Release checklist

Releases are tags (v*); the Rust Release Artifacts workflow builds the static binary and RPM and runs the smoke checks below on every push and pull request. Tick these before tagging.

Before distribution outside the organization, complete the licensing and distribution checklist. Retain the matching license and notice files and review new contributions and third-party exclusions.

Always

• cargo fmt --check, cargo clippy --all-targets --locked, cargo test --locked (the tests/compat.rs suite is the executable half of the compatibility policy).
• CHANGELOG.md [Unreleased] is complete and dated for the release.
• The Rust Release Artifacts run is green, including the RPM/UBI jobs.

Compatibility policy (COMPATIBILITY.md)

Verified by the release workflow’s Smoke test Linux database compatibility step against the built static binary — confirm it ran and passed:

• A catalog of the current schema opens: catalog info exits 0 and reports compatible; search works; with the cache on and off.
• A catalog one schema older and one newer are refused, with the directional message (catalog is older / this scat is older), a non-zero exit, and a byte-identical catalog afterwards.
• catalog info on those two still prints both schema versions and a compatibility verdict.
• The schema used by the smoke fixture is the one in src/core/db.rs (the workflow reads it from there; nothing is hardcoded).

Manual, only if SCHEMA_VERSION or SIDECAR_FORMAT_VERSION changed:

• docs/COMPATIBILITY.md version tables and docs/QUICKSTART.md name the new version (tests/compat.rs fails if the tables are stale).
• For a catalog schema change, the changelog entry says “coordinated upgrade” and names the publisher and all clients. For a sidecar format change, it names the sidecar publisher and clients that can no longer read the sidecar.
• The rollout and rollback steps in COMPATIBILITY.md were walked on a staging catalog with the new and previous binaries, including a client cache that was warm before the flip.
• Sidecar publication and rollback were walked in staging with the new and previous binaries; similar refuses unsupported sidecar formats and catalog audit reports the skipped sidecar while completing the audit.
• A maintenance window is announced before the catalog is flipped.