v3.18.0

Two merged feature trains, driven by a 4-review audit (SOTA research + performance + architecture + security) implemented by six concurrent agents.

## Performance
- **CLI startup 5–10x faster** — lazy ONNX embedder init removed a 450–2,800ms tax from every command (`--help` 0.50s → 0.09s, whole CLI back under the <500ms target)
- Batch embeddings in memory import (200-entry import: 1220ms → 115ms), local-first ruvector resolution, metaharness skills now resolve from a pinned versioned cache (`score` 0.35s, zero registry traffic)

## Security
- Killed third-party `npx metaharness@latest` (supply-chain HIGH) — pinned versioned-cache resolution with graceful degradation intact
- OTel floor-became-ceiling overrides lifted (root `npm audit --omit=dev`: 30 → **0**); grpc-js / hono / brace-expansion GHSAs cleared
- CodeQL high fixed: polynomial ReDoS in A2A card slugify (remote input) → linear scan

## GAIA integrity family (ADR-167 / 168 / 169)
- **ADR-167**: pre-submission exploit audit (AUD-1..10) + signed earning-integrity attestation — signing proves bytes; the audit proves the score was earned. Honest `harness_gap` skips where the harness can't yet supply evidence
- **ADR-168**: harness evidence recording (trajectories, tool names+args, split provenance, signed judge cache) — the forward contract that turns those skips enforceable (#2548)
- **ADR-169**: benchmark reporting integrity standard — strict-EM headlines, view-labeled scaling arms, disclosed no-work/empty rates, mandatory reproducibility blocks

## New capabilities
- `hooks_model-verify` — confidence-gated tier escalation ($0 structural verifier; route → generate → verify → escalate; feeds the routing bandit)
- Temporal validity on hierarchical memory (validFrom/validUntil + supersede-on-conflict, Zep/Graphiti-style)
- A2A Agent Cards (spec 1.0.0) — federation discovery interop at `/.well-known/agent-card.json`, ADR-166 bind posture preserved
- Execution-state-tree trajectory retrieval prototype (MAGE-style) behind `strategy: "state-tree"`
- `metaharness evolve --diagnose` — GEPA failure-class diagnosis
- Browser session recording fixed end-to-end (trajectory flags were invalid on every prior ruvector version)

## Validation
tsc clean · MCP contract 171/171 (15 metaharness tools) · plugin smoke 122/122 · memory 442/442 · federation 600/600 · root audit 0 vulnerabilities · CI fully green on merged main (incl. the #2552 lockfile hotfix that had 25 main jobs red)

PRs: #2543, #2547, #2552 · Issues: #2542, #2548 · Previous: v3.17.0 (metaharness learn + gepa)