### Fixes

- Thinking/providers: resolve bundled provider thinking profiles through lightweight provider policy artifacts when startup-lazy providers are not active, so OpenAI Codex GPT-5.x keeps xhigh available in Gateway session validation. Fixes #74796. Thanks @maxschachere.

- Security/Windows: ignore workspace `.env` system-path variables and resolve stale-process `taskkill.exe` from the validated Windows install root, preventing repository-local env files from redirecting cleanup helpers. Thanks @pgondhi987.

- Plugins/TTS: keep bundled speech-provider discovery available on cold package Gateway paths and add bundled plugin matrix runtime probes for health, readiness, RPC, TTS discovery, and post-ready runtime-deps watchdog coverage. Refs #75283. Thanks @vincentkoc.