Provider diagnostics should load gbrain.env like updater and plugins

[100yenadmin]

TL;DR

gbrain providers test can report Embedding provider not configured in a raw shell even though the installed Eva Brain runtime is healthy, searchable, and the updater/OpenClaw/Codex plugin paths correctly load ~/.gbrain/gbrain.env. This is not blocking eva-v0.42.47.3, but it is a confusing diagnostic footgun for agents and operators.

Why it matters

Before fleet rollout, we validated the actual runtime path:

flowchart LR
  A[Updater / OpenClaw plugin / Codex plugin] --> B[Load ~/.gbrain/gbrain.env]
  B --> C[Voyage 4 Large 2048d provider]
  C --> D[GBrain search/query works]

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That path works and reports 2048 dims.

But a raw shell can do this instead:

flowchart LR
  A[Raw operator shell] --> B[Does not source ~/.gbrain/gbrain.env]
  B --> C[gbrain providers test]
  C --> D[False-looking missing provider error]

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Because agents often use raw shell commands during diagnostics, this can create false negatives even when GBrain is actually callable.

Evidence

Release/local checkpoint: eva-v0.42.47.3.

Works when env is loaded by updater/plugin path:

Probing embedding provider...
  ✓ 434ms, 2048 dims

All probes green.

Raw retrieval works even without provider env because the indexed brain is already searchable:

env -u VOYAGE_API_KEY -u OPENAI_API_KEY gbrain query \
  "Customer Support KB Agent Protocol openclaw-support-kb" \
  --source openclaw-support-kb --limit 1

returns:

[1.0000] agents -- # Customer Support KB Agent Protocol

But raw provider diagnostics fail:

env -u VOYAGE_API_KEY -u OPENAI_API_KEY gbrain providers test

returns:

Embedding provider not configured or not ready. Run `gbrain providers list` to see status.

gbrain providers list then shows Voyage missing VOYAGE_API_KEY, because the raw shell did not source ~/.gbrain/gbrain.env.

Expected behavior

One of these should be true:

1. providers test loads the same configured env file used by updater/plugin runtime before deciding configured provider readiness, or
2. providers test emits an explicit hint such as: ~/.gbrain/gbrain.env was not loaded; source it or run through the Eva updater/plugin runtime.

Preferred fix: load the configured env file consistently for diagnostics, without mutating global process env more broadly than existing CLI conventions allow.

Acceptance criteria

• Raw gbrain providers test from an Eva install can validate the configured Voyage 2048d provider when ~/.gbrain/gbrain.env exists.
• If env loading is intentionally not supported for this command, the command prints a clear operator hint instead of a generic missing provider failure.
• Regression coverage proves the updater/plugin configured-provider path and raw diagnostic path do not diverge silently.