Expected
The retained image fixture suite should stay portable and distinguish unavailable original evidence from a malformed or untraceable retained fixture.
Actual
The corpus-wide provenance assertion checks whether a local provider corpus root exists, then requires every cited historical session under that root to exist. Rotating or deleting a single old transcript makes the ordinary unit suite fail even though the retained fixture and citation metadata are unchanged.
Evidence
Node 24.14.1, macOS, fresh npm ci. Run the unit project filtered to src/providers/shared/renderer/protocols/media/imageAttachment.test.ts. The test named every fixture is traceable to a census row and a real session fails at line 299 for fixture atp-codex-image-inside-claude-transcript because its cited historical JSONL no longer exists. Private paths and transcript contents intentionally omitted.
Impact
Local development cannot get a green unit suite after normal transcript rotation; CI without those machine-local roots follows a different branch. Reproduced while verifying PR #838, which does not modify these fixtures or assertions. This is separate from terminal follow.
Acceptance
Preserve meaningful provenance validation and generation evidence without requiring all historical private source files to survive forever. Do not fabricate a source file, silently rewrite fixture citations, or weaken retained-data correctness checks.
Expected
The retained image fixture suite should stay portable and distinguish unavailable original evidence from a malformed or untraceable retained fixture.
Actual
The corpus-wide provenance assertion checks whether a local provider corpus root exists, then requires every cited historical session under that root to exist. Rotating or deleting a single old transcript makes the ordinary unit suite fail even though the retained fixture and citation metadata are unchanged.
Evidence
Node 24.14.1, macOS, fresh npm ci. Run the unit project filtered to src/providers/shared/renderer/protocols/media/imageAttachment.test.ts. The test named every fixture is traceable to a census row and a real session fails at line 299 for fixture atp-codex-image-inside-claude-transcript because its cited historical JSONL no longer exists. Private paths and transcript contents intentionally omitted.
Impact
Local development cannot get a green unit suite after normal transcript rotation; CI without those machine-local roots follows a different branch. Reproduced while verifying PR #838, which does not modify these fixtures or assertions. This is separate from terminal follow.
Acceptance
Preserve meaningful provenance validation and generation evidence without requiring all historical private source files to survive forever. Do not fabricate a source file, silently rewrite fixture citations, or weaken retained-data correctness checks.