Tests: issue-517 handoff

Run on commit 0748cd25 (branch the-loop/issue-517-handoff), 2026-10-22, from the repository root.

make check (T12, plus T1–T3, T6, T8, T10 inside make test)

The lint, markdownlint, format-check, typecheck (pyright, 0 errors) and validate stages passed. The test stage reported:

22 failed, 6666 passed, 2 warnings in 272.13s (0:04:32)

The 22 failures fail identically on main on this machine, and CI on main is green. They come from this operator machine's environment: the tests read the live operator cli-config.yaml and the running the-loop service, and none of them touches this change. They are in test_poll_status (13), test_poll_command (4), test_instances_cmd (2), test_lifecycle_cmd, test_critics and test_ask_reply_integration (1 each). The PR's own CI run is the clean-environment proof.

The issue-517 test files and the suites they changed

cd cli && uv run python -m pytest -q tests/test_handoff_record.py tests/test_handoff_state.py \
  tests/test_handoff_cmd.py tests/test_import_handoff.py tests/test_handoff_pickup.py \
  tests/test_handoff_selection.py tests/test_jira_api.py tests/test_jira_verbs.py \
  tests/test_jira_integration.py tests/test_mcp_integration.py tests/test_manager_integration.py \
  tests/test_state_portability.py tests/test_eventlog.py tests/test_pdlc_e2e
321 passed in 13.09s

Row	New tests
T1, T6, T8	test_handoff_record.py (92): parse/render round trips, every rejection, STAGE_ENTRY, parts at 65,536, snapshots, abuse cases 1–2
T1, T10	test_handoff_state.py (11): requiresHandoff, no-handoff skip, legacy state byte-identical
T2, T8	test_handoff_cmd.py (23): post, show, import (tampered, missing part, --from-dir), note
T1, T2, T8	test_import_handoff.py (17): demotion order, shape/hash refusal, approved-in-chat lock, instructions in a body
T2, T8	test_handoff_pickup.py (19): branch checkout, unauthorized record, late record, Jira mirror, graph context
T2, T6	test_handoff_selection.py (19): checklist snapshot, the five R6-table walks, no-handoff byte-identical
T2, T3	Jira/MCP/manager/route contract cases for issueType and parent

make validate (T10)

VALID   .the-loop/cli-config.yaml
VALID   skills/the-loop/templates/cli-config.yaml
VALID   skills/the-loop/templates/gateway-config.yaml