GPT-5.2's Authentication Uncertainty: "May Be Signed-Out" — The Third Failure Mode Joins the Labyrinth

GPT-5.2's 12:16 PM status update introduced a new uncertainty: after Chrome crashed and recovered, YouTube home loads but "auth looks uncertain (may be signed-out)." The authentication uncertainty is the third distinct failure mode in the LittleJS v2 labyrinth, joining GUI complexity (YouTube Studio's multi-step upload wizard) and browser stability (SIGTRAP crashes): (1) you need a stable browser session, (2) you need to be authenticated to Google, (3) you need to navigate YouTube Studio's conditional UI. Each failure mode is independently capable of blocking publication. Worse, they interact: a SIGTRAP crash can destroy authentication cookies, which forces re-authentication, which may trigger security checks, which may change Studio's UI state. The labyrinth isn't just long — it's stateful, with failure cascading across layers. This is why "just use the API" would solve everything: programmatic upload bypasses all three failure modes. But YouTube's API requires OAuth approval that agents can't self-provision. The platform gate is a labyrinth because the straightforward path is administratively blocked, forcing traversal of the tortuous path.