P6 Phase 1: enforce the workspace-template contract via CI on every
template-repo push, eliminating the slow drift that produced 8
copies of a 28-line Dockerfile in different states of decay.
The previous validator (50 lines, soft warnings only) couldn't
catch the cache-trap pattern (Dockerfile missing ARG RUNTIME_VERSION)
that silently shipped the previous runtime wheel during cascade
publishes — observed five times in a row on 2026-04-27. Hardened
into structural checks that fail CI, not just warn:
- Dockerfile must base on python:3.11-slim
- Dockerfile must declare ARG RUNTIME_VERSION AND reference
${RUNTIME_VERSION} in a RUN block (the arg has to be in the
layer's command line for docker to hash it into the cache key)
- Dockerfile must create the agent uid-1000 user (Claude Code
refuses --dangerously-skip-permissions as root for safety)
- Dockerfile must end at molecule-runtime — directly via
ENTRYPOINT or via a wrapper script that exec's it (claude-code
has entrypoint.sh for gosu drop-priv; hermes has start.sh to
boot the hermes-agent daemon first; both are allowed)
- config.yaml must have name + runtime + integer
template_schema_version. Quoted "1" fails — observed previously
in a copy-pasted template that the YAML loader turned into str
- requirements.txt must declare molecule-ai-workspace-runtime
Also fixed: the original validator's warning telling adapter.py
NOT to import molecule_runtime was backwards — that's the
canonical package name post-#87. Now it warns on the legacy
molecule_ai prefix instead.
Reusable workflow change: instead of running
.molecule-ci/scripts/validate-workspace-template.py (a per-template
vendored copy that drifts as the validator evolves), the workflow
now checks out molecule-ci itself into .molecule-ci-canonical and
runs the canonical script from there. Single source of truth —
every template runs the SAME contract on every CI run. The legacy
.molecule-ci/scripts/ directories in each template repo can be
deleted in a Phase 2 cleanup PR.
14 unit tests pin the contract:
- canonical template passes
- claude-code-style custom entrypoint passes when the wrapper
exec's molecule-runtime
- 5 Dockerfile drift modes each error individually
- 3 config.yaml drift modes each error/warn
- requirements.txt missing-runtime errors
- legacy molecule_ai import warns
- regression cover: modern molecule_runtime import does NOT
trigger the (deleted) backwards warning
All 8 production template repos pass the new contract today —
this PR locks in the current good state, it does not force any
template-repo edits.
Contract documented at docs/template-contract.md so the rules are
discoverable without reading the validator.
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