fix: IBC is closed in both directions, not exit-only

[alexander-sei]

Closes PLT-898. Part of PLT-894 (removing IBC/Wormhole/airdrop remnants across all repos).

Why this one is urgent

Proposal 121 passed 2026-07-31 and set the ibc module's OutboundEnabled to false. With Props 116/120 for inbound, IBC is now closed on Sei in both directions.

This skill was written to the premise "inbound is disabled, but exiting legacy ibc/… assets still works." Prop 121 made that false everywhere it appears. And because this is an agent skill, the stale version did not just read wrong:

# ibc-bridging.md presented this as the documented exit path
seid tx ibc-transfer transfer transfer channel-0 <RECIPIENT> 1000000usei ...

An LLM reads that and emits it. The transaction fails. The file also cited only Props 115/116 and testnet #246/#247 — it had no knowledge of 120 or 121.

Approach

I rewrote ibc-bridging.md as a closed-state reference rather than deleting it — the option discussed on PLT-898. Deleting would have meant repointing four inbound links (SKILL.md, SKILL-ECOSYSTEM.md, participation-roles.md ×2), and keeping the file matches what sei-docs #51 chose with its #ibc-is-disabled section. It also keeps IBC discoverable, which matters — see the test note below.

The file's most important addition is the part users actually need: legacy ibc/… balances are neither gone nor frozen. They stay in the bank module, still transfer between Sei accounts, still work through their ERC-20 pointers, and can still be swapped on a DEX. Only the route off the chain is closed. It also now gives queries an agent can run to re-verify the parameter state rather than trusting a proposal page.

Changes

File	What
ecosystem/ibc-bridging.md	Rewritten. Exit command and exit-only framing gone; parameter state, what-is-no-longer-possible, and balance-status added.
ecosystem/bridges.md	Inbound-only callout and decision-matrix row now cover both directions. Removes "must bridge out before activation", including for the Wormhole CosmWasm side — its Portal Bridge exit depended on outbound IBC.
ecosystem/participation-roles.md	Retires the IBC relayer role: table row, the hermes/rly setup section, and the description. No packets left to relay.
precompiles/cosmwasm-bridge.md	IBC precompile marked do not use; transfer reverts. Points to Bank + pointers for cross-VM access that still works.
precompiles/overview.md	Corrects the claim that the legacy precompiles "remain functional" — true for Bank and pointers, not for IBC.
contracts/common-errors.md	The packet-timeout entry recommended retrying with timeout-packet. Replaced with the real cause and the fact that retrying cannot succeed.
pointers/token-factory.md	Removes "TokenFactory tokens can be sent via IBC immediately" — they cannot leave the chain at all.
resources.md	IBC precompile row flagged, mirroring the existing ❌ retired style used for the Oracle precompile. Drops the IBC-channels link.
SKILL.md, SKILL-ECOSYSTEM.md, SKILL-CONTRACTS.md, README.md, apps-directory.md, tokens.md	Router lines, precompile lists, bridge tables.

Two things I deliberately did not change

hermes.pyth.network in oracles.md and integration-defi.md. That is Pyth's Hermes price service — unrelated to the IBC relayer of the same name. A naive hermes sweep would have broken oracle integration examples.

SKILL.md's frontmatter description. tests/run.ts:181 asserts { prompt: "How do I use the IBC precompile on Sei?", expected: true }. That is a trigger test — it checks the skill gets selected, using the frontmatter description only, and it is still the correct expectation: the skill should be selected for IBC questions precisely so it can explain IBC is closed. I left the description untouched, so trigger behaviour is unchanged and the case still passes for the same reason it did before. Stripping IBC keywords out of the skill would have been the wrong fix here — silence would send the user elsewhere for an answer that is now a footgun.

Verification

• grep -riE 'exit-only|bridge out|migrate before|before activation' across skill/ and README.md → zero hits
• No runnable seid tx ibc-transfer command anywhere; the two remaining mentions are prose stating that it fails
• All 196 relative markdown links resolve (the only checker hits were my regex matching ...args spread syntax inside code fences — pre-existing, not links)
• Frontmatter still parses on all seven files with changed frontmatter, including via the same regex tests/run.ts uses
• participation-roles.md role table and section flow verified after the row and section removal

I did not run tests/run.ts — it calls the Anthropic API with a live key and costs tokens per case. Worth running in CI or locally before merge if you want the trigger suite confirmed empirically rather than by the reasoning above.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[cursor]

PR Summary

Low Risk
Documentation-only changes to an AI skill repo; no runtime code, but incorrect guidance here could mislead agents into failed IBC transactions before this fix.

Overview
Aligns the sei-skill knowledge base with Proposal 121 outbound IBC shutdown so AI assistants stop suggesting exit paths that no longer work.

ibc-bridging.md is reframed from legacy / exit-only to a closed-state reference: inbound (Props 116/120) and outbound (Prop 121) are both off, with seid queries to verify InboundEnabled / OutboundEnabled. It removes runnable seid tx ibc-transfer exit examples and adds explicit guidance that legacy ibc/... balances remain usable on Sei (bank transfers, ERC-20 pointers, DEX swaps) but cannot leave the chain.

Bridging and roles: bridges.md and skill routers (SKILL.md, SKILL-ECOSYSTEM.md, README.md) now state IBC is closed in both directions; the bridge decision matrix drops inbound-only wording and notes there is no EVM route to Cosmos via IBC. participation-roles.md drops the IBC relayer role and setup section.

Contracts / precompiles: cosmwasm-bridge.md and precompiles/overview.md mark the IBC precompile (0x1009) as do not use (transfer reverts). common-errors.md replaces packet-timeout retry advice with the real failure mode. token-factory.md, tokens.md, and apps-directory.md remove claims that IBC is still a transfer path. resources.md flags the IBC precompile like the retired Oracle precompile and drops the IBC channels link.

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