Best possible solution:

Land the focused diagnostic fix once the current-head checks are understood or green and maintainer review is satisfied.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

Yes, from source inspection rather than a live run: current main can throw generic unavailable/no-configured-channel output and omit missing-plugin status rows when configured Feishu or WhatsApp has no installed owner. The linked reports at #78702 and #78593 provide real upgrade symptoms.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

Yes; the PR uses the existing official external catalog and configured-channel presence policy to add repair hints only for no-owner cases while preserving blocked, disabled, untrusted, and installed-but-unconfigured paths.

What I checked:

• Live PR metadata: The GitHub API shows this PR is open, not draft, unmerged, authored by a MEMBER, labeled maintainer, and currently at head 424f8bbaf4cb489f0d6a0396bd4094f6b0981ab4. (424f8bbaf4cb)
• Current main outbound error is generic: Current main throws Channel is unavailable: <channel> when an explicit known channel has no resolved outbound plugin, with no install or doctor repair hint. (src/infra/outbound/channel-selection.ts:176, 6ef7fa08afd6)
• Current main status omits missing plugin rows: Current main builds the channel table by iterating resolved read-only channel plugins, so a configured external channel with no owner is not rendered as its own repair row. (src/commands/status-all/channels.ts:275, 6ef7fa08afd6)
• Repair hints are gated to no-owner cases: The PR helper resolves official external install hints but returns them only when configured-channel presence policy reports exactly no-channel-owner, avoiding allowlist, disabled, untrusted, or active owner paths. (src/plugins/official-external-plugin-repair-hints.ts:53, 424f8bbaf4cb)
• Status output gains repair rows: The PR appends missing official external plugin warning rows after resolved channel rows, using configured channel ids and the new no-owner repair hint helper. (src/commands/status-all/channels.ts:487, 424f8bbaf4cb)
• Outbound selection gains repair errors: The PR augments explicit unavailable-channel and no-available-channel errors with the official external plugin repair hint when the configured channel has no owner. (src/infra/outbound/channel-selection.ts:225, 424f8bbaf4cb)

Likely related people:

• vincentkoc: Merged history shows prior ownership of the official external plugin catalog and official channel package discovery paths that this PR extends. (role: recent feature owner; confidence: high; commits: d4268b1b2b74, 4781b46056e8, b5affa64b3bb; files: src/plugins/official-external-plugin-catalog.ts, scripts/lib/official-external-channel-catalog.json, src/channels/plugins/read-only.ts)
• shakkernerd: Recent merged metadata discovery work shapes the read-only plugin resolution and outbound channel selection path used by the PR. (role: recent maintainer; confidence: medium; commits: a7cc9e8a56fe; files: src/infra/outbound/channel-selection.ts, src/channels/plugins/read-only.ts)
• steipete: Recent history includes outbound channel error simplification and plugin metadata snapshot refactors adjacent to the changed surfaces. (role: adjacent owner; confidence: medium; commits: 4c0f6f8ce154, 2f44ffc8a75f; files: src/infra/outbound/channel-selection.ts, src/channels/plugins/read-only.ts, src/commands/status-all/channels.ts)
• gumadeiras: Recent channel presence gating work affects the configured-channel policy helper that the PR now uses to decide whether reinstall hints are appropriate. (role: adjacent owner; confidence: medium; commits: f4478a142a41; files: src/plugins/channel-presence-policy.ts, src/plugins/channel-plugin-ids.ts)

Remaining risk / open question:

• Exact-head GitHub check runs include failures in broader CI lanes, so maintainers should triage or rerun those before merge.
• This was a read-only review; I did not run the PR branch tests locally or perform a live upgrade scenario.

Codex review notes: model gpt-5.5, reasoning high; reviewed against 6ef7fa08afd6.