v2/main → main milestone release flow and release skill #4873

Part of the agentic software factory tracker #4858, Wave 5. Proposed as S12 in docs/agent-guidance-inception.md (PR #4861) §9, from #4859.

Depends on

After #4472 (changesets + Release-triggered publishing), Part 6 (#4866, issue-create, which files the release issue), Part 11 (local:gate) and Part 12 (knowledge skills: the ledger uses client-smoke).

Scope

• A release issue per milestone (Release vX.Y.Z), filed through issue-create. Every preparation PR (on v2/main, where closing keywords don't fire) opens with Closes #N. The merge PR targets main, the default branch, where Closes #N would auto-close the issue before the Release is published, so it uses a non-closing reference (Part of #N). Close the issue by hand once the Release is published. This keeps release PRs inside "every PR references an issue" after Part 15 removes the Dependabot exception. The bot-authored changesets "Version Packages" PR gets the reference added to its body after the bot opens it. If the action overwrites the body on each update, AGENTS.md names it as the one standing release-automation exception.
• Preparation PRs, all on v2/main, all merged before the merge PR opens:
  • the audit report (npm and uv/pip), with any forced fixes as their own commits
  • the version bumps, which New release pipeline, Phase 2: semver via changesets (TS), GitHub-Release-triggered publishing #4472 makes two separate PRs: the changesets "Version Packages" PR for TS and the prepare-release CalVer PR for Python. A milestone touching both ecosystems therefore has up to three preparation PRs.
• The merge PR: a pure v2/main → main merge, whose tree hash matches origin/v2/main, with a release ledger artifact linked from it. The ledger records local:gate, pack:verify for each package, each server-facing milestone issue exercised via client-smoke, and a targeted probe for each issue with no client surface (docs, skills, workflows).
• A maintainer then publishes the GitHub Release.
• Split release.yml so build, install and verify run in jobs without id-token: write. Only the publish job holds it (inspector#2483).
• Pin actions in every credentialed job before the first release through this flow, enforced by a ported verify:action-pins. That covers release.yml's publish jobs, every job whose artifact a credentialed job downloads (the build/pack jobs the split introduces), and claude.yml (id-token: write, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY). Wire verify:action-pins into the continuously run chain: root validate's guards, the root-guards CI job, and local:gate. The Inspector's version imports SHA_REF from dependency-refresh.mjs, which doesn't land until Part 15, so extract the SHA matcher into scripts/lib/action-refs.mjs here. Add the AGENTS.md SHA-pinning rule.
• The release skill is name-only (disable-model-invocation: true).
• Rewrite RELEASING.md to describe the merged state.

Acceptance criteria

• verify:action-pins passes, and fails on a tag-pinned action in a credentialed job or in a job whose artifact a credentialed job downloads. Unrelated artifact uploads (e.g. python.yml's CI dist upload) stay out of scope, as in the Inspector's guard.
• One milestone has been released end to end through the skill.
• The ledger is linked from the merge PR.
• RELEASING.md describes the merged flow.

Branch

Targets v2/main. Closes #N won't auto-close an issue on a non-default branch, so close this one by hand on merge and move the card to Done.