proto-bump

Changes the upstream Meshtastic protobufs Maven pin. Protobuf models are not generated in this repo — they come from org.meshtastic:protobufs (Square Wire–built KMP models), pinned as meshtastic-protobufs in gradle/libs.versions.toml. A bump is a catalog edit + verification, never a hand-edit of generated proto.

Renovate already does routine bumps. It watches for both tagged releases and commit snapshots (.github/renovate.json accepts only X.Y.Z and X.Y.Z.N-g<sha>-SNAPSHOT) and automerges them. Use this skill when a bump needs call-site adaptation, or to pin a specific upstream commit before Renovate picks it up.

The two version forms

A commit snapshot sorts above its base tag and below the next release, so it outranks the tagged protobufs that takpacket-sdk and other dependencies carry transitively and Gradle resolves the pin without a forced version. Never pin a bare -SNAPSHOT or a legacy hyphen-SHA snapshot (2.7.26-678281c-SNAPSHOT).

Steps

1. Read the current pin. Pick the target: a tag from https://github.com/meshtastic/protobufs/releases, or the snapshot for the protobufs commit you need (git describe --tags --long on that commit gives vX.Y.Z-N-g<sha>, written X.Y.Z.N-g<sha>-SNAPSHOT).
2. Set meshtastic-protobufs = "<version>".
3. Verify (below), including test/allTests.
4. Audit the new additive surface (below).
5. Open the PR. Leave values/schema_strings.xml alone: the Protobufs Bump workflow comments on the PR with the upstream PRs, the .proto delta and the settings strings that change, and the scheduled-updates run the merge triggers on main regenerates the file. Run ./gradlew :schema-strings:sync only when a call site in this PR needs a new schema_ key.

Verification (don't skip test/allTests)

Dispatch the gradle-runner subagent (keep the heavy log out of context):

• kmpSmokeCompile + a broad compile of proto-consuming modules (core:*, feature:*) — catches compile-time breaking changes (renamed/removed fields, changed oneof shapes).
• test and allTests: a dependency that resolves a different protobufs on the runtime classpath than the one compiled against fails only here, as NoSuchFieldError/NoSuchMethodError on the proto classes. assembleDebug and detekt do not catch it.

Triage each compile/test failure: adapt this repo's call sites, or, if a break is unexpected, stop and report rather than papering over it.

Audit the new additive surface (recommended)

New proto versions usually add fields/messages the app doesn't consume yet. Diff the new surface against current usage and list what became implementable. Verify each reference directly: automated gap-lists for this repo are often wrong. Treat the list as candidates, not facts; don't implement them in this PR unless asked.

PR + guardrails

• Write the PR per CONTRIBUTING.md → Pull Requests: WHY-first; 🧹 Chores for a routine catalog bump, since that is where CONTRIBUTING.md puts dependencies — 🛠️ only when the bump carries call-site adaptations of its own, 🌟 if it unlocks a user-facing feature; link the upstream compare or release notes (real URL only); "Testing Performed" = the gradle-runner run including allTests.
• Never hand-edit or vendor generated proto — this repo consumes the Maven artifact only.
• Keep the change minimal: a bump PR is a catalog edit + necessary call-site adaptations, not a feature.
• Branch off main unless told otherwise.