feat(e2e): --keep-alive flag + CI frontend smoke step

- solana_e2e_local.sh: E2E_KEEP_ALIVE=1 / --keep-alive — on SUCCESS stop the
  committee processes but leave the validator + ledger up, so the demo
  frontend (jito-ncn-program frontend/) or its Playwright smoke can read the
  settled story from the live RPC; failure path unchanged
- solana-e2e.yml: run the script with --keep-alive and add a final step that
  runs frontend/smoke.mjs from the NCN clone the script already maintains
  (headless Playwright: state PDA decode, sha256-verified story render, real
  program ids, zero console errors) against the still-live validator; skips
  gracefully until smoke.mjs lands on jito-ncn-program main; screenshot
  uploaded as artifact

Author: RonTuretzkyOpacity

.github/workflows/solana-e2e.yml

@@ -73,8 +73,45 @@ jobs:
           path: ~/.cache/solana-e2e-src
           key: solana-e2e-src-${{ runner.os }}-${{ env.AGAVE_VERSION }}-358fbc3c20d947c977a136808f9fbf7f070e478b
 
+      # --keep-alive: on success the committee processes stop but the
+      # validator stays up, so the frontend smoke below can read the settled
+      # story from the live RPC. The runner tears everything down at job end.
       - name: Run the one-command e2e
-        run: bash scripts/solana_e2e_local.sh
+        run: bash scripts/solana_e2e_local.sh --keep-alive
+
+      # Frontend smoke (Track K): headless Playwright drives the demo page in
+      # BreadchainCoop/jito-ncn-program frontend/ against the validator the
+      # previous step left running, asserting the REAL settled story renders
+      # (state PDA decode, sha256-verified story from the buffer account, real
+      # program ids, zero console errors). The frontend lives in the NCN
+      # clone the e2e script already maintains; skip gracefully until
+      # frontend/smoke.mjs is on that repo's main.
+      - name: Frontend smoke (Playwright reads the settled story)
+        run: |
+          NCN_SRC="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/solana-e2e-src/jito-ncn-program"
+          SMOKE="$NCN_SRC/frontend/smoke.mjs"
+          CONFIG="$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.solana-e2e/out/frontend-config.json"
+          if [[ ! -f "$SMOKE" ]]; then
+            echo "frontend/smoke.mjs not on jito-ncn-program main yet — skipping"
+            exit 0
+          fi
+          if [[ ! -f "$CONFIG" ]]; then
+            echo "no frontend-config.json (LLM leg skipped?) — skipping"
+            exit 0
+          fi
+          mkdir -p /tmp/pw && cd /tmp/pw
+          npm init -y > /dev/null
+          npm install playwright > /dev/null
+          npx playwright install --with-deps chromium
+          node "$SMOKE" "$CONFIG" --screenshot /tmp/pw/frontend-live.png
+
+      - name: Upload frontend smoke screenshot
+        if: always()
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: frontend-live-screenshot
+          path: /tmp/pw/frontend-live.png
+          if-no-files-found: ignore
 
       - name: Upload logs on failure
         if: failure()

scripts/solana_e2e_local.sh

@@ -40,9 +40,21 @@
 #   E2E_KEEP_LEDGER=1      keep the ledger dir on exit (large!)
 #   E2E_TICKS_PER_SLOT     validator ticks per slot (default 16)
 #   E2E_LLM=0              skip the LLM settlement leg
+#   E2E_KEEP_ALIVE=1       (or --keep-alive) on SUCCESS: stop the committee
+#                          processes but leave the validator + ledger up, so
+#                          the frontend (or the Playwright smoke) can read the
+#                          settled story from the live RPC afterwards
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
+for arg in "$@"; do
+    case "$arg" in
+        --keep-alive) E2E_KEEP_ALIVE=1 ;;
+        *) echo "unknown argument: $arg" >&2; exit 2 ;;
+    esac
+done
+E2E_KEEP_ALIVE="${E2E_KEEP_ALIVE:-0}"
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Pins — single source of truth for source provenance
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -84,6 +96,16 @@ fail() { echo -e "${RED}[e2e] $*${NC}"; exit 1; }
 PIDS=()
 cleanup() {
     local code=$?
+    if [[ $code -eq 0 && "$E2E_KEEP_ALIVE" == "1" ]]; then
+        say "keep-alive: stopping committee processes, leaving the validator up"
+        for pid in "${PIDS[@]:-}"; do kill "$pid" 2>/dev/null || true; done
+        pkill -f "counter-solana-node --key-file $OUT" 2>/dev/null || true
+        pkill -f "counter-solana-router --key-file $OUT" 2>/dev/null || true
+        ok "validator still running at $RPC_URL (ledger: $LEDGER)"
+        ok "frontend config: $OUT/frontend-config.json"
+        ok "teardown: pkill -f 'solana-test-validator --ledger $LEDGER'; rm -rf '$LEDGER'"
+        exit 0
+    fi
     say "cleanup (exit $code)"
     for pid in "${PIDS[@]:-}"; do kill "$pid" 2>/dev/null || true; done
     pkill -f "counter-solana-node --key-file $OUT" 2>/dev/null || true