feat(motd): source banners from pilot-changelog feed-motd.json (#285)

Move the message-of-the-day source off the bespoke pilot-motd repo and
onto pilot-changelog's existing render pipeline. The daemon now polls
feed-motd.json — the `scope: motd` per-scope output of the changelog —
where each entry's `date` is the active UTC day and `title` is the
banner text.

- internal/motd: parse the pilot-changelog feed shape (entries[].title
  -> banner text); default feed URL -> pilot-changelog feed-motd.json.
  Selection, mirroring, UTC re-validation, and the CLI banner /
  important_update / info surfaces are all unchanged.
- tests: parse the real feed-motd.json entry shape (extra fields
  ignored); updated fixtures to the new shape.
- docs/motd.md, CHANGELOG [Unreleased]: note the source move.

No user-visible behavior change; only the source feed and its shape
move. Pairs with TeoSlayer/pilot-changelog (adds the motd scope).

Co-authored-by: Alex Godoroja <alex@vulturelabs.io>

Author: Alexgodoroja

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -26,6 +26,18 @@ Reliable P2P data transfer across NAT. Tag intentionally held for review.
 - `send-file` reports `transport`, `sha256`, and `throughput_mbps`; adds
   `--timeout`.
 
+### Changed
+- **Message of the day now rides the pilot-changelog pipeline.** The daemon's
+  default MOTD source moved from the bespoke `pilot-motd` repo to
+  `pilot-changelog`'s `feed-motd.json` (the `scope: motd` per-scope output of
+  the existing changelog render pipeline). A MOTD is now authored as a
+  `scope: motd` changelog entry whose `date` is the UTC day it is active and
+  whose `title` is the banner text; motd entries are isolated from the human
+  changelog feeds (feed.json/RSS/site). No behavior change for users — the
+  banner, `important_update` field, and `motd` in `info` work exactly as
+  before; only the source feed and its shape changed. Override with
+  `--motd-feed-url` / `$PILOT_MOTD_URL` as before. (motd)
+
 ### Fixed
 - **NAT traversal now actually establishes (and holds) a direct path.** The
   relay→direct upgrade sent a one-way probe that a stateful NAT/firewall

docs/motd.md

@@ -29,7 +29,11 @@ So the work is split:
 - The **daemon** is the only component that touches the network. A background
   loop (`motdPollLoop`) fetches the feed every `--motd-interval` (default
   15m), selects the entry dated for the current UTC day, holds it in memory,
-  and **mirrors** it to `~/.pilot/motd.json`.
+  and **mirrors** it to `~/.pilot/motd.json`. The feed is the Pilot Protocol
+  changelog's message-of-the-day output (`feed-motd.json`): a `scope: motd`
+  per-scope feed where each entry's `date` is the active UTC day and its
+  `title` is the banner text. Banners are isolated from the human changelog
+  feeds, so they never appear as changelog news.
 - **`pilotctl`** reads only that local mirror — one file read — and
   re-validates the UTC day on read, so a stale mirror (e.g. the daemon was
   offline across midnight) never shows yesterday's message.

internal/motd/motd.go

@@ -35,10 +35,13 @@ import (
 
 const (
 	// DefaultFeedURL is the canonical message-of-the-day source: the raw
-	// contents of motd.json on the pilot-motd repo's default branch. A
-	// commit there propagates to every daemon on its next poll (subject to
-	// GitHub's raw CDN cache, typically a few minutes).
-	DefaultFeedURL = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pilot-protocol/pilot-motd/main/motd.json"
+	// contents of feed-motd.json on the pilot-changelog repo's default
+	// branch. That feed is the `scope: motd` per-scope output of the
+	// changelog render pipeline — each entry's `date` is the UTC day the
+	// banner is active and its `title` is the banner text. Publishing or
+	// clearing a motd entry there propagates to every daemon on its next
+	// poll (subject to GitHub's raw CDN cache, typically a few minutes).
+	DefaultFeedURL = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TeoSlayer/pilot-changelog/main/feed-motd.json"
 
 	// DefaultInterval is how often the daemon re-fetches the feed when no
 	// interval is configured.
@@ -54,17 +57,21 @@ const (
 	maxFeedBytes = 64 * 1024
 )
 
-// Message is a single dated message-of-the-day entry.
+// Message is a single dated message-of-the-day entry. It maps a
+// pilot-changelog feed entry: the entry `date` is the UTC day the banner is
+// active, and the entry `title` is the banner text.
 type Message struct {
 	Date string `json:"date"` // UTC calendar day, "YYYY-MM-DD"
-	Text string `json:"text"`
+	Text string `json:"title"`
 	ID   string `json:"id,omitempty"`
 }
 
-// Feed is the on-the-wire shape served at the feed URL.
+// Feed is the on-the-wire shape served at the feed URL — the pilot-changelog
+// per-scope feed (feed-motd.json). Only the fields the daemon needs are
+// decoded; everything else (scope, visibility, body, excerpt, …) is ignored.
 type Feed struct {
 	SchemaVersion int       `json:"schema_version"`
-	Messages      []Message `json:"messages"`
+	Entries       []Message `json:"entries"`
 }
 
 // Mirror is the local materialized "variable" the CLI reads. It holds at
@@ -129,7 +136,7 @@ func Parse(body []byte) (Feed, error) {
 // non-blank one wins — operators are expected to keep one per day.
 func SelectForToday(f Feed, now time.Time) (Message, bool) {
 	today := DayKey(now)
-	for _, m := range f.Messages {
+	for _, m := range f.Entries {
 		if strings.TrimSpace(m.Date) == today && strings.TrimSpace(m.Text) != "" {
 			return m, true
 		}

internal/motd/motd_test.go

@@ -40,26 +40,26 @@ func TestParse(t *testing.T) {
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("err: %v", err)
 		}
-		if len(f.Messages) != 0 {
-			t.Fatalf("want 0 messages, got %d", len(f.Messages))
+		if len(f.Entries) != 0 {
+			t.Fatalf("want 0 entries, got %d", len(f.Entries))
 		}
 	})
 	t.Run("good feed", func(t *testing.T) {
-		f, err := Parse([]byte(`{"schema_version":1,"messages":[{"date":"2026-06-15","text":"hi"}]}`))
+		f, err := Parse([]byte(`{"schema_version":1,"entries":[{"date":"2026-06-15","title":"hi"}]}`))
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("err: %v", err)
 		}
-		if len(f.Messages) != 1 || f.Messages[0].Text != "hi" {
+		if len(f.Entries) != 1 || f.Entries[0].Text != "hi" {
 			t.Fatalf("unexpected feed: %+v", f)
 		}
 	})
 	t.Run("unknown schema version rejected", func(t *testing.T) {
-		if _, err := Parse([]byte(`{"schema_version":99,"messages":[]}`)); err == nil {
+		if _, err := Parse([]byte(`{"schema_version":99,"entries":[]}`)); err == nil {
 			t.Fatal("want error for schema_version 99")
 		}
 	})
 	t.Run("missing schema version tolerated", func(t *testing.T) {
-		if _, err := Parse([]byte(`{"messages":[]}`)); err != nil {
+		if _, err := Parse([]byte(`{"entries":[]}`)); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("unexpected err: %v", err)
 		}
 	})
@@ -70,9 +70,50 @@ func TestParse(t *testing.T) {
 	})
 }
 
+func TestParsePilotChangelogFeedShape(t *testing.T) {
+	// The real feed-motd.json from pilot-changelog carries the full changelog
+	// entry shape. The parser must pick up date+title and ignore the rest.
+	body := []byte(`{
+	  "schema_version": 1,
+	  "latest_entry_date": "2026-06-18",
+	  "window": "scope:motd",
+	  "include_private": false,
+	  "count": 1,
+	  "entries": [
+	    {
+	      "id": "2026-06-18-motd-catalogue",
+	      "date": "2026-06-18",
+	      "scope": "motd",
+	      "visibility": "public",
+	      "title": "To view our service agents catalogue, send a message to list-agents",
+	      "flagged": false,
+	      "links": [],
+	      "ids": [],
+	      "body": "Message-of-the-day banner active on 2026-06-18 (UTC).",
+	      "excerpt": "Message-of-the-day banner active on 2026-06-18 (UTC)."
+	    }
+	  ]
+	}`)
+	f, err := Parse(body)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse: %v", err)
+	}
+	now := mustTime(t, "2026-06-18T09:00:00Z")
+	m, ok := SelectForToday(f, now)
+	if !ok {
+		t.Fatal("expected an active message")
+	}
+	if m.Text != "To view our service agents catalogue, send a message to list-agents" {
+		t.Fatalf("text = %q (should come from the entry title)", m.Text)
+	}
+	if m.Date != "2026-06-18" || m.ID != "2026-06-18-motd-catalogue" {
+		t.Fatalf("date/id not parsed: %+v", m)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestSelectForToday(t *testing.T) {
 	now := mustTime(t, "2026-06-15T12:00:00Z")
-	feed := Feed{SchemaVersion: 1, Messages: []Message{
+	feed := Feed{SchemaVersion: 1, Entries: []Message{
 		{Date: "2026-06-14", Text: "yesterday"},
 		{Date: "2026-06-15", Text: "today wins"},
 		{Date: "2026-06-15", Text: "second today, ignored"},
@@ -84,13 +125,13 @@ func TestSelectForToday(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	t.Run("no entry today", func(t *testing.T) {
-		_, ok := SelectForToday(Feed{Messages: []Message{{Date: "2026-06-14", Text: "x"}}}, now)
+		_, ok := SelectForToday(Feed{Entries: []Message{{Date: "2026-06-14", Text: "x"}}}, now)
 		if ok {
 			t.Fatal("want no active message")
 		}
 	})
 	t.Run("blank text skipped", func(t *testing.T) {
-		_, ok := SelectForToday(Feed{Messages: []Message{{Date: "2026-06-15", Text: "  "}}}, now)
+		_, ok := SelectForToday(Feed{Entries: []Message{{Date: "2026-06-15", Text: "  "}}}, now)
 		if ok {
 			t.Fatal("blank text should not be active")
 		}
@@ -170,7 +211,7 @@ func TestFetch(t *testing.T) {
 
 	t.Run("serves and selects today", func(t *testing.T) {
 		srv := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
-			w.Write([]byte(`{"schema_version":1,"messages":[{"date":"2026-06-15","text":"served"}]}`))
+			w.Write([]byte(`{"schema_version":1,"entries":[{"date":"2026-06-15","title":"served"}]}`))
 		}))
 		defer srv.Close()
 		feed, err := Fetch(context.Background(), srv.Client(), srv.URL)