Phase 8C.1: External beta readiness

[FernandoAbishai]

Summary

• Add the durable external-beta contract and one provider-free golden journey.
• Add a manually aggregable qualification record with founder-assistance and blocker-severity fields.
• Add a focused beta feedback issue form with redacted-support-report and secrets guidance.
• Add a small macOS speech-fixture recipe and deterministic documentation smoke wired into CI.
• Align README, INSTALL, and the release-specific FIRST_EXPORT guide.

Scope boundary

Documentation, issue-template, fixture-recipe, smoke, package-script, and CI wiring only. No product behavior, release version, tag, artifact, Apple credential, paid service, telemetry, or dependency changes.

Verification

• npm run smoke:external-beta
• npm run smoke:public-release
• npm run smoke:release-notes
• npm run smoke:release-identity
• npm run smoke:release-metadata
• npm run smoke:release-workflow
• npm run lint
• npm run build --prefix frontend
• All frontend creator-workflow smokes
• npm run smoke:model-manager
• npm run smoke:backend
• python -m compileall -q backend
• git diff --check

This PR is based on current main at 4ee8470549b65037d2126a993baebe78a300498f.

Do not merge as part of this PR.

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

Changes are scoped to documentation/templates/scripts and a deterministic CI smoke check with no product-runtime behavior modifications.

Pull request overview

Adds an “external beta readiness” documentation + CI smoke layer that codifies the external-beta contract, the single provider-free golden journey, and the feedback/qualification artifacts, then enforces their presence and key safety constraints in CI.

Changes:

• Introduces an smoke:external-beta check that validates the external beta contract, qualification template, feedback form, and related doc links/safety guidance.
• Adds a macOS-only fixture generator plus a checked-in spoken script for deterministic qualification runs.
• Aligns creator-facing docs (README/INSTALL/FIRST_EXPORT) and CI documentation/workflow wiring to reference the external beta contract and feedback path.

File summaries

File	Description
scripts/smoke-external-beta.js	New smoke check that validates external-beta docs/forms and safety constraints.
scripts/generate-beta-fixture.js	New macOS-only script to generate a deterministic spoken WAV fixture.
README.md	Adds external-beta links and clarifies release authority + signing/notarization limits.
package.json	Wires new smoke:external-beta and beta:fixture scripts.
docs/INSTALL.md	Reframes install guidance for external beta and links to beta contract/qualification.
docs/fixtures/external-beta-spoken.txt	Adds a short deterministic spoken script for fixture generation.
docs/FIRST_EXPORT.md	Links to external beta contract/qualification and adds redacted-support-report guidance.
docs/EXTERNAL_BETA.md	Adds the durable external-beta contract + golden journey + exit signals.
docs/CI.md	Documents the new external-beta smoke as part of CI checks.
docs/BETA_QUALIFICATION.md	Adds a manually aggregable qualification record template and severity contract.
.github/workflows/ci.yml	Runs the new smoke:external-beta check in CI.
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/beta_feedback.yml	Adds a focused beta feedback issue form with redaction + secrets guidance.

Review details

• Files reviewed: 12/12 changed files
• Comments generated: 0
• Review effort level: Lite

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