One reader for a declaration file, because there were three

Found raising two machines: `apply <file>` refused the bundle example in
this repository with `invalid character '/'`. The bundle strips whole-line
comments; apply handed the raw bytes to the parser. So a file this repo
ships could be built into a binary and not applied from disk.

This is the third instance of one fault. There is already a test here
named "what validates is what is applied", written when `mesh-host
bundle` said yes and `reconcile` said no about the same artefact — two
paths to one thing, disagreeing. Fixing that instance left the shape
intact, so it came back somewhere else.

So the fix is structural rather than local: `declaration.ParseFileTrusted`
is the one way to read a declaration from disk, and the bundle and apply
both use it. Comment handling and its test now live in one place, since
having them in two is how it came to be done in two.

The wire format is untouched — over the link it stays exactly JSON,
because a format with a second thing to strip is a format with a second
thing to disagree about. Asserted, and confirmed to fail if the link
starts stripping.

internal/bundle/bundle.go

@@ -78,22 +78,5 @@ func Load(system string) (*declaration.Declaration, error) {
 	// ParseTrusted: the bundle arrives with the binary, so it may carry actions the link may
 	// not (novox/hq ADR 0005). The bootstrap needs them — creating the control plane's database
 	// happens before there is any mesh to ask for one.
-	return declaration.ParseTrusted(stripComments(locks[system]))
-}
-
-// stripComments removes whole-line `//` comments so a bundle can be annotated.
-//
-// It is JSON on the wire and a pinned, hand-authored artefact here, and a pinned thing nobody
-// can annotate is a pinned thing nobody can review. Only whole lines: anything cleverer would
-// need to know where strings begin and end, and a parser that half-understands its input is
-// worse than one that does not try.
-func stripComments(raw []byte) []byte {
-	var kept []string
-	for _, line := range strings.Split(string(raw), "\n") {
-		if strings.HasPrefix(strings.TrimSpace(line), "//") {
-			continue
-		}
-		kept = append(kept, line)
-	}
-	return []byte(strings.Join(kept, "\n"))
+	return declaration.ParseFileTrusted(locks[system])
 }

internal/bundle/bundle_test.go

@@ -8,9 +8,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/novox/mesh-host/internal/declaration"
 )
 
-// declarationParse is the parser Load uses, named here so the test reads as the assertion it is.
-func declarationParse(raw []byte) (any, error) { return declaration.Parse(raw) }
-
 func TestADefaultBuildCarriesNothingAndSaysSo(t *testing.T) {
 	// The important one. A host built without a bundle that applied nothing and reported
 	// success would look exactly like a host that raised a first node — and the difference
@@ -27,36 +24,20 @@ func TestADefaultBuildCarriesNothingAndSaysSo(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestCommentsAreNotContent(t *testing.T) {
-	// The placeholder is a comment. If comments counted as content, every default build would
-	// claim to carry a substrate and then fail to parse it — the right outcome for the wrong
-	// reason, and a confusing error at the worst moment.
-	if got := stripComments([]byte("// a\n{\"a\":1}\n  // b\n")); strings.Contains(string(got), "//") {
-		t.Errorf("comments survived stripping: %q", got)
-	}
-}
-
-func TestOnlyWholeLineCommentsAreStripped(t *testing.T) {
-	// Anything cleverer would have to know where strings begin and end. A parser that
-	// half-understands its input is worse than one that does not try — a path containing a
-	// double slash is ordinary, and losing half of it would be silent.
-	raw := []byte(`{"path":"https://example.invalid/a"}`)
-	if got := string(stripComments(raw)); got != string(raw) {
-		t.Errorf("a slash inside a string was treated as a comment: %q", got)
-	}
-}
-
 func TestABundleWithContentIsParsedByTheSameParserTheLinkWillUse(t *testing.T) {
 	// A bundle that reaches a machine and is then refused by the host carrying it would be a
 	// build-time mistake found at the worst possible moment.
+	//
+	// Comment handling itself is asserted where it now lives, in `declaration`. It was here, and
+	// having it in two places is how it came to be *done* in two places.
 	real := []byte(`// pinned
 {"declaration":1,"resources":[{"id":"d","type":"directory","path":"/etc/mesh"}]}`)
-	stripped := stripComments(real)
-	if strings.Contains(string(stripped), "pinned") {
-		t.Fatal("the comment survived")
+	parsed, err := declaration.ParseFileTrusted(real)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("an annotated bundle was refused: %v", err)
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(string(stripped), "declaration") {
-		t.Fatal("the declaration did not survive")
+	if len(parsed.Resources) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("got %d resources", len(parsed.Resources))
 	}
 }
 
@@ -70,17 +51,11 @@ func TestWhatValidatesIsWhatIsApplied(t *testing.T) {
 	// return: whatever Load accepts is what gets applied, byte for byte.
 	annotated := []byte("// a comment\n" + `{"declaration":1,"resources":[{"id":"d","type":"directory","path":"/etc/mesh"}]}`)
 
-	if _, err := parseFor(annotated); err != nil {
+	if _, err := declaration.ParseFileTrusted(annotated); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("an annotated bundle was refused: %v", err)
 	}
 }
 
-// parseFor mirrors what Load does to arbitrary bytes, so the test can exercise the path
-// without rebuilding the binary with a different embedded file.
-func parseFor(raw []byte) (any, error) {
-	return declarationParse(stripComments(raw))
-}
-
 func TestEverySystemHasABundleAndAndroidsRefuses(t *testing.T) {
 	// The bundle's contents are per system even though its mechanism is not (novox/hq ADR
 	// 0060), so a host must find one built for it — and a host built for a system with no