Pressure-testing Ota on lead-quorum: native Python truth, repo-local fulfillment, and runtime bind projection

Overview lead-quorum was a strong pilot repo because it was small enough to reason about and real enough to fail honestly. It has: repo-local Python environment ownership pinned dependency installation env bootstrap from example truth a deterministic local test surface live external verification a local web runtime a distributed demo path a Docker build lane That is exactly the kind of repo where a contract can look clean while still hiding real setup and execution drift. Why this repo mattered The useful pressure here was not “can Ota run one Python command.” The useful pressure was whether Ota could stay truthful when the repo itself owns: the .venv the dependency install lane the local executable path the runtime listener truth If Ota probes or fulfills those in the wrong order, the contract is not trustworthy even if the repo itself is valid. That is what made lead-quorum valuable. What the contract now models The final contract is explicit about the repo’s real setup split. Setup is not one opaque shell step. It is three different ownership surfaces: copy .env from .env.example only if missing create the repo-local virtual environment hydrate dependencies through typed uv requirements-file installation That looks like this in the contract: setup : aggregate : tasks : - setup:env - setup:venv - setup:deps setup:env : action : kind : copy_if_missing from : .env.example to : .env setup:venv : action : kind : ensure_virtualenv path : .venv python : " 3.12" setup:deps : prepare : kind : dependency_hydration medium : package_dependencies source : kind : uv cwd : . mode : pip_requirements requirements_file : requirements.txt The contract also keeps verification and external-runtime claims separate: verify for deterministic local validation live for Gemini-backed end-to-end testing app for the local web service distributed for the A2A demo path That matters because a working local scoring test and a live distributed runtime are not the same readiness claim. What lead-q