[crimson-knight]

What changed and why

In 2.0.0-beta.5, require "amber" read Amber.settings and cached it. The read was in the class body of Amber::Pipe::Logger: Colorize.enabled = Amber.settings.logging.colorize. Settings were therefore loaded before an app's config/initializers could call Amber::Configuration.register. A compiled probe in a generated sqlite app showed the result: the registered custom section came back missing, and only a forced reload returned its YAML value. The early read also locked in Amber.path and Amber.env before config/application.cr could set them.

• No settings read during require. The logger class body no longer touches settings. The logger reads logging.colorize, filter and skip when the pipe is built, which happens in config/routes.cr, after the initializers. I searched the rest of src/amber/** (class bodies, constants, class property defaults, top-level code) and found no other read of Amber.settings or Amber.env that runs at require time. Codex reached the same result.
• Color without changing global state. Amber no longer sets the process-wide Colorize.enabled flag. The new Amber::Support::LogColor.paint colors Amber's own log lines according to logging.colorize. The logger, server start, error pipe and ClientReload all use it. With colorize: false, Amber's lines are plain, and an app that turns Colorize off (for example with NO_COLOR) gets plain lines everywhere. The EncryptionKeyMissing message is now plain text.
• Specs.
  • spec/amber/environment/require_time_settings_spec.cr compiles spec/fixtures/require_time_settings/probe_app.cr and runs it from an empty directory. The probe requires amber and amber/testing, then sets AMBER_ENV and Amber.path and registers a custom probe section. One example checks that the section's YAML value (from-yaml) loads. The other checks that the name and environment come from the settings path and environment the probe set after require. Either check fails if any require-time read returns. With the old class-body read restored, both examples fail (MISSING, Amber_App).
  • spec/amber/pipes/logger_spec.cr and spec/amber/support/log_color_spec.cr cover colorize: true and colorize: false, the default taken from settings, and the global flag staying unchanged.
• CI. The probe builds with CRYSTAL when it is set, and otherwise with crystal-alpha. If neither is available, it raises a clear error. The CI spec step now sets CRYSTAL: crystal, the compiler that runs the suite there.
• Action pins. This branch includes the SHA pins for actions/checkout and oprypin/install-crystal (cherry-picked 8b8f0a9c from chore(v2): clear the 25 compiler warnings so the build is GREEN #1421) so the branch passes the dependency-pin gate.

Spec result

• crystal-alpha spec: 2411 examples, 0 failures, 0 errors, 0 pending. The build is YELLOW, and only because of the 25 existing Params#validation deprecation warnings that draft PR chore(v2): clear the 25 compiler warnings so the build is GREEN #1421 clears.
• Merged with chore(v2): clear the 25 compiler warnings so the build is GREEN #1421 in a throwaway worktree: 2412 examples, 0 failures, 0 warnings: GREEN.
• crystal-alpha tool format --check passes. Ameba reports 876 findings before and after this change, none of them new. scripts/check_beta_contract.sh passes.

Codex review (gpt-6-sol, xhigh, two passes)

Pass	Severity	Finding	Resolution
1	BLOCKER	none	n/a
1	MAJOR	Building the logger and starting the server changed the process-wide Colorize.enabled	Fixed: LogColor colors per line, and Amber never writes the global flag
1	MINOR	The logger spec covered only colorize: true	Fixed: the false, true and default cases are covered, plus a check that the global flag is left alone
2	BLOCKER	none	n/a
2	MAJOR	ClientReload and EncryptionKeyMissing still colored their output directly	Fixed: ClientReload uses LogColor, and the exception message is plain text
2	MAJOR	The probe spec fell back to mainline crystal	Fixed: it uses CRYSTAL or crystal-alpha and gives a clear error when neither is found; CI sets CRYSTAL
2	MINOR	The logger spec adds /logger_spec to the shared router	Accepted: the router has no API for removing a route, existing specs draw into it the same way, and the path is used only by this spec
2	MINOR	The nil guard in the Colorize restore was dead code	Fixed: the previous value is captured before begin and always restored

Codex found no other require-time read of Amber.settings or Amber.env.

Unblocks

• M-10a (Credentials directory reader and AMBER_ overrides for custom sections (M-10a) #1423): custom sections registered in initializers now load from YAML, which the credentials reader and the AMBER_ overrides for custom sections depend on.
• amber_cli added verbs for put, patch and delete #45: its generated config/application.cr loads config/initializers first. That load order only works once require "amber" stops loading settings.