feat(build): skip backend-manifest.json during macOS universal builds to ensure identical non-binary files

docs/meshchatx.md

@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ The project favors predictable SQL behavior and explicit migration control, whic
 - Auth and access-attempt tracking integrated with IP/User-Agent aware controls
 - Debug endpoints provide visibility into logs and access-attempt records
 
-This is also very well tested, but I still would not recommend exposing MeshChatX to the internet. 
+This is also very well tested, but I still would not recommend exposing MeshChatX to the internet.
 
 ## Security Model
 
@@ -155,4 +155,4 @@ When adding features, prefer:
 
 - identity-scoped state over global mutable state,
 - explicit migration/version changes for DB schema updates,
-- endpoint-level tests plus focused manager unit tests.
+- endpoint-level tests plus focused manager unit tests.

package.json

@@ -141,7 +141,8 @@
                     "from": "build/exe/darwin-${arch}",
                     "to": "backend",
                     "filter": [
-                        "**/*"
+                        "**/*",
+                        "!backend-manifest.json"
                     ]
                 }
             ]

scripts/build-backend.js

@@ -122,7 +122,19 @@ try {
             stripPythonBytecodeArtifacts(buildDir);
         }
         const manifestPath = path.join(buildDir, "backend-manifest.json");
-        generateManifest(buildDir, manifestPath);
+        const skipManifest =
+            process.env.MESHCHATX_SKIP_BACKEND_MANIFEST === "1" ||
+            process.env.MESHCHATX_SKIP_BACKEND_MANIFEST === "true";
+        if (skipManifest) {
+            if (fs.existsSync(manifestPath)) {
+                fs.unlinkSync(manifestPath);
+            }
+            console.log(
+                "Skipping backend-manifest.json (MESHCHATX_SKIP_BACKEND_MANIFEST); universal merge requires identical non-binary files."
+            );
+        } else {
+            generateManifest(buildDir, manifestPath);
+        }
     } else {
         console.error(`Build directory not found (${buildDir}), manifest generation skipped.`);
     }

scripts/build-macos-universal.sh

@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ set -euo pipefail
 ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)"
 cd "$ROOT"
 
+# @electron/universal merges x64 and arm64 app bundles and requires every non-binary
+# file present in both trees to have identical bytes. Per-arch backend-manifest.json
+# contents always differ, so skip embedding it here; electron/main.js treats a missing
+# manifest as "skip integrity check" (see verifyBackendIntegrity).
+export MESHCHATX_SKIP_BACKEND_MANIFEST=1
+
 pnpm run electron-postinstall
 pnpm run version:sync
 pnpm run build-frontend