ci: put the launcher's update pointer in a release, and delete the dist branch

The dist branch existed to carry ~120 MB payloads that could not go on main.
Once payloads became release attachments it held one 500-byte manifest.json,
so it was a whole branch for a reason that no longer applied.

The pointer is now a release asset too: each publish recreates a one-asset
 release naming the versioned build. Forgejo has no
/releases/latest/download/ route (404), so a pointer is still required — but
keeping it in a release means nothing about distribution lives in git: no
payload branch, no bot commits on main, and no push that could retrigger the
pipeline (which is why writing the manifest to main was not the answer either).

Recreating the tag deletes the old release AND its tag; the tag outlives its
release and would otherwise block recreation.

Versioned releases are retained, so older builds stay downloadable.
tools/publish-dist.ps1 is removed — publishing is CI's job now.

.gitea/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -136,26 +136,42 @@ jobs:
             Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Headers $headers -Uri "$api/releases/$($release.id)/assets?name=$($f.Name)" -Form @{ attachment = Get-Item $f.FullName } | Out-Null
           }
 
-      - name: Point the launcher manifest at the new release
+      - name: Republish the `latest` pointer release
         shell: pwsh
         env:
           TAG: ${{ steps.ver.outputs.version }}
           TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITEA_TOKEN }}
         run: |
           $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
-          # dist carries ONLY manifest.json (~500 bytes), force-replaced each
-          # publish, never pushed to GitHub. Payloads stay in release
-          # attachments, outside git history entirely.
-          $url = "${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}.git" -replace '^https://', "https://x:$env:TOKEN@"
-          git config --global user.email 'ci@acdream.local'
-          git config --global user.name 'acdream CI'
-          New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force dist-branch/bin | Out-Null
-          Copy-Item bin/manifest.json dist-branch/bin/manifest.json
-          Push-Location dist-branch
-          git init -q
-          git checkout -q -b dist
-          git add -f bin/manifest.json
-          git commit -q -m "release: manifest for $env:TAG"
-          git push -q --force $url dist:dist
-          Pop-Location
-          Write-Host "manifest published for $env:TAG"
+          $api = "${{ github.server_url }}/api/v1/repos/${{ github.repository }}"
+          $headers = @{ Authorization = "token $env:TOKEN" }
+
+          # Forgejo has no /releases/latest/download/ route, so the launcher
+          # needs a pointer at a URL that never changes. A one-asset release on
+          # the fixed `latest` tag is that pointer. Keeping it in a release
+          # rather than in git means no payload branch, no bot commits on main,
+          # and no push that would retrigger this workflow.
+          $existing = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Headers $headers `
+            -Uri "$api/releases/tags/latest" -SkipHttpErrorCheck
+          if ($existing.id) {
+            Invoke-RestMethod -Method Delete -Headers $headers -Uri "$api/releases/$($existing.id)" | Out-Null
+            # The tag outlives its release and would block recreation.
+            Invoke-RestMethod -Method Delete -Headers $headers -Uri "$api/tags/latest" -SkipHttpErrorCheck | Out-Null
+            Write-Host "removed the previous latest pointer"
+          }
+
+          $body = @{
+            tag_name         = 'latest'
+            name             = "Update feed -> $env:TAG"
+            body             = "Pointer the launcher polls. The downloads live in the ``$env:TAG`` release."
+            draft            = $false
+            prerelease       = $false
+            target_commitish = 'main'
+          } | ConvertTo-Json
+          $pointer = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "$api/releases" -Headers $headers `
+            -ContentType 'application/json' -Body $body
+
+          Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Headers $headers `
+            -Uri "$api/releases/$($pointer.id)/assets?name=manifest.json" `
+            -Form @{ attachment = Get-Item bin/manifest.json } | Out-Null
+          Write-Host "latest pointer now advertises $env:TAG"