fix(samples): rename self-improving-mastra to self-improving

[defang-sam]

The problem

Every GCP deploy of this sample failed:

Error: Invalid value for 'entity.managedZone.name':
'defang-self-improving-mastra-production-tamye7zwgmke4-defang-app'

That name is 64 characters. Google Cloud DNS caps managed zone names at 63.

Defang builds the zone name as defang- + project + - + stack + - + tenant + - + BYOC domain, so the budget for a project name is 53 - len(stack) - len(tenant) - len(byoc domain). On the production stack with a modern tenant that leaves 20 characters, and self-improving-mastra is 21.

Worth noting: the old name self-updating-mastra was 20 — it fit with zero margin. The rename in 442cf1a added the one character that broke it.

The fix

Rename to self-improving (14 characters). The zone name becomes 57, and it still fits if the stack name grows to 16 characters, which is the CLI's own advisory limit for project, service, and stack names.

Directory and compose name: move together, per CLAUDE.md.

Why the name stays explicit instead of defaulting to the directory

Dropping name: looks cleaner, but this sample deploys itself from two different working directories:

path	working directory	project name without name:
GitHub Actions	/home/runner/work/<repo>/<repo>	the repo name
Admin publish button	/workspace (Dockerfile.dev, COPY . .)	workspace

agent/src/publish.ts runs defang compose up with cwd: REPO_DIR → paths.ts LIVE_REPO, and LIVE_REPO_DIR is never set. So without an explicit name the self-redeploy would target a different Defang project than the original deploy, leaving orphaned resources. An explicit name: keeps every path pointing at one project.

Second commit: a CI bug the rename exposed

The first push failed deploy_changed_samples:

Running tests for samples: ^self-improving-mastra$
Found 0 samples from a total of 85; 0 matched, 0 excluded
failed to run tests : no results found

git diff --name-only reports a rename under its old path, so the changed-sample list named a directory that no longer exists, and the load test matched nothing and exited 1. This would break any PR that renames or deletes a sample, not just this one.

Fixed by filtering the list to directories that still exist. An empty list already takes the existing "no samples have changed" branch, so such a PR now passes instead of hard-failing.

Also in this PR

• deploy-changed-samples.yml — the skip filter matches this sample by directory name, so it moves with the rename. Without this the sample would be deployed to staging and fail on the missing TEST_ADMIN_TOKEN config.
• Root README.md — the table row path. Edited by hand rather than regenerated: scripts/generate-samples-list.js would also add a , sample tag to the other 84 rows, since the committed table predates that tag being added to the sample READMEs. The row is byte-identical to what the generator would emit for it. Happy to fold the wider fix in if you'd rather do it here.
• Consistency renames with no behaviour change: compose.dev.yaml project name, the agent's npm package name, a localStorage key, and the agent's git author email.

The README title stays "Self-Improving Mastra Todo" and Tags: still lists Mastra, so the sample stays findable by framework in the Portal and docs listings.

Verified locally

• defang compose config (nightly v3.12.4, matching CI) exits 0 and resolves name: self-improving
• ./scripts/check-sample-files.sh produces an empty checklist across all 85 samples
• npm test in scripts/ — 22/22 pass
• The changed-sample filter simulated against this branch, before and after the fix
• No remaining self-improving-mastra or self-updating references anywhere in the repo

What green here does not prove

deploy-changed-samples.yml skips this sample by name (BYOC-only, over the retired Playground staging quota), so CI never deploys it. The GCP fix still needs a real deploy to confirm — and dfng-dev-portal-testing/self-improving-mastra carries its own copy of the old compose name, so it needs regenerating from the template after merge.

Follow-ups, not in this PR

1. defang.io/workshops/self-improving-software links to samples/self-updating-mastra, which has 404'd since the July rename. Lives in defang-mvp, needs its own PR — and should point at self-improving now.
2. DefangSamples/sample-self-improving-mastra-template becomes orphaned. template-manager.js has no delete path, so it needs a manual cleanup like last time.
3. The real bug is in Defang: nothing truncates this zone name in the CLI, while the GCP CD does truncate it via hashTrim(name, 63) — so a long name either hard-fails or silently resolves to a different zone than the CD expects. The CLI's 16-character advisories also permit 48 characters against a 33-character budget. Filing separately.
4. This sample's README is the only one of 85 without the sample tag in Tags:. Pre-existing, and it may hide the sample from listings that filter on it.

Samples Checklist

✅ All good!