docs(7/10): collapse process and release governance into topics

[flyingrobots]

Decision

Move durable contributor, scheduling, and release instructions into task-oriented topics. Remove motivational signposts, live-state mirrors, duplicate runbooks, and release packets after extracting current rules.

This is documentation reconstruction slice 7 of 10.

Scope

Create or rewrite:

• docs/topics/contributing/process.md
• docs/topics/contributing/triage.md
• docs/topics/contributing/first-pr.md
• docs/topics/contributing/documentation.md
• docs/topics/releases.md
• the relevant sections of docs/topics/docs-maintenance.md and validation.md

Extract current rules from, retarget all inbound links, then delete the reader-facing sources under:

• docs/METHOD.md
• docs/BEARING.md
• docs/NORTHSTAR.md
• docs/TRUST.md
• docs/governance/
• docs/method/
• docs/releases/
• docs/CRATES_IO_RELEASE.md
• other root-level planning or release signposts superseded by the topic routes

Root AGENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, RELEASE.md, and CHANGELOG.md keep their distinct repository jobs. Update them to link into topics without duplicating topic prose.

Apply #742’s plain vX.Y.Z milestone model everywhere. GitHub owns live queues, counts, ordering, and release state; Markdown explains the stable workflow only.

RED

Add governance fixtures that fail on slogan goalposts, Release: vX.Y.Z milestones, concrete-version scheduling labels, live progress ledgers, and links to deleted process/runbook paths.

Acceptance

• One contributor process topic describes issue → branch → red → green → evidence → PR.
• One release topic describes plain SemVer milestone scheduling and release gates.
• No Markdown page mirrors live issue counts, sequence, or release progress.
• The listed sources are deleted, not archived.
• Root governance entrances, release guards, issue templates, truth manifest, links, docs-check, governance Bats, preflight, and git diff --check pass.

Scheduling

• Ordered after docs(6/10): consolidate Holmes and weslaw assurance truth #748.
• Hard-blocked by refactor(governance): replace goalposts with version milestones #742 because this slice publishes the new scheduling model.
• The v0.3.0 label is temporary until the plain version-milestone cutover.

[coderabbitai]

🔗 Related PRs

#475 - Merge-worthy unmerged branches into omnibus reconciliation branch [merged]
#476 - Release/v0.1.0 [merged]
#623 - docs(release): record v0.1.0 publication evidence [merged]
#686 - docs: add plain Wesley onboarding path [merged]
#692 - docs: add first contributor fast paths [merged]

---

📝 Issue Planner

_{Check the box below or use the @coderabbitai plan command to generate an implementation plan and prompts that you can use with your favorite coding assistant.}

• Create Plan

---

🧪 Issue enrichment is currently in open beta.

You can configure auto-planning by selecting labels in the issue_enrichment configuration.

To disable automatic issue enrichment, add the following to your .coderabbit.yaml:

issue_enrichment:
  auto_enrich:
    enabled: false

💬 Have feedback or questions? Drop into our discord!