Toast was auto-dismiss-only (3s timer). Operators running a live show want to clear visual clutter without waiting — added a small X button to the right of the message that calls ToastViewModel.DismissCommand (stops timer + hides immediately).
Implementation: ToastViewModel gained a DismissCommand RelayCommand and a Hide() helper. MainWindow toast overlay gained a 20x20 button bound to the command, custom inline template (rounded transparent bg, hover lifts to Wd.Button.HoverBg).
Adds a small auto-dismissing pill notification at the bottom-center of the participants area: 'Settings saved' on Apply Changes, 'Transcoder topology applied — restart Teams to take effect' after the one-click NDI groups setup. ToastViewModel owns its own DispatcherTimer and resets the dismissal countdown on successive calls, so the most recent message is always the one visible. Hooked into MainViewModel and threaded into GlobalSettingsViewModel via constructor injection.
_NEXT.md rewritten to reflect the May 2026 hardening pass: separates engine / UI / networking / Phase E.1 / diagnostics / CI / tests sections, lists every shipped item, and re-prioritizes the remaining work (Phase E.2-E.3 embedded Teams, code-signing the MSI, refresh-discovery affordance, output thumbnail previews, settings panel UX, auto-disable on departure, operator presets).
