Consumer install ships framework-internal tooling that no-ops (pipeline / runtime-bridge / packages/core/principles)

[artyhoo]

Found on a consumer polygon (pnpm monorepo: apps/* + packages/*, per-package ESLint flat config). Related to #478 — same root: the installer "consumerizes" at the link level, not at the working-state level.

Problem

transform_internal_refs() in install.sh (≈L38–49) rewrites markdown links pointing at docs/… / packages/… / README.md into ${UPSTREAM_BLOB_URL} GitHub blob URLs. That fixes broken links, but it cannot ship the runtime dependencies those tools need. So several framework-internal tools arrive in a consumer but silently no-op:

• /pipeline (skill copied at install.sh ≈L283–290) requires docs/meta-factory/wave-sequencing-plan.md. Consumers have no docs/meta-factory/ at all → §1 plan-currency and §2/§3 dispatch degrade to no-op. Verified by running /pipeline <umbrella>: it printed MISSING: wave-sequencing-plan.md, Plan status: CURRENT (nothing to reconcile), and §3 produced no umbrella / no dispatch state.
• runtime-bridge (§4c / §5 dispatch tree) invokes packages/runtime-bridge/src/cli/dispatch.ts and harvest.ts. That package does not exist in a consumer install.
• §6 recursive self-application instructs npm --prefix packages/core run test:principles and links packages/core/principles/12-ai-laziness-traps.test.ts. A consumer's packages/core (if any) has no principles/ and no such script.

A link to a file is not the file; a link to a test is not a runnable test.

Why it matters

The tool is readable (links resolve to the upstream repo) but not operable. A consumer who runs /pipeline gets a tool that runs but has nothing to operate on — confusing, and indistinguishable from "broken" without reading the source.

Suggested directions (any one)

1. Detect consumer context (pnpm-workspace.yaml present / no docs/meta-factory/) and do not ship framework-only skills (/pipeline, runtime-bridge instructions) to consumers.
2. Or gate them: ship with an explicit guard that prints "requires framework layout (docs/meta-factory/…) — skipped in consumer mode" instead of silently no-opping.
3. Or parameterize the skill so its runtime references (packages/core/principles, packages/runtime-bridge) are conditional and self-skip when absent.

The skill already anticipates the data gap (§1: "if wave-sequencing-plan.md is MISSING — write a stub and ask") — so the no-op is a known edge that could be promoted to an explicit consumer-mode skip.

Companion finding (#483): install is not "one-button" — copies files but leaves a manual checklist + no branch/MCP/plugin setup.

[artyhoo]

Companion: #483 (install is not one-button). Shared root with #478.