artifact-store-tools: require no artifact-store; the sweep reaches the store through the registry seats (issue 1966)

The operator's decision of 2026-11-04: the store's clean-up asks the registry seats' verbs and is no consumer of the
provision.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01JG73KJNrH5EgFXMKKYSrig

modules/artifact-store-tools/README.md

@@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ directory and the file the mesh writes there from its setting `older-store-names
 
 ## Why a module beside the store
 
-The store is the `distribution` module. A module that provides the artifact store cannot also build an
-artifact: building publishes to the store, so the store would be needed to create itself, and the
-controller's module check refuses that manifest. So the store's tools are a second module, as the
-controller's refusal says to do. **Assign it to the machine that holds the store**: its tools read the
-store's files through the store's own container, and anywhere else they answer that the container is not
-on that machine.
+The store is the `distribution` module, the registry seats' holder. These tools became a module of their own when the
+indexer's judge refused a store holder that builds an artifact; that rule is gone (issue 1966), and the sweep stays its
+own module, holding the seat `mesh-artifact-sweep`. It requires no provision: what it holds, releases and removes it
+asks the registry seats `oci-artifact-registry` and `container-image-registry` (see *The sweep through the registry
+seats*). **Assign it to the machine that holds the store**: its read tools read the store's files through the store's
+own container, and anywhere else they answer that the container is not on that machine.
 
 ## Tools
 

modules/artifact-store-tools/cmd/artifact-store-tools/main.go

@@ -3,10 +3,9 @@
 // size, and what the mesh keeps of each manifest — read from the store's own files through the store's own container,
 // and it holds the seat mesh-artifact-sweep: the keep set, the sweep at each build's end, and S25's image-missing.
 //
-// **A module beside the store, not the store's own.** A module that provides the artifact store cannot also build an
-// artifact: building publishes to the store, so the store would be needed to create itself. So these tools are a
-// second module, assigned to the machine that holds the store. stdout is the protocol; what this bundle says, it says
-// on stderr.
+// **A module beside the store, not the store's own.** It requires no provision: what it holds and removes it asks the
+// registry seats (sweepseats.go), and it is assigned to the machine that holds the store, whose container its read
+// tools read through. stdout is the protocol; what this bundle says, it says on stderr.
 package main
 
 import (

modules/artifact-store-tools/cmd/artifact-store-tools/store_test.go

@@ -449,6 +449,7 @@ func TestTheToolsServedAreTheToolsTheManifestNames(t *testing.T) {
 		Invokes  []string `json:"invokes"`
 		Reads    []string `json:"reads"`
 		Consumes []string `json:"consumes"`
+		Requires []any    `json:"requires"`
 		Claims   []struct {
 			Name   string   `json:"name"`
 			Serves []string `json:"serves"`
@@ -484,6 +485,11 @@ func TestTheToolsServedAreTheToolsTheManifestNames(t *testing.T) {
 		slices.Contains(m.Reads, WantsRead) || slices.Contains(m.Reads, ManifestsRead) {
 		t.Errorf("consumes %v, reads %v", m.Consumes, m.Reads)
 	}
+	// The operator, 2026-11-04 (issue 1966): it reaches the store through the registry seats' verbs, and requires no
+	// provision artifact-store.
+	if len(m.Requires) != 0 {
+		t.Errorf("requires %v, want nothing: the store is reached through the registry seats", m.Requires)
+	}
 	var verbs []string
 	for _, tl := range SeatTools(&Holder{}, &Store{}) {
 		verbs = append(verbs, strings.TrimPrefix(tl.Name, catalogue.ArtifactSweepSeat+"."))

modules/artifact-store-tools/module.json

@@ -14,9 +14,6 @@
       ]
     }
   ],
-  "requires": [
-    "artifact-store"
-  ],
   "invokes": [
     "seat:mesh-hand-acts.hand-act",
     "seat:mesh-catalog.modules",