Release Checklist

Use this checklist before cutting a release candidate.

Build And Test

• run make build
• run make test

Canonical Hardening Gates

• confirm hermetic baselines still pass
  • vendored zlib
  • vendored libpng
  • plugin ABI
  • combined daemon fixture
• confirm at least one host-dependent large-evidence ladder still passes where available
  • OpenSSL
  • Linux event-loop stack
• confirm failure suites still reject duplicate, unresolved, hidden, decorated, and ABI-questionable cases conservatively
• confirm plugin-style dl surfaces still produce explicit runtime-boundary notes instead of over-claiming runtime truth
• confirm the hermetic ELF static, Mach-O framework, and Windows PE fixture suite still passes
• confirm determinism anchors still hold on the canonical large surfaces

Contract Surfaces

• confirm the documented JSON artifact shapes remain consumable by the current schema version
• confirm ValidationReport fixture coverage still matches current structured fields

Documentation

• confirm README wording matches tested behavior
• confirm the book reflects current API entry points and platform scope

Consumer Boundary

• confirm the generic library contract stays primary
• confirm cross-package composition is still described as tests/examples/ harness work, not crate-to-crate library coupling

Release Decision

Do not treat “builds successfully” as sufficient. The code, docs, and fixtures all need to match the same boundary.