[Bug] PI_OFFLINE=0 skips update --check and reports an unreadable manifest

[jerome-benoit]

Summary

PI_OFFLINE=0 disables release-manifest fetching, unlike the boolean parsing used by the model/catalog subsystems. update --check then reports a fetch failure even when the manifest server is reachable.

Reproduced with the unmodified official v0.10.1 linux-x64 release on Linux x86_64, fresh HOME, DO_NOT_TRACK=1, no credentials and no downstream/Nix patches.

Reproduction

1. Serve {"version":"999.0.0"} at /latest.json on a local HTTP server. Set PRIME_AGENT_DOWNLOAD_BASE_URL to that server's base URL.
2. Run env -u PI_OFFLINE prime-agent update --check --stable.
3. Run PI_OFFLINE=0 prime-agent update --check --stable with the identical remaining environment.

Observed with a loopback HTTP server recording requests:

PI_OFFLINE	HTTP requests	Exit	Result
unset	GET /latest.json	0	Reports version 999.0.0; no platform build published
0	none	1	Error: could not read the stable release manifest at http://127.0.0.1:<port>/latest.json
1	none	1	Same error; control showing the intended offline short-circuit

The manifest intentionally contains no downloadable artifact; this is a read-only check and performs no installation.

Expected: PI_OFFLINE=0 behaves like the unset variable and fetches the manifest. This report does not request changing the behavior of true offline values or PI_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK.

Cause

latest_release() checks std::env::var("PI_OFFLINE").is_ok() instead of parsing its value. run_check() interprets the returned None as an unreadable manifest.

The existing pa_models::offline::is_catalog_offline() recognizes only 1, true and yes and explicitly tests 0 as false. Please use the same truth-value semantics for the release check.

[jerome-benoit]

Confirmed on the unmodified official v0.10.2 Linux x64 release, using a fresh HOME, DO_NOT_TRACK=1, and the same loopback latest.json fixture as the original report:

PI_OFFLINE	HTTP requests	Exit
unset	GET /latest.json	0
0	none	1
false	none	1
empty string	none	1
1 (control)	none	1

The false/empty cases report could not read the stable release manifest. No installation, provider request or model execution occurred. This confirms the existing report on v0.10.2; it is not a separate defect.