Prepare public, signed, multi-architecture distribution

[KulmanD]

Objective

Make mx3-lite installable by nontechnical users without changing worker behavior, privacy, startup policy, or runtime architecture.

Planned branch: release/public-distribution-readiness
Performance report: docs/performance/public-distribution-readiness.md
Performance gate: #20

Scope

Repository and documentation:

• add a license selected explicitly by the owner
• add a concise repository description and relevant topics
• prepare the repository for public visibility without exposing personal data
• verify release links work for users who are not collaborators

Build and release:

• produce separate Apple Silicon and Intel artifacts, or a universal app when measurements justify its disk-size cost
• retain the lightweight helper and separate settings process
• document Developer ID signing and notarization
• verify signatures, architecture, bundle structure, archive extraction, and checksums
• keep manual startup; do not add a launch agent or login item
• do not add an updater, telemetry, network access, or normal background logging

Repository visibility, topics, certificates, signing, and notarization are owner-controlled deployment steps; the branch should prepare and document them but must not fabricate credentials.

Validation

• install from a freshly extracted release archive
• first-launch Gatekeeper and permission workflow
• Start, quit settings app, Status, Stop
• no worker after Stop
• no network socket or normal log file
• release helper does not link test frameworks
• architecture verified for every published artifact
• source and release archives contain no personal paths, user config, build cache, or credentials

Performance experiment

Measure each architecture independently where hardware is available:

• worker RSS, threads, idle CPU, and wakeups
• executable/app/archive sizes
• launch and stop behavior
• confirm a universal binary affects disk size only and does not load both architecture slices

Definition of done

• Distribution work does not alter worker behavior.
• Public-release prerequisites and owner-controlled blockers are explicit.
• Runtime measurements remain within Establish performance and interaction gates for feature experiments #20.
• No automatic startup, updater, or network behavior is introduced.

[KulmanD]

Implementation is complete on draft PR #37, stacked cleanly on #36. Separate arm64 and x86_64 archives build locally and pass fresh extraction, exact architecture, nested signature, privacy, checksum, and test-linkage verification. Worker runtime sources are unchanged; lifecycle Start/Status/Stop leaves no process. Repository description and topics are set. Remaining publication gates are intentionally owner-controlled: choose a license, switch the currently private repository to public, provide Developer ID/notarization credentials, test Gatekeeper on real Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, and verify release links while signed out. Evidence: docs/performance/public-distribution-readiness.md.

[KulmanD]

CI is now complete on draft PR #37: 34 tests passed, and independent arm64 and x86_64 validation-archive jobs both passed. The engineering path is ready. The issue remains open only for owner-controlled publication gates: license decision, public visibility, real Developer ID/notarization credentials, clean-machine Gatekeeper tests, and signed-out release-link verification.

[KulmanD]

Canonical implementation is now draft PR #40. It includes the signed/notarized release workflow, neutral defaults, all accepted runtime work, and passing 56-test plus arm64/x86_64 CI. This issue remains open for owner-controlled publication gates: license, visibility, real Apple credentials, clean-machine Gatekeeper checks, and signed-out release-link verification.