fix: facilitate extrinsic decoding

[ruseinov]

Summary

Fix Quip block decoding in Apps by patching @polkadot/types to respect the wire-level isSigned flag when decoding extrinsic signatures.

Why

Quip blocks can contain V5 bare inherents (0x05) alongside V4 signed transactions (0x84). Quip also uses a custom hybrid transaction signature envelope instead of the standard MultiSignature.

The upstream decoder inferred signed-ness from whether the decoded signature object looked empty. That heuristic breaks for Quip’s struct-like hybrid signature: a default struct can look non-empty even when the extrinsic version/type byte marks the extrinsic as bare/unsigned. Apps then misclassifies a bare V5 inherent as signed V5 and fails with:

Signed Extrinsics are currently only available for ExtrinsicV4

Changes

• Add a Yarn patch for @polkadot/types@16.5.6.
• Make V4/V5 extrinsic signature wrappers trust the explicit decoded isSigned flag.
• Track .yarn/patches in git.
• Document the Quip-specific extrinsic decoding rationale in the README.

Validation

• Verified api.rpc.chain.getBlock(...) succeeds against wss://bootnode-1.testnet.quip.network:20049/rpc.
• Confirmed decoded block shape: V5 bare timestamp.set, followed by V4 signed transactions.
• Ran yarn install; it completed with existing peer warnings and optional native build warnings.

[augmentcode]

🤖 Augment PR Summary

Summary: This PR fixes Quip block decoding in Apps by patching @polkadot/types to honor the wire-level “signed” flag when interpreting extrinsics.

Changes:

• Adds a Yarn patch for @polkadot/types@16.5.6 and tracks .yarn/patches in git.
• Updates V4/V5 extrinsic signature wrappers to return isSigned based on the explicit decoded flag (rather than inferring from “empty” signature shape).
• Ensures signing paths set the signature wrapper’s signed state consistently.
• Pins @polkadot/types to the patched locator in package.json.
• Documents the Quip-specific V5 bare inherent + V4 signed transaction mix and the decoding rationale in the README.

Why: Quip blocks can mix 0x05 bare V5 inherents with 0x84 signed V4 transactions and use a struct-like hybrid signature envelope that breaks the upstream “empty signature” heuristic.

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[augmentcode]

Review completed. 1 suggestion posted.

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[augmentcode]

Using the patch: protocol can introduce a distinct package locator; it’s worth confirming the dependency graph doesn’t end up with both patched and unpatched @polkadot/types copies, since mixed instances can lead to inconsistent extrinsic decoding and/or codec type mismatches at runtime.

Severity: medium

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