merge: observer-firmware-dev into observer-firmware at v1.17.0

The planned wholesale dev -> prod merge at upstream MeshCore 1.17.0. Production
now adopts the dev lineage in full; the two release channels stay separated by
workflow, not by branch content.

Resolution: prod's tree is now identical to observer-firmware-dev. Prod's 23
observer commits were sibling hand-ports of features dev implements more fully
(neighbors, max-active-slots, retain policy, MeshRank routing, SNMP, deferred
OTA), so dev's implementation wins throughout. Verified no prod-only content was
lost: MQTT broker presets are at parity (34 both sides), and the sensor_base
build flags that prod added for Heltec/RAK3112/Xiao S3 WIO are all present.

Three files auto-merged into an inconsistent mix and were forced to dev:
- examples/simple_repeater/MyMesh.h: kept BOTH lineages' WITH_MQTT_NEIGHBORS
  blocks, redeclaring neighbor_discover[] and declaring sendAnonRegionsReq()
  twice with different return types. Would not have compiled.
- src/helpers/MQTTDefaults.h: duplicate neighbors default assignments (dev
  already sets them further down).
- .wt-station-g3-prod: stray tracked build worktree, untracked on dev and
  covered by dev's .gitignore '.wt-*/' rule.

Prod's station-g3 OTA hotfix (5000391) hardcoded the production manifest URL
in build_flags; dropped in favour of dev's env, since build.sh already defaults
OTA_MANIFEST_BASE to the production URL when the beta workflow does not override
it. Verified on the built binary.

Channels after this merge:
- observer-firmware      -> v1.17.0, tag observer-mqtt-latest, manifest /v
- observer-firmware-dev  -> v1.17.0, tag observer-mqtt-beta-latest, manifest /beta/v
The beta workflow now also lives on prod but only triggers on the dev branch.

Author: agessaman

.github/FUNDING.yml

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+github: meshcore-dev

.github/actions/setup-build-environment/action.yml

@@ -4,17 +4,17 @@ runs:
   steps:
 
     - name: Init Cache
-      uses: actions/cache@v4
+      uses: actions/cache@v5
       with:
         path: |
           ~/.cache/pip
           ~/.platformio/.cache
         key: ${{ runner.os }}-pio
 
     - name: Install Python
-      uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+      uses: actions/setup-python@v6
       with:
-        python-version: '3.11'
+        python-version: '3.13'
 
     - name: Install PlatformIO
       shell: bash
@@ -25,5 +25,14 @@ runs:
     - name: Extract Version from Git Tag
       shell: bash
       run: |
-        GIT_TAG_NAME="${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}"
-        echo "GIT_TAG_VERSION=${GIT_TAG_NAME##*-}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+        if [[ "${GITHUB_REF}" == refs/tags/* ]]; then
+          # triggered by a tag push (e.g: refs/tags/companion-v1.2.3)
+          GIT_TAG_NAME="${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}"
+          VERSION_STRING="${GIT_TAG_NAME##*-}"
+        else
+          # triggered by a workflow dispatch (e.g: refs/heads/main)
+          # strip "refs/heads/" prefix and replace any remaining "/" with "-" to protect file paths
+          BRANCH_NAME="${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/}"
+          VERSION_STRING=$(echo "$BRANCH_NAME" | tr '/' '-')
+        fi
+        echo "GIT_TAG_VERSION=${VERSION_STRING}" >> $GITHUB_ENV

.github/workflows/build-companion-firmwares.yml

@@ -10,33 +10,8 @@ on:
       - 'companion-*'
 
 jobs:
-
-  build:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    steps:
-
-      - name: Clone Repo
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-
-      - name: Setup Build Environment
-        uses: ./.github/actions/setup-build-environment
-
-      - name: Build Firmwares
-        env:
-          FIRMWARE_VERSION: ${{ env.GIT_TAG_VERSION }}
-        run: /usr/bin/env bash build.sh build-companion-firmwares
-
-      - name: Upload Workflow Artifacts
-        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
-        with:
-          name: companion-firmwares
-          path: out
-
-      - name: Create Release
-        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
-        if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
-        with:
-          name: Companion Firmware ${{ env.GIT_TAG_VERSION }}
-          body: ""
-          draft: true
-          files: out/*
+  build-companion-firmwares:
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/firmware-builder.yml
+    with:
+      firmware_type: 'companion'
+      release_title_prefix: 'Companion Firmware'