fix: replace bare asserts with explicit exceptions (P0 — python -O survival)

[AlexFucuson9]

Summary

Replace bare assert statements with explicit exceptions that survive python -O (optimized mode).

Problem

Bare assert statements are stripped silently when Python runs with -O flag. This means critical runtime guards (WebSocket connections, session initialization, container state) simply disappear in production, leading to confusing AttributeError or NoneType crashes with no useful error message.

Changes

File	Guard	Fix
tools/browser_supervisor.py	assert self._ws is not None in _read_loop	if ... raise RuntimeError
plugins/google_meet/realtime/openai_client.py	assert self._ws in _send_json and _recv	if ... raise RuntimeError
gateway/relay/ws_transport.py	assert self._ws in _read_loop	if ... raise RuntimeError
tools/environments/docker.py	assert self._container_id in exec_bash	if not ... raise RuntimeError
gateway/platforms/weixin.py	4 session/tensor asserts in poll/send methods	if ... raise RuntimeError
tools/skill_manager_tool.py	3 target asserts in write/patch/remove ops	if ... return error dict

Impact

• P0: All 12 fixed asserts were in critical runtime paths (WebSocket I/O, container execution, message polling)
• All checks already existed but would vanish under -O, creating false confidence
• Explicit exceptions provide clear error messages and always execute regardless of optimization level

Testing

All 6 files pass python3 -m py_compile verification.

[tonydwb]

Code Review Summary

Verdict: Comment (LGTM)

P0 critical fix: replaces bare assert statements with explicit RuntimeError exceptions. This ensures assertions are not stripped by python -O (optimization flag). The changes span 6 files covering critical initialization and state checks in async/web code paths (WeChat, WebSocket, Google Meet, browser supervisor, Docker).

What looks good:

• Properly converts validation assertions to actual runtime checks
• Each replacement includes a descriptive error message
• Covers critical initialization guards that would cause cryptic failures if stripped

[teknium1]

Thanks for addressing a real runtime-safety issue. Current GitHub main still contains the exact bare assertions this PR targets, including tools/browser_supervisor.py:851, gateway/relay/ws_transport.py:607, plugins/google_meet/realtime/openai_client.py:224, and tools/environments/docker.py:1061.

Problems

• The PR has no regression tests. The diff changes only the six production files, and the current test suite has no coverage for the new error messages or python -O execution. The PR’s stated guarantee should be tested under optimized execution, since normal-mode tests would not catch assertion stripping.

Suggested changes

• Add focused tests for the uninitialized WebSocket/session/container/skill-target paths, with at least one optimized-interpreter regression path using sys.executable -O.

Automated hermes-sweeper review.