The slim whisper bundle is ggml-less and links the ggml runtime out of the
installed llama.cpp prebuilt, so each whisper release pins a paired llama tag.
The gate required an exact tag match, but llama fork tags are
b<upstream_build>-mix-<ggml_commit> and the build number tracks upstream llama
and fork PRs that live outside ggml. When llama republishes a newer build with
the same ggml commit (a frequent event), the installed llama advances past the
whisper pin and curated dictation goes unavailable until whisper is republished,
even though the ggml runtime is ABI-identical.
Key the pairing gate on the ggml commit after -mix- instead of the full tag, in
all three comparison sites (slim_pairing_for_artifact,
_slim_release_incompatibility, resolve_selection). requires_ggml_sonames stays
the real per-file ABI gate, and a genuine ggml skew still fails closed. Tags
without a -mix- marker fall back to exact matching.