Bust the Docker layer cache for the gate steps (closes #32)

script/cibuild and script/docker were bare docker build invocations
with no cache control, and the Dockerfile copies the tree before
running its gates. On an unchanged tree Docker served those layers
from cache, so the gates never executed and the build still exited 0.
A merge commit here has a tree byte-identical to the branch head it
merges, so every merge CI run was almost certainly a full cache hit,
and PR #31's reviewer caught make docker returning success as a
17-layer cache hit that proved nothing.

Declare ARG CHECK_EPOCH in both stages and have the scripts pass
--build-arg CHECK_EPOCH="$(date +%s)". ARG is scoped per stage and
this Dockerfile has three gates across two of them (make fmt-check and
make lint in the lint stage, make check in the build stage), so one
declaration would have left a stage silently cacheable. BuildKit
hashes the expanded command rather than the declaration, so each gate
RUN echoes the epoch: an unreferenced ARG invalidates nothing, and the
echo doubles as evidence in the build log that the layer really ran.

Both declarations sit below the dependency layers, so the pinned base
images, go mod download, apk add and the source copies keep their
cache and only the gates go cold. The build-stage declaration sits
after USER, so the drop to the unprivileged builder user still happens
before make check and the chmod(0) permission tests stay real.

TODO.md

@@ -29,6 +29,47 @@
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- bust the Docker layer cache for the gate steps, so `script/cibuild`
+  and `script/docker` cannot report a green they did not earn
+  (2026-08-09, branch `cibuild-cache-bust`, closes #32): both scripts
+  were bare `docker build` invocations with no cache control, and the
+  `Dockerfile` copies the tree before running its gates, so on an
+  unchanged tree Docker served those layers from cache and the build
+  exited 0 having executed nothing. That is not hypothetical here —
+  every merge this repo has done is a non-fast-forward merge of an
+  undiverged branch, so each merge commit's tree is byte-identical to
+  the branch head's and each merge CI run was almost certainly a full
+  cache hit; and PR #31's reviewer found `make docker` returning
+  success as a 17-layer cache hit, catching it only by being
+  suspicious. The fix is `ARG CHECK_EPOCH` with the scripts passing
+  `--build-arg CHECK_EPOCH="$(date +%s)"`. Two details make or break
+  it. `ARG` is scoped per stage and this `Dockerfile` has three gates
+  across two — `make fmt-check` and `make lint` in the lint stage,
+  `make check` in the build stage — so a single declaration would have
+  left one stage silently cacheable; it is declared in both. And
+  BuildKit hashes the expanded command, not the declaration, so a
+  declared-but-unreferenced `ARG` invalidates nothing: each gate `RUN`
+  echoes the epoch, which also puts the value in the build log as
+  evidence the layer really ran. Placement is below the dependency
+  layers on purpose — a build that goes cold every time would be a
+  different bug, not a fix. Verified by running each script twice back
+  to back on an unchanged tree under `BUILDKIT_PROGRESS=plain`: all
+  three gates executed on all four runs, each with a fresh epoch in
+  the log (`script/cibuild` 78.8s then 61.1s; `script/docker` 61.1s
+  then 53.4s), and twelve steps were still served `CACHED` in the
+  steady state — both `go mod download`s, `apk add`, `adduser`, the
+  `chown`, every `go.mod`/`go.sum` and source copy, the linter copy
+  out of the lint stage, and the binary copy into the runtime stage.
+  The lint stage still gates the build stage: with a deliberate
+  `unused` finding planted in the tree, the build failed at
+  `make lint` in 36.1s and the build-stage `make check` never started.
+  The build stage also still drops to the unprivileged `builder` user
+  before `make check`, which the suite depends on rather than merely
+  prefers: forcing the same image to run the tests as root fails
+  `TestScanHardlinkRunFailsTogether`, because root reads straight
+  through the `chmod(0)` the test uses to prove hard links are read
+  once. This is the local fix only; propagating it to the canonical
+  templates is `prompts` #26
 - check the installed golangci-lint version in `script/bootstrap`
   instead of only its presence (2026-08-09, branch
   `bootstrap-version-check`, closes #24): `missing golangci-lint` meant