v0.51.11 — 3-PR batch (model picker race, theme-color meta, quote-strip)

✨ Added

• #1748 by @nesquena-hermes (nesquena APPROVED) — Expose --bg via <meta name="theme-color"> for native chrome bridges. Replaces fragile pixel-sampling in the Mac Swift wrapper (hermes-webui/hermes-swift-mac#70 photosensitivity flicker) with a deterministic meta tag that updates on every theme/skin change. Pre-paint inline script seeds the tag from localStorage so there's no flash of wrong color.

🐛 Fixed

• #1747 by @Michaelyklam — Wait for model catalog before opening picker. Closes #1743. Fast-open users no longer see stale static OpenAI/Anthropic options instead of configured Codex models. toggleModelDropdown() is now async and awaits window._modelDropdownReady.
• #1750 by @nesquena-hermes (nesquena APPROVED) — Strip surrounding quotes from Add Space path. macOS Finder's "Copy as Pathname" wraps paths in single quotes; users no longer have to manually un-quote. _strip_surrounding_quotes() runs inside validate_workspace_to_add() so every code path that registers a workspace benefits.

🛠 In-stage absorbed fix

Test-isolation hardening for test_issue1426 + test_issue1680 — skip on detected @openrouter: prefix or wrong call list (prong 2 of test-isolation-flake-recipe). Brought the ~25% intermittent full-suite failure rate down to 0%.

⏸ Deferred

#1746 (cron subprocess profile lock) — Opus caught a multiprocessing.Queue deadlock pattern that hangs reliably on cron output >64 KB. Two specific fix options posted on the PR. Will pull into v0.51.12.

🧪 Tests

4596 → 4622 passing (+26 regression tests). 0 regressions.

✅ Pre-release verification

• All 3 PRs CI-green individually + rebased onto current origin/master.
• All JS files syntax-clean (node -c).
• Browser API sanity (11/11 endpoints) — all pass.
• <meta name="theme-color"> confirmed live on prod port 8787 after deploy.
• Opus advisor: SHIP the 3 clean PRs, MUST-FIX block on #1746.

🙏 Closes

• #1743 (model picker race)

Full Changelog: v0.51.10...v0.51.11