm test:typecheck"]
}

Inspect the actual checkout's CI selections with:

node scripts/verify-ci.mjs --matrix push
node scripts/verify-ci.mjs --matrix all

CI runs node scripts/verify-ci.mjs NAME, where NAME is an entry's exact declared name. The helper sets SEED_VERIFY_SHARD and runs pnpm verify for hosted: true, or pnpm verify:app for hosted: false. The hosted path retains RER's hosted-output and hydration checks after the selected commands build the production Worker. The verify:app package script must invoke node scripts/verify-app.mjs; that runner reads SEED_VERIFY_SHARD and executes the selected entry's commands. Missing, unknown or duplicate shard declarations fail explicitly. There is no catch-all successful skip for an unrecognised selection.

With no SEED_VERIFY_SHARD, verify:app executes every command in both arrays. The normal local rer verify therefore keeps full verification, including the nightly journeys. Stop managed dev and preview servers first, as described in RUN-LOCALLY.md. Moving work to nightly changes push CI scheduling; it does not remove it from full local or release verification.

Keep coverage while splitting work

The reference seed's push shards cover typechecking, local setup, the emitted Worker and browser checks, and the remaining local-journey files. Split browser journeys by test file so each job has a bounded, understandable unit of work. The reference seed explicitly places these complete slow journey files in nightly:

• tests/local-journey/installer.test.mjs
• tests/local-journey/installer-browser.test.mjs
• tests/local-journey/journey.test.mjs (the README fresh-copy journey)

An edition declares its own real commands and paths in the manifest. When moving a slow installer or README journey, move the whole file to the nightly list and retain its coverage. Account for every existing verification command when adopting the split. Do not drop tests, add retries, or silently skip work to fit the push timeout.

Preserve edition source locks

Edition-owned seeds retain edition.json, sources.lock.json, .edition/sources/ and their pinned scripts/edition-authoring/ tools. The workflow runs node scripts/edition-authoring/cli.mjs check before installing dependencies whenever either edition manifest or source lock is present. A missing counterpart or tool fails the job. Intentional source or workflow edits require staging new files, inspecting changes, and running lock locally; commit the resulting lock and retained snapshots. CI never rewrites the lock.

Technical foundation/reference exports have composition or reference provenance instead of an edition-owned source lock, so this authoring check becomes active when they adopt the edition-owned protocol. Read Base's edition-authoring/README.md for that adoption; the workflow does not convert an existing product or create a source recipe.

The action pins were checked against the official checkout v7.0.1 release and setup-node v7.1.0 release. Their pinned action.yml files declare runs.using: node24.