core: a bounded ladder of intermediate prompt-cache checkpoints - #1953

Node.js 20 is deprecated. The following actions target Node.js 20 but are being forced to run on Node.js 24: actions/checkout@11d5960a326750d5838078e36cf38b85af677262, mlugg/setup-zig@d1434d08867e3ee9daa34448df10607b98908d29. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-19-deprecation-of-node-20-on-github-actions-runners/

Due to capacity constraints, jobs targeting macOS arm64 runners may experience longer queue times.