DRAFT: Modly Next combined preview — Artist Intent + Live Textures (#252)

[JayceeB1]

Combined Modly Next — experimental review snapshot

This PR combines our two independent, separately tested ports of upstream OmarB97's #252, stacked on the existing Modly 0.4.3 integration. It does not change fork main or upstream.

• PR #7: live PNG texture preview via OS picker, owner-scoped Electron watcher, 32 MiB cap, save recovery and GPU material cleanup.
• PR #8: explicit Artist Context node and automatic carry of modly.intent.v1 only through opted-in workflows, with rejection of ambiguous multi-asset sources.
• PR #6: base Artist Context processor and prior integration dependencies.

Git's two-parent merge commit preserves attribution and allows the combined branch to be reviewed without rewriting either source feature branch.

Gates

• Both standalone branches passed Linux/Windows GitHub Actions checks (Node, Python, TypeScript, lint and desktop bundles).
• Combined Linux and Windows CI (new branch check running).
• Interactive desktop smoke with real model, external texture editor, and image→3D→export intent history.
• Test retention/cleanup of staged source images and sidecars.
• Review all upstream safety concerns and obsolete GitHub PRs before any release.

Ledger: docs/experimental-modly-next-combined.md.

Draft only — not a version for distribution. Please keep main untouched until the full acceptance gates have been proven.

[JayceeB1]

Gate receipt — combined preview (2026-10-10)

PASS on commit c0994bb70e9acb6312b58a07d51046023c683ea1:
GitHub Actions #38008400811

• Linux Node: 363 tests, 363 PASS, 0 FAIL.
• Linux Python: 236 tests, 234 PASS / 2 skipped / 0 FAIL.
• Linux: ESLint, main-process TypeScript, built-in processor types, Electron desktop bundle PASS.
• Windows: targeted storage, artist-context, intent-propagation, texture-watcher/preload/Three.js tests 35 PASS / 4 skipped / 0 FAIL; main-process TypeScript, built-ins and desktop bundle PASS.

The skipped Windows cases are platform-gated (e.g. POSIX symlinks); these do not demonstrate Windows junction behavior.

Still NOT validated

• Interactive Windows desktop smoke using a real PNG editor and GLB model, including GPU cleanup.
• Real GPU image→model→optimizer→export workflow with sidecar identity and stage-by-stage artist-intent verification.
• Multi-source workflows, file-save races under heavy load, staged-image retention/cleanup.
• Packaged installer and upgrade path. npm run build produces a bundle, not a validated installer.

This remains a draft, and main remains untouched.