After the 1.5.2 -> 1.5.3 self-update the server ran 1.5.3 while the dashboard
still served the 1.5.2 UI. The client build had failed, and `runtime/client-dist`
still held the previous version's bundle, so nothing looked broken — the only
signal was the Settings page's "UI build v1.5.2 (rebuild client to match)".
Cause: the whole client build toolchain (vite, typescript,
@vitejs/plugin-react, tailwindcss, @types/*) is a devDependency, and npm reads
NODE_ENV=production as --omit=dev (`NODE_ENV=production npm config get omit` ->
`dev`). The dashboard server runs with NODE_ENV=production, and every bootstrap
descended from it inherits that: the plugin-update chain, and any SessionStart
fired by a `claude` running in a tmux pane the server started. So `npm ci`
dropped vite, `tsc -b` died on missing type declarations, and buildClient
returned "failed" with the stale bundle left in place.
`--include=dev` on both install paths — a CLI flag outranks the env, which is
the point. Verified by running buildClient with NODE_ENV=production against the
installed plugin root: previously "failed", now "built", and the served bundle
carries 1.5.3.
Also: plugin-update-helper writes its verdict BEFORE the bootstrap handover as
well as after. That step retires the process tree the helper hangs off, and the
observed run reached the new server with no verdict file at all — the dashboard
reported `last_plugin_update: null` for an update that had actually succeeded.
Update detection was a commit count against the default branch, which says nothing about whether a *version* shipped and is pure noise on the plugin cache (a depth-1 clone, where every distance is a graft artefact). It now reads the forge's own releases API and compares the published tag to this install's package.json version, falling back to the commit count only when no release can be read — with the reason in release_check, so "up to date" never silently means "we could not look".
Two states a commit count cannot express: dev_build (ahead of the newest release, missing nothing from it) now reads "Dev build - N ahead" instead of a false "Up to date"; and on a shallow clone every commits_*_release field is null and dev_build is never asserted, because the numbers would be meaningless.
POST /api/updates/apply gains a second mode, chosen by install kind and never by the request body. A checkout still fast-forwards onto the release tag, rebuilds and self-restarts. A ~/.claude/plugins/cache/ install is refused by applyUpdate (that directory is Claude Code's to replace) and handed instead to a detached chain: claude plugin marketplace update -> claude plugin update -y -> plugin-bootstrap.js --force from the NEW cache dir, which retires this server and starts its replacement. Both write the HTTP response before anything stops the process.
The chain records every outcome to plugin-update.json in the runtime dir, outside the cache the update replaces, so the next server reports it as last_plugin_update: a failed chain is otherwise indistinguishable from a slow one, and the tab would poll a server that never returns. /reload-plugins is deliberately not in the chain - it is REPL-scoped to the session that runs it, so no background process can perform it, and plugin-bootstrap derives PLUGIN_ROOT from its own __dirname, which is what makes it unnecessary for the dashboard.
Also rebrands the sidebar subtitle, splash and page title to SmartGift Solution, and corrects three ARCHITECTURE.md statements that claimed /apply did not exist.
Verified: server 1683/1683, client 486/486, build, prettier, file-header audit, openapi.yaml regenerated.
nntrivi2001