Default the Firmware Channel select to Beta on beta-channel builds

[bharvey88]

Version: 26.7.8.4

What does this implement/fix?

A fresh flash has no stored channel preference, so the Firmware Channel select fell back to "Stable" even on firmware obtained from the beta channel - and the update entity then offered the older stable build as a "downgrade".

• initial_option becomes a substitution (firmware_channel_default, still "Stable" - stable/Pages builds are byte-identical to before).
• New 8-line beta-channel/ wrapper yamls override it to "Beta", same override pattern the repos already use for variant wrappers; build-beta.yml now builds the wrappers.
• Net effect: firmware downloaded from the beta channel (or flashed from the beta-fw release page) boots with the select on Beta and keeps tracking beta. restore_value semantics unchanged - the default only applies when no stored choice exists.

Wrapper renders verified locally: base MSR-1.yaml -> initial_option: Stable, beta-channel/MSR-1.yaml -> initial_option: Beta. All five configs validate on ESPHome 2026.6.4.

(26.7.8.3 is held by open PR #90; whichever merges second takes a trivial version rebase.)

Types of changes

• Bugfix (fixed change that fixes an issue)
• New feature (thanks!)
• Breaking change (repair/feature that breaks existing functionality)
• Dependency Update - Does not publish
• Other - Does not publish
• Website of github readme file update - Does not publish
• Github workflows - Does not publish

Checklist / Checklijst:

• The code change has been tested and works locally
• The code change has not yet been tested

If user-visible functionality or configuration variables are added/modified:

• Added/updated documentation for the web page

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Added beta-channel firmware variants for standard and BLE device builds.
  • Firmware now starts with the appropriate update channel selected by default on first boot.

• Bug Fixes

  • Updated the device configuration version and aligned the initial firmware channel selection with the new default setting.
  • Beta CI builds now use the beta-specific firmware definitions, while stable publishing remains unchanged.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 4260763f-4467-4ca7-b56e-191eea8cd6d6

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between f802653 and 289f939.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

• .github/workflows/build-beta.yml
• Integrations/ESPHome/Core.yaml
• Integrations/ESPHome/beta-channel/MSR-1.yaml
• Integrations/ESPHome/beta-channel/MSR-1_BLE.yaml

---

Walkthrough

Introduces a firmware_channel_default substitution in Core.yaml (default "Stable") driving the Firmware Channel select's initial option, adds beta-channel YAML wrappers (MSR-1.yaml, MSR-1_BLE.yaml) that set it to "Beta" while including base configs, and repoints build-beta.yml to build from those beta-channel files. Also bumps the device version substitution.

Changes

Beta Firmware Channel Default

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Firmware channel default substitution Integrations/ESPHome/Core.yaml	Bumps version substitution, adds firmware_channel_default (default "Stable") with comments, and makes the Firmware Channel select's initial_option use that substitution instead of a hardcoded value.
Beta-channel YAML wrappers Integrations/ESPHome/beta-channel/MSR-1.yaml, Integrations/ESPHome/beta-channel/MSR-1_BLE.yaml	New wrapper configs set firmware_channel_default to "Beta" and include the shared base configuration via packages.base.
Beta CI workflow repointing .github/workflows/build-beta.yml	Build matrix entries for standard and BLE firmware now reference the new beta-channel YAML files instead of the top-level files.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• ApolloAutomation/MSR-1#85: Also modifies Core.yaml's substitutions version alongside related firmware channel logic changes.
• ApolloAutomation/MSR-1#89: Modifies the same firmware channel selection logic in Core.yaml consistent with the beta build workflow changes here.
• ApolloAutomation/MSR-1#73: Also bumps the substitutions.version field in Core.yaml.

Suggested reviewers: TrevorSchirmer

Poem

A hop, a skip, a beta bit,
"Stable" now yields when Beta's lit 🐇
New YAML burrows, tucked in place,
Channels default with tidy grace,
CI trails the beta race! 🥕

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main behavior change for beta-channel builds and is concise.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch beta-channel-default

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