Record Listen's Android Auto state and the pending retest

App-side verification is done and worth not repeating; what remains is a
real-car test Peter can only do when he is in the car. Notes the symptoms
precisely, because 'card appears but bounces to the phone' points somewhere
quite different from 'nothing appears', and records that developer mode is now
on so a future session does not suggest it again.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2 files changed, 37 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/MEMORY.md b/MEMORY.md
index dcdb3c3..7c70dfb 100644
--- a/MEMORY.md
+++ b/MEMORY.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 - [Delegation & context protection](feedback_delegation_and_context_protection.md) — fork vs fresh vs inline decision rule; `~/.claude/agents/verifier.md` custom agent for adversarial claim-checking without redoing work
 - [Terse manager-level updates](feedback_terse_manager_updates.md) — status updates should be outcome+next-step only, not sub-fix technical narratives
 - [User doesn't read the code](feedback_user_does_not_read_code.md) — never cite commits/diffs as evidence to Peter; explain in observable behavior, and own correctness since he won't catch errors by review
+- [Listen Android Auto](project_listen_android_auto.md) — built and app-side verified; dev mode enabled 2026-09-25, real-car retest still pending
 - [Workspace git remotes](workspace-git-remotes.md) — every repo now has a `local` remote on git.terst.org; two machines push, so fetch first
 - [Workspace layout](workspace-layout.md) — what each repo under /workspace is (listen, feedreader, podkit, devtools, ...)
 - [Listen handover 2026-09-21](listen-handover-2026-09-21.md) — queue-advance & notif skip-forward unverified by Peter; Phase 2 decisions pending
diff --git a/project_listen_android_auto.md b/project_listen_android_auto.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b82031a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/project_listen_android_auto.md
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+---
+name: project-listen-android-auto
+description: "Listen's Android Auto support is built and verified app-side but never confirmed in a real car; developer mode was enabled 2026-09-25 and the retest is pending"
+metadata:
+  node_type: memory
+  type: project
+---
+
+**Built and verified as far as is possible without a head unit**, as of 2026-09-25. Confirmed
+against the *installed* APK, not the source: the `com.google.android.gms.car.application`
+meta-data is present and points at a valid `automotive_app_desc.xml` declaring
+`<uses name="media"/>`; `PlaybackService` is exported and externally resolvable for both
+`androidx.media3.session.MediaLibraryService` and the legacy
+`android.media.browse.MediaBrowserService`; and `MediaBrowseTest` walks the whole tree over the
+real session protocol from a separate process.
+
+**Peter's symptoms, reported 2026-09-25:** Listen did not appear in Auto's media app list at
+all. Starting an episode *on the phone* did produce a now-playing card on the head unit, and
+tapping it showed a toast along the lines of "opening on your phone".
+
+That combination is diagnostic: Auto could see the media session but had no car UI it had
+approved for the app. It points at Auto's gate on sideloaded apps rather than anything in the
+manifest — a broken declaration shows nothing at all, not a card that bounces to the phone.
+
+**He enabled Android Auto's developer mode / "Unknown sources" on 2026-09-25** (Settings → Apps
+→ Android Auto → Additional settings → tap Version ~10x → Developer settings → Unknown
+sources). **The retest is pending — he expected a day or two before being in the car.**
+
+**How to apply:** if Auto comes up again, ask whether he has retested since enabling that, and
+on which build. Auto support landed in commit `8d980bb` (published 2026-09-21 22:16); anything
+earlier never had it, and his original observation may predate it. Settings now shows the
+commit, so "which build" is answerable from the phone. If developer mode is on, the build is
+`8d980bb` or later, and it still does not appear, that is genuinely new information and rules
+out the only remaining explanation — do not re-suggest developer mode.
+
+See [[project_listen_build_and_publish]] and [[workspace-git-remotes]].