[callumalpass]

First improvement increment

Keep the plugin usable for recovery when initialization fails, without allowing writes against unknown authority state.

• Register the workspace, commands, settings tab, and status bar even after startup failure.
• Show a bounded recovery screen with repair guidance, a redacted diagnostic summary, and a single-flight retry action.
• Fence plugin/settings/sync write entry points until initialization succeeds; keep local interop disabled while blocked.
• Read authority settings explicitly through the Vault adapter: Obsidian's loadData() can swallow malformed JSON/read errors and return undefined, which must not be mistaken for first-run defaults.
• Preserve invalid settings and profiles rather than silently overwriting or discarding them.
• Add tests of the actual Plugin.onload() orchestration and controller lifecycle.
• Add an explicit opt-in obsidian CLI recovery acceptance runner with vault identity checks, fixture ownership, private backups, restoration verification, and no hosted requests.
• Run test files serially so the existing wall-clock benchmark does not compete with other test-file startup work. Its threshold is unchanged.

Validation

• 102 automated tests pass.
• Lint, TypeScript/production build, and mobile bundle checks pass.
• CLI runner syntax checked; unsafe existing test-vault state correctly refuses mutation.

Why this remains a draft

• Connect LAB preflight is blocked: loopback port 28487 is owned by another process. No infrastructure takeover, browser/credential session, or hosted fixture was attempted.
• Live Obsidian recovery acceptance is blocked: the registered test vault contains existing role/adoption metadata. The runner refused to modify it. A clean explicitly disposable vault is required.
• Hosted end-to-end scenarios are documented as the next stage, not claimed implemented/passing by local tests.

See docs/recovery-and-lab-acceptance.md for scope, the runner command, remaining scenarios, and current blockers. No destructive checkpoint reset shortcut is included.

[callumalpass]

Superseded by #30.