Clarify API cleanup priorities and behavior-preserving consolidation plan

Codex/API/OPEN_ITEMS.md

@@ -8,11 +8,28 @@ Only keep unfinished API work here.
 - service discovery migration: audit edge publish/DNS/Cloudflare/Technitium, Prometheus SD, dev IDE wildcard, and post-provision hot paths for direct host assumptions
 - provisioning validation follow-up where API behavior is involved
 
+## Cleanup / consolidation priorities
+- fold repeated agent-forwarding patterns and shared response shaping where behavior is already the same
+- fold repeated ownership/auth/IP-guard patterns into small concrete helpers without hiding route intent
+- split oversized route/service files by responsibility without changing route contracts
+- keep backup/restore status shaping and async-dispatch logic explicit, but remove duplicated mapping/normalization paths where possible
+- keep stream-vs-JSON forwarding rules centralized in one place and avoid route-local reimplementation
+- standardize repo-local Node version declaration with the current pinned platform version
+
+## Cleanup rule
+- prefer behavior-preserving folding over broad refactors
+- merge repeated flows, not concepts
+- keep helpers small and concrete
+- reduce route-local duplication before introducing new abstractions
+- treat Node/runtime/dependency upgrades as separate validation work, not part of cleanup-only changes
+
 ## Verify before re-opening
 - hosted IDE token + hosted URL flow
 - backup forwarding semantics
 - readiness polling/cache behavior
 - quota enforcement on create flow
+- restore async-start contract + status polling semantics
+- streamed file edit/revert forwarding through both canonical and compatibility routes
 
 ## Not API-owned
 - agent-local backup implementation details