fix: track the channel checker, and test the two paths only a release could prove

[looptroop-ai]

Final review round — two findings, both correct.

1. The documented recovery monitor did not exist

release.yml and the changelog both pointed at tmp/check-channels.mjs. tmp/ is gitignored, so nobody but me ever had that file — and it was the thing meant to stop three disabled channel variables sitting off indefinitely.

Now scripts/check-channels.sh, tracked, wired as npm run channels:check.

2. The two highest-risk fixes had no regression coverage

Both were changes ordinary CI could not exercise.

The publication guard was fifteen lines of shell inside the workflow — the single decision separating "built and verified" from "published to seven registries" — and it had been wrong twice:

• a boolean input arrives as the string "false", which is truthy in a GitHub expression, inverting the guard
• every manual dispatch was forced to a dry run, making the skip_binaries bypass unusable

Now scripts/release-guard.mjs: a pure resolveGuard() with 11 tests covering both of those, plus the bypass being refused off main while still recording operator intent.

The swap-error path now has fault injection — the directory is made unwritable so replacing the file genuinely fails after the daemon is stopped, proving it gets started again. Skipped under root (which bypasses directory permissions); CI runs unprivileged, so it executes there.

Assessed and not changed

• "WinGet is neither published nor awaiting review" — stale. New package: LoopTroopAI.LoopTroop version 0.5.2 microsoft/winget-pkgs#417273 is open as New package: with Architecture: x64.
• "Fix the Chocolatey API key before re-enabling" — the key returned 200 to a direct probe; the 403 is Chocolatey's documented rule for a package with a version in moderation and no approved version. Verifying the account email is still sensible before flipping the variable.
• PUBLISH_WINGET stays off for 0.5.3. #417273 is in review for 0.5.2 and the package does not exist upstream yet; submitting a second "New package" PR would put two competing submissions in Microsoft's queue. Enable it once that merges.

Full suite: 3300 passed, 3 skipped.

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