/release-governance - Release Evidence Governance

Purpose

Prepare release-facing academic artifacts with explicit evidence control. The core rule is:

release truth = ref + artifact + gate

Do not infer release truth from memory, a branch name, a pull request title, a local file cache, or an agent draft.

Trigger Words

This skill activates on: release governance, release evidence, camera-ready, rebuttal packet, artifact packet, claim ledger, human evidence gate, release packet, /release-governance.

Core Rules

1. Name the exact ref, artifact, and gate behind every release-facing claim.
2. Keep draft advisory evidence, verified artifacts, and final human evidence separate.
3. Do not promote agent or Gemini review output into final evidence.
4. Do not treat ignored, untracked, cached, or local-only assets as submitted artifacts.
5. Do not treat a repository check as venue, submission-system, or scientific compliance.
6. If two refs diverge, name both and scope which one is canonical for each artifact.
7. If a worktree is dirty, list the dirty paths and mark the packet as draft until changes are committed or explicitly scoped.
8. Freeze evidence and argument separately. An evidence ref or result snapshot does not authorise an unapproved narrative, and an approved manuscript spine does not validate changed numbers.

Evidence States

Use references/evidence_state_schema.md for the shared states:

• draft_advisory
• verified_artifact
• human_final

human_final requires an explicit human confirmation gate when the project schema provides one. Agent drafts, reviewer suggestions, generated summaries, simulations, and prefilled labels stay draft_advisory.

Workflow

1. Declare Scope

Create release/release_scope.md with scope date, artifact name, intended use, included refs, excluded refs, the evidence baseline, the argument baseline, and the highest-risk open question. For a manuscript, the evidence baseline names the frozen results, data/configuration, and artifact refs; the argument baseline names the author-approved intent and manuscript version.

2. Map Repository Truth

Run narrow ref checks before reading a checkout as final state:

git fetch --all --prune
git status --short --branch
git worktree list --porcelain
git branch --all --verbose --no-abbrev

Create release/canonical_refs.csv. Detached HEADs are acceptable only when the exact SHA is recorded.

3. Inventory Assets

Create release/local_asset_inventory.csv to separate tracked, ignored, untracked, external-store, and generated assets. Local assets may support review, but release claims require an artifact anchor or explicit exclusion.

4. Anchor Artifacts And Claims

Create:

• release/artifact_anchors.csv
• release/claim_ledger.csv
• release/evidence_gates.csv

Every paper-facing number, qualitative conclusion, table value, figure, dataset count, and human-label claim should point to the artifact and gate that support it.

5. Review Advisory Evidence

Gemini or another agent may review the scope, packet, or diff, but its result is advisory. Record advisory review in the verification report without changing any evidence state to human_final.

5.5 Reframe And PDF-Harden Manuscripts

When a manuscript draft reads like a module inventory, project report, internal validation packet, or artifact dump, use references/manuscript_reframing_patterns.md before final release checks. Apply it to separate the scientific gap, contribution chain, results narrative, main-text table design, figure roles, PDF/render checks, generative-component positioning, and submission-readiness blockers.

6. Verify Packet

Use references/release_workflow_templates.md for columns and report structure. If Python is available, run:

python {skill_dir}/scripts/check_release_packet.py <project_root>

The helper checks required packet files, CSV/JSON/YAML readability, evidence-state values, required columns, local absolute paths, and obvious template markers. YAML files use PyYAML when installed; otherwise the helper applies a basic local syntax check for simple mappings and lists. It does not run experiments, access networks, push branches, or judge scientific validity.

Stop Conditions

Stop and report a blocker if:

• a final claim depends on a dirty or ambiguous ref
• a human-label claim lacks a human confirmation gate
• a release artifact exists only as an ignored, untracked, cache, or local-only file
• a count comes from a pointer, stub, generated preview, or non-canonical ref
• a manuscript release cannot identify both its evidence baseline and its author-approved argument baseline
• a draft pull request, closed-unmerged pull request, or advisory review is being treated as final release state
• the packet validator reports issues that affect release-facing claims