Manual deployment workflow cannot build a verification plan

Problem

The reviewed workflow_dispatch deployment path emits the intentional full manual_dispatch selection with base: null, but ci.verification plan still unconditionally runs the canonical diff against the string null. Every manual promotion therefore fails in classification before quality, image publication, migration, or deployment.

Scope

• Preserve the classifier contract that manual dispatch does not guess a base.
• Make the verification planner accept the explicit no-base manual selection and produce a valid full plan from the selected commit.
• Add focused regression coverage and run the required CI verification.
• Do not change application runtime behavior, deployment mutation semantics, or database code.

Acceptance

A manual promotion of an exact main SHA reaches the existing quality, publish, migration, deploy, and live-smoke gates; the live site must report the selected source SHA/version/image digest. No manual path may silently downgrade from the full profile.

Start at the reviewed workflow_dispatch deployment path and the ci.verification plan classification step; trace how the manual_dispatch selection and its null base are passed into the planner. Add focused regression coverage for an exact main SHA, then run the required CI verification and confirm the existing quality, publish, migration, deploy, and live-smoke gates report the selected source SHA, version, and image digest.