test(ci): drive the npm-verify retry loop on a virtual clock

[jpr5]

Why

The EXECUTED: the retry window is honoured, not multiplied by a longer deadline negative control in src/__tests__/npm-publish-verify-workflow.test.ts asserted on real elapsed wall clock. It is red on main @ 252a4cc (run 34597377003, legs test (20) and test (26)), which puts a red X on every open PR — including the three external-contributor PRs #433/#434/#435.

Widening the window was already tried (20e0d88) and is not the fix. The step's body computes ELAPSED from date +%s, which is whole-second: if START is sampled just before a second boundary, the loop's own arithmetic crosses a 3s deadline after as little as ~2.0s of real time. That is sub-second phase, not runner load — it fails on an idle laptop.

RED

On origin/main, unloaded, 25 consecutive runs of just that test: 8 failed.

RUN 6: RED  → expected 2469 to be greater than or equal to 2800
RUN 7: RED  → expected 2501 to be greater than or equal to 2800
RUN 8: RED  → expected 2492 to be greater than or equal to 2800
RUN 9: RED  → expected 2475 to be greater than or equal to 2800
RUN 16: RED → expected 2474 to be greater than or equal to 2800
RUN 17: RED → expected 2539 to be greater than or equal to 2800
RUN 21: RED → expected 2567 to be greater than or equal to 2800
RUN 22: RED → expected 2466 to be greater than or equal to 2800

Fix

date and sleep are external commands, so they can be stubbed on PATH exactly like the existing npm stub. The step's run: body is still executed verbatim and unmodified — only its clock is now the test's.

• sleep N records N and advances a virtual clock file by N; date +%s reads it.
• Timing becomes an observable: the exact attempt count and the exact backoff schedule the loop issued. No assertion in the file touches wall clock any more (elapsedMs is gone from Observation).
• The observations now run at the shipped 300s/5s/30s defaults instead of a shrunken 1s window, so what is tested is what CI runs. A five-minute window costs nothing on a virtual clock — the whole file got faster, ~30s → ~8s.
• The default schedule is asserted exactly: attempts at t+0,5,15,35,65,95,125,155,185,215,245,275,305, sleeps [5,10,20,30,30,30,30,30,30,30,30,30], failing at attempt 13.
• "Honoured, not multiplied" is now a property that no runner speed can break: a shorter deadline stops the loop sooner, and overshoot past any deadline is < deadline + MAX_DELAY (one backoff step).
• A body that stopped sleeping would spin against a clock that never advances, so the npm stub jumps the clock after 40 attempts — turning a hang into a legible failure.

GREEN

20 consecutive green runs of the file: 12 standalone, then 8 more concurrently with the full npx vitest run (189 files / 5804 tests, exit 0) hammering the same machine. Zero failures.

Mutation proof — it still bites

Both mutations applied to the real publish-release.yml guard:

Mutation	Result
Retry loop deleted (while :; do → single pass, i.e. the pre-fix "ask once" body)	RED — 5 of 10 tests fail (expected 1 to be 2, expected 1 to be 3, expected +0 to be 1 ×3)
Deadline's exit 1 → exit 0	RED — 3 of 10 tests fail (expected +0 to be 1 ×3)

Workflow restored afterwards; this PR changes one file, the test.

Other wall-clock assertions in the file

Yes — three more, all fixed the same way: the never appears FAILS control (elapsedMs >= 4000), the FAILS FAST control (elapsedMs < 10_000), and the loose attempts > N bounds. All are now exact attempt counts and exact sleep schedules.

Gates (raw exit codes)

Gate	Exit
prettier --check	0
npx eslint .	0
pnpm typecheck	0
npx vitest run (full)	0
npx commitlint --from origin/main --to HEAD	0
npx actionlint	1 — pre-existing on main, SC2086 in changelog-radar.yml / test-drift.yml; no workflow file is touched by this PR

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01AvkmhXVLqSSEW6FvPQHSu5

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