A version somebody can read, instead of a sha nobody can

Updates follow a channel now. `stable` is the newest vX.Y.Z tag; `edge` is the
branch tip, which is what this did before. Stable is the default, because a
branch tip is not a release -- following one means deploying whatever was pushed
five minutes ago, possibly mid-feature, which is right for whoever builds this
and wrong for whoever runs it. The page can now say "running 1.0.0, 1.1.0
available" rather than showing two shas and leaving somebody to guess.

Read with git plumbing and never a forge API, for three reasons in the order
they bite. It would need a token on the deployment host -- a credential that can
reach the repository, sitting on a box, to answer a read-only question about
version numbers. It would tie this to one forge, so a fork on GitHub gets
nothing. And it breaks: checked against the Gitea this is developed on, `tea
whoami` works and `tea releases list` returns a 500 from a server-side panic
about token scopes, so a page resting on that endpoint would have shipped
already broken.

Release notes still travel, inside the annotated tag object, which
`git for-each-ref` reads with no API anywhere.

Two details that are only obvious after getting them wrong. A tag with a suffix
is not a release: git's version sort puts v1.1.0-rc1 *above* v1.1.0, so
accepting one would step a stable host onto a candidate on the strength of a
hyphen. And `--sort=-v:refname` rather than a lexical sort, which puts v1.9.0
above v1.10.0 and does it silently the first time a project reaches ten of
anything -- there is a test.

What is running is `git describe --tags --always`, so it reads "1.0.0" at a tag,
"1.0.0-7-gd4f56d" seven commits past one, and a bare sha before the first
release ever exists. That last case is what `--always` is for. When it lands
exactly on a tag whose name disagrees with __version__, the page says so: a tag
cut before the version bump names a release nobody can identify afterwards, and
the check costs no subprocess because both facts are already in hand.

update.sh resolves the channel the same way and detaches at the tag rather than
resetting -- a `reset --hard <tag>` while on main would move the local branch to
it, which is a rewrite of a ref nobody asked to rewrite. A host with no tags
falls back to the branch and says so, which is every host until the release.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

PLAN.md

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ reasoning, tool calling with web search, custom HTTP tools and MCP servers,
 agent chats that work on a machine over SSH, a knowledge library, notes, memory
 and skills, speech in and out, image generation over ComfyUI, users and groups,
 model administration, installable as an app, reports, messages, and scheduled
-work that runs on its own. 2081 tests, `ruff` clean.
+work that runs on its own. 2088 tests, `ruff` clean.
 
 What remains before the first stable release is written out below, in phases,
 under [The road to 1.0.0](#the-road-to-100).
@@ -551,8 +551,13 @@ seen working.
       require HTTPS or localhost
 - [x] **An LXC bootstrap** that creates an unprivileged container and runs the
       existing installer inside it — a wrapper, not a second install path
-- [x] **Updating without a shell** — what is running, what is on the branch, and
-      the log between. Checking reaches the remote; opening the page does not
+- [x] **Updating without a shell**, and by **channel** rather than by commit:
+      `stable` follows release tags and `edge` the branch tip, because a branch
+      tip is not a release. `git describe` for what is running, notes out of the
+      annotated tag, and the commits between. Checking reaches the remote;
+      opening the page does not. Git plumbing throughout and never a forge API —
+      no token on the deployment host, no forge lock-in, and the one this was
+      checked against 500s on that endpoint
 - [x] **The button writes a file and an opt-in systemd unit does the work.** The
       service runs unprivileged and cannot restart itself, and the request
       carries no branch and no ref — so pressing it is always "deploy the branch