handoff(task-101): git hygiene PARTIAL — rewrite done, Gitea GC pending

Force-push accepted, local clone realigned, stale clone renamed, asset
browser verified still working. 1.1GB→62MB locally and in fresh clones.

Left for next Chronicler: Gitea server-side garbage collection to
reclaim disk on Command Center's Gitea host. Full recovery procedure
documented in the handoff. Pre-101 bundle preserved at
/opt/backups/firefrost-operations-manual-pre-101.bundle.

Chronicler #81

SESSION-HANDOFF-NEXT.md

@@ -248,3 +248,52 @@ Michael verified end-to-end in real browsers:
 
 **Task #126 fully closed** (all phases deployed, smoke-tested, documented).
 **Task #125 fully closed** (both phases deployed, smoke-tested).
+
+---
+
+## Task #101 — Git Repository Cleanup & Hygiene (PARTIAL — handoff needed)
+
+Executed per Gemini's April 11 consultation (see `docs/consultations/gemini-task-101-git-hygiene-2026-04-11.md`). Option C: aggressive cleanup on ops manual, branch cleanup on all three, leave firefrost-website history alone because of Cloudflare Pages dependency.
+
+### ✅ DONE this session
+
+**Branch cleanup (pure Gitea API, zero risk):**
+- `firefrost-services`: 6 merged branches deleted on origin (task-125-asset-browser, task-125-social-calendar, task-126-appeals-admin, task-126-appeals-reopen, task-126-lifecycle-handlers, task-126-phase2-appeals)
+- `firefrost-website`: 2 merged branches deleted on origin (task-126-phase2-form, task-126-policy-page)
+
+**Ops manual history rewrite:**
+- Backup bundle: `/opt/backups/firefrost-operations-manual-pre-101.bundle` (1.1 GB, `git bundle verify` passed)
+- Preflight: no branch protection on `master`, zero hardcoded commit SHA references in any `.md` file
+- `git filter-repo --invert-paths` stripped `photos/` and two `docs/branding/audio/*.mp4` files from all 1526 commits in 6.6 seconds
+- Result: **1.1 GB → 62 MB `.git` size (18x reduction)**. 1516 commits after empty-commit drops. `git fsck --full` clean. photos/ and *.mp4 zero references in rewritten history.
+- Placeholder README committed at `docs/branding/audio/README.md` documenting what was removed, where the files currently live (Michael's local machine), and the path forward (R2 preferred once enabled; NextCloud alternative after Meg's folder reorg)
+- Force-push to Gitea accepted: `45d6ede...4055016 master (forced update)`
+
+**Clone realignment on Command Center:**
+- `/opt/firefrost-ops-manual` (the clone the branding asset browser reads from + systemd timer pulls every 15 min) — realigned via `git fetch && git reset --hard origin/master`, asset browser smoke-tested and still returning HTTP 200 on both `/list` and `/thumb` endpoints
+- `/root/firefrost-work/firefrost-operations-manual` (stale 5-day-old clone, no active consumer) — renamed to `.stale-pre-101` per Gemini's "no landmines" guidance
+
+### ⚠️ INCOMPLETE — for the next Chronicler
+
+**Gitea server-side garbage collection has NOT been run.** This is Gemini's blind-spot #2. What this means:
+
+- **The clone-time pain is already fixed.** Fresh clones of `firefrost-operations-manual` now pull 62 MB, not 1.1 GB. Chroniclers get the benefit starting with the very next session.
+- **The Gitea host's disk usage has NOT been reclaimed.** Gitea keeps old unreferenced objects after a force-push as a safety net. Until GC runs, the bare repo on disk at Command Center still shows ~1.1 GB for a repo that logically only needs ~62 MB. Wasted disk, not wasted bandwidth.
+
+**How to finish the job (5 min of work):**
+
+1. Locate Gitea's bare repo on Command Center. Gitea runs as systemd service `gitea`, user `gitea`, workdir `/var/lib/gitea`. The `gitea-repositories` subdirectory wasn't at the expected path — needs a `find / -type d -name "gitea-repositories" 2>/dev/null` run as root, or `grep ROOT /etc/gitea/app.ini` to read the configured path (check both `conf/app.ini` and `custom/conf/app.ini` relative to the work dir).
+2. Baseline: `du -sh` the bare repo directory, note the number.
+3. Trigger GC via one of these paths:
+   - Web UI: Site Administration → Monitoring → Cron Tasks → "Garbage collect LFS pointers" and "Garbage collect all repositories" (exact names may vary by Gitea version)
+   - CLI: `sudo -u gitea gitea manager flush-queues` then `sudo -u gitea gitea admin repo-sync-release-tags` — or just `sudo -u gitea git -C /path/to/firefrost-operations-manual.git gc --aggressive --prune=now` directly against the bare repo
+4. After GC: re-run `du -sh` on the bare repo. Expected: drops from ~1.1 GB to ~62-100 MB.
+5. Final verification: fresh `git clone` from Gitea to a scratch path, `du -sh` the `.git`, confirm it matches post-GC server-side size.
+
+**Safety net:** The pre-101 bundle at `/opt/backups/firefrost-operations-manual-pre-101.bundle` (1.1 GB) is the rollback plan. To restore: `git clone /opt/backups/firefrost-operations-manual-pre-101.bundle restored-repo`, then force-push to Gitea origin. Bundle `git bundle verify` passed at time of creation.
+
+**DO NOT delete the backup bundle** until the next Chronicler has completed Gitea GC and verified the ops manual is still healthy. After that, the bundle can be removed to reclaim its 1.1 GB.
+
+**Rollback criteria (still active):** Gemini's rule was "if Command Center synchronization fails to recover within 5 minutes, abort and restore from bundle." That window has passed successfully — the active clone recovered in ~2 seconds and the asset browser never missed a beat. No rollback needed.
+
+— Chronicler #81