fix: VPS-orchestrated generation reliability — generate --sync, reaper TZ fix, maintenance-cron self-heal (v0.22.1) (#171)

Synchronous --sync CLI tick loop for VPS-driven generation over a held-open SSH session (survives Hostinger's ~10-min background-kill); $sync_mode guard on both tick handlers prevents double-drive; Run_Reaper UTC-vs-site-tz fix; one-shot self-heal migration restoring the maintenance crons that vanished after the 06-15/16 deploy (daily-generation excluded — VPS owns it).

QA: APPROVE @ 0689989 (qa-reviews/prautoblogger/2026-06-23-0689989.md). CEO greenlight 2026-06-22.

Agent-Session: prab-reliability-merge-20260622

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -11,6 +11,49 @@ and this project uses [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
 - ADR log scaffolded: `docs/adr/` created as the app-local decision log for this plugin; `docs/adr/README.md` is the index; ADR-0001 documents the v0.16.0 editorial illustration image-style pivot. `ARCHITECTURE.md` updated to point to the folder. No runtime changes; docs-only.
 - CI constants guard (`scripts/check-constants.php`): new required CI step (`Check PRAUTOBLOGGER_* constants`) fails the build when any `PRAUTOBLOGGER_*` constant referenced in shipped plugin PHP is neither defined in `prautoblogger.php` nor `defined()`-guarded at the reference site. Prevents a recurrence of the v0.19.0 admin-500 regression class.
 
+## [0.22.1] - 2026-06-22
+
+### Added
+- **`wp prautoblogger generate --sync`** (VPS orchestrator mode): runs the full
+  checkpoint pipeline synchronously in the calling process — acquires lock, calls
+  `on_orchestrate_tick()` in-process, then loops `on_generate_tick()` until the
+  queue is empty or a terminal state is reached (max 20 ticks). Exits 0 on
+  success with a JSON summary line; exits 1 on error. Designed to be called from
+  the Coolify VPS over a held-open SSH session, where Hostinger's ~10-min
+  background-process kill does not apply.
+
+### Fixed
+- **`$sync_mode` guard in `Generation_Checkpoint_Runner::on_generate_tick()`**:
+  when running under `--sync`, the internal `wp_schedule_single_event()` +
+  `fire_cron_now()` reschedule is suppressed so the VPS's external loop cannot
+  race with a competing background wp-cron tick. Existing async (cron/AJAX) paths
+  are unaffected.
+- **Reaper timezone fix** in `Run_Reaper::sweep_stuck_stages()` and
+  `sweep_stuck_runs()`: `$cutoff` was computed with `gmdate()` (UTC) while
+  `updated_at` is stored via `current_time('mysql')` (server local time, UTC+8).
+  Changed to `wp_date()` so the cutoff respects the site timezone. On this host
+  the 8-hour delta could suppress reaping of a same-day-stalled run; the 44h-old
+  run `ee6e7d91` was already far outside the threshold and unaffected.
+- **Scoped self-heal migration** in `DB_Migrations`: restores the low-stakes
+  maintenance cron events (`prautoblogger_reap_orphan_research_rows`,
+  `prautoblogger_collect_metrics`, `prautoblogger_sync_runware_models`) that
+  vanished after the 06-15 deploy cycle. **`prautoblogger_daily_generation` is
+  deliberately NOT re-registered** — the VPS systemd timer owns generation
+  scheduling as of v0.22.1. Note: wp-cron reliability on this Hostinger host is
+  suspect (background PHP killed ~10 min); maintenance crons are low-stakes and
+  acceptable on this transport; generation is not.
+- **Sync-mode guard tests** (QA NF-1 remediation 2026-06-23): moved sync-mode
+  tests to `GenerationCheckpointRunnerSyncModeTest.php`; fixed
+  `test_orchestrate_tick_in_sync_mode_does_not_schedule_background_event` to
+  return >= 1 idea from `orchestrate_only()` so execution reaches the sync guard
+  at line ~181 (was vacuous -- previous stub returned `[]` causing early return);
+  added `test_generate_tick_sync_mode_suppresses_reschedule` for the
+  `on_generate_tick()` guard; async regression test preserved in same file.
+- **Root `CONTEXT.md`**: created domain glossary (run/run_stages/checkpoint/
+  idea-queue/Generation_Lock) and execution mode comparison (async wp-cron vs.
+  `--sync` VPS).
+- **`ARCHITECTURE.md` SS25**: added `WP-CLI (sync / VPS)` row to Entry Points table.
+
 ## [0.22.0] - 2026-06-16
 
 ### Changed
@@ -478,7 +521,6 @@ and this project uses [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
   the catalog + OpenRouter static list. Breaking change: callers that expect a
   specific static list should note the new dynamic Runware side.
 
-
 ### Fixed
 - Runware image generation now correctly uses the admin-selected model instead
   of silently falling back to FLUX.1 schnell (runware:100@1) for all non-schnell
@@ -578,7 +620,6 @@ and this project uses [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
 ### Fixed
 - Image prompt builder now properly delegates to static parser methods
 
-
 ### Fixed
 - **Opik autoloader gap** — `class-autoloader.php` listed `services/` as a scan directory but not `services/opik/`, where all four Opik classes live (`Opik_Client`, `Opik_Trace_Context`, `Opik_Span_Queue`, `Opik_Dispatcher`). Composer's classmap (used in PHPUnit) covers `includes/` recursively so tests passed, but the WordPress runtime autoloader would fatal on first Opik class reference in production. Added `services/opik/` to the scan list.