PR maintenance now keeps signed, repository-bound attempt state instead of inferring retry budgets from commit messages. Human changes or an authorized retry start an episode; bot pushes and base movement retain its limits. Lost publication results still consume a repair, and repeated verified CI failures escalate to a human.

The fixed state branch uses an exact previous-file SHA for updates. This layer does not enable automation.

Validation: focused state/store tests, including lost results, retry limits, publication observations, malformed envelopes, and concurrent update protection. Independently reviewed.