Host can now fetch code directly from GitHub instead of receiving a VM-built tarball, bypassing the VM->host scp/kex failures and stale-tar risk. Design: VM sends only two small scripts (host_git_fetch.sh + host_deploy.sh, sha-verified via the existing transfer chain, now with a chunk_key fallback that does not need SSH_PASSWORD); host clones via a read-only deploy key (SSH only, HTTPS refused, key must exist with mode 0600), checks out the exact 40-char commit, verifies HEAD, builds a tar in the same format as the VM release (DEPLOYED_COMMIT + RELEASE.json, member names without ./ prefix so host_deploy.sh tar -O works), then calls the unchanged host_deploy.sh for staging swap, backup, health and rollback. Git fetch tolerates the known intermittent host->GitHub degradation: 120s timeout, 3 attempts, 10s sleep, live untouched until host_deploy runs. VM gates: clean tree, tests, commit must be on origin/main, SSH repo only, full sha only; --source tar remains the default. Tests: deploy suite OK, including 6 new host_git_fetch simulations (success with clean tar members, unknown commit, key permissions/missing, HTTPS refusal, short sha) and 4 new deploy.py git-mode helpers plus chunk_key fallback; git-mode dry-run verified against HEAD 630d14f.
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