compat: stop mangling refusal messages with HTML escapes

The server's 426 body reached the user as "needs \u003e= 0.2.0, \u003c 1.0.0":
Go escapes <, > and & by default for JSON destined for a page, which this is
not. Disabled at the encoder. The client now parses the error field rather than
pattern-matching it, so it survives whatever a future encoder decides to escape.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

echolot-app/core-engine/src/test/kotlin/app/echo_lot/engine/LiveCompatTest.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Echolot contributors
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
+
+package app.echo_lot.engine
+
+import app.echo_lot.protocol.Compat
+import app.echo_lot.protocol.ControlClient
+import app.echo_lot.protocol.VersionRefused
+import kotlin.test.Test
+import kotlin.test.assertEquals
+import kotlin.test.assertNotNull
+import kotlin.test.assertTrue
+import kotlin.test.fail
+
+/**
+ * Checks the version gate against a LIVE server — the half that unit tests cannot reach, because
+ * the whole point is that two independently-built artifacts agree. Self-skips without
+ * ECHOLOT_LIVE_*.
+ */
+class LiveCompatTest {
+
+    private val url = System.getenv("ECHOLOT_LIVE_URL")
+    private val pin = System.getenv("ECHOLOT_LIVE_PIN")
+    private val cred = System.getenv("ECHOLOT_LIVE_CRED")
+
+    private fun clientAs(version: String) = ControlClient(url!!, setOf(pin!!), version)
+
+    @Test
+    fun theServerAdvertisesAndEnforcesItsWindow() {
+        if (url == null || pin == null || cred == null) {
+            println("LiveCompatTest skipped (no ECHOLOT_LIVE_* env)"); return
+        }
+
+        // The profile must state the window — without it the app cannot pre-empt a refusal.
+        val profile = clientAs("0.2.0").profile(cred)
+        println("server ${profile.serverVersion} protocol=${profile.compat.protocolVersion} " +
+            "accepts app [${profile.compat.appMin}, ${profile.compat.appMax})")
+        assertTrue(profile.compat.protocolVersion.isNotBlank(), "profile omits protocol_version")
+        assertTrue(profile.compat.appMin.isNotBlank(), "profile omits app_min")
+
+        // This build must be inside it, or every other live test here is meaningless.
+        val verdict = Compat.check(profile, "0.2.0")
+        assertEquals(Compat.Verdict.OK, verdict.verdict, verdict.message ?: "")
+
+        // The profile stays reachable for a version the server would otherwise refuse: that is
+        // how a refused client discovers what it needs.
+        val ancient = clientAs("0.1.0")
+        val stillReadable = ancient.profile(cred)
+        assertEquals(profile.serverVersion, stillReadable.serverVersion,
+            "the profile endpoint must never be gated on app version")
+
+        // And a gated endpoint refuses it, with a message naming the window.
+        try {
+            ancient.createSession(cred, System.getenv("ECHOLOT_LIVE_TARGET") ?: "fmr")
+            fail("server accepted a session from an out-of-window app")
+        } catch (e: VersionRefused) {
+            val msg = assertNotNull(e.message)
+            println("refused as expected: $msg")
+            assertTrue(msg.contains("0.1.0"), "refusal should name the offending version: $msg")
+            assertTrue(msg.contains(profile.compat.appMin), "refusal should name the window: $msg")
+        }
+
+        // Too new is refused the same way — the window is a range, not a floor.
+        try {
+            clientAs("99.0.0").createSession(cred, System.getenv("ECHOLOT_LIVE_TARGET") ?: "fmr")
+            fail("server accepted a session from an app above its window")
+        } catch (e: VersionRefused) {
+            println("too-new refused as expected: ${e.message}")
+        }
+    }
+}

echolot-app/core-protocol/src/main/kotlin/app/echo_lot/protocol/ControlClient.kt

@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 package app.echo_lot.protocol
 
 import kotlinx.serialization.json.Json
+import kotlinx.serialization.json.jsonObject
+import kotlinx.serialization.json.jsonPrimitive
 import java.net.URL
 import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection
 
@@ -59,13 +61,16 @@ class ControlClient(
         if (conn.responseCode == 426) throw VersionRefused(extractError(body) ?: body.take(200))
     }
 
-    /** Pulls the "error" string out of a JSON body without pulling in a parser for one field. */
-    private fun extractError(body: String): String? =
-        Regex(""""error"\s*:\s*"((?:[^"\\]|\\.)*)"""").find(body)
-            ?.groupValues?.get(1)
-            ?.replace("\\\"", "\"")
-            ?.replace("\\n", "\n")
-            ?.replace("\\\\", "\\")
+    /**
+     * Pulls the "error" string out of a JSON body.
+     *
+     * Parsed rather than pattern-matched: an encoder may legitimately escape characters in the
+     * message (Go escapes ">" by default), and a regex hands the user "needs \u003e= 0.2.0".
+     * The parser knows how to undo every escape; a regex would have to be taught each one.
+     */
+    private fun extractError(body: String): String? = runCatching {
+        json.parseToJsonElement(body).jsonObject["error"]?.jsonPrimitive?.content
+    }.getOrNull()
 
     /**
      * Reads the response body, and turns a 426 into [VersionRefused] first.

server/internal/compat/compat.go

@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ func Check(peer string, r Range, peerName string) (Verdict, string) {
 		return TooOld, fmt.Sprintf("%s %s is older than this build supports (needs %s). Update the %s.",
 			peerName, v, r, peerName)
 	case r.HasMax && !v.Less(r.Max):
-		return TooNew, fmt.Sprintf("%s %s is newer than this build supports (accepts %s). Update this side, or point at a %s within range.",
+		return TooNew, fmt.Sprintf("%s %s is newer than this build supports (accepts %s). Update this side, or use a version of the %s within that range.",
 			peerName, v, r, peerName)
 	}
 	return OK, ""

server/internal/control/control.go

@@ -430,7 +430,12 @@ func bearer(r *http.Request) string {
 func writeJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, code int, v any) {
 	w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
 	w.WriteHeader(code)
-	_ = json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(v)
+	enc := json.NewEncoder(w)
+	// Go escapes <, > and & by default, for JSON embedded in HTML. This is an API, and the
+	// escaping is actively harmful here: a refusal message reading "needs >= 0.2.0" is what
+	// the user ends up seeing. Nothing we emit is ever interpolated into a page.
+	enc.SetEscapeHTML(false)
+	_ = enc.Encode(v)
 }
 
 // enroll redeems a single-use enrollment token for a device credential (§2.1).