v0.23.0

---

version: 0.23.0
date: 2026-06-10
headline: "The public-repo era lands — registry-first installs, the repo-self DOS gate with a live badge, and a witness-gated publish pipeline."
themes: ["install", "gate", "publish", "readme", "quickstart", "docs"]
highlights:

• "Install flips registry-first — pip install dos-kernel is now the default everywhere"
• "Repo-self DOS gate: CI runs commit-audit + verify through the bundled verify-action"
• "README wears the live verified-by-DOS badge, and dos lint --strict reddens it on dead policy"
• "Publish pipeline gains the ci-green witness gate and a docs-aware test matrix"
• "README rebuilt for PyPI — absolute links, humanized prose, modular docs/readme/ source"
• "Quickstart demo reframed for the wider first-contact audience"

---

TL;DR — the first release cut from the public repo, on the heels of dos-kernel going live on PyPI. Every install channel now defaults to the registry, the repo verifies itself in CI with its own kernel (and wears the badge to prove it), and the publish pipeline refuses to upload any SHA without a green CI witness.

install — registry-first everywhere

• Every install channel defaults to pip install dos-kernel now that 0.22.0 is live on PyPI.
  • Why: the git+ form was the pre-publish stopgap; the registry is the honest default.
  • How: docs/INSTALL.md, README.md, install.sh/install.ps1, the plugin README, and the dos-setup skill all flipped in one sweep; the git+ form remains documented for tracking unreleased master.
• The plugin build carries the public-repo git+ prerequisite into the authored dos-setup source, so the bundled skill never points at a private path.
  • How: scripts/build_plugin.py.

gate — the repo verifies itself (docs/112 Phase 0)

• New dos-gate.yml workflow runs dos commit-audit + dos verify on every push, through the bundled verify-action — the kernel adjudicating its own repo in CI.
  • Why: "eat the dog food where the world can watch" — the badge is earned per-push, not asserted.
  • How: .github/workflows/dos-gate.yml + verify-action/action.yml.
• dos lint --strict is the gate's third leg — dead policy in dos.toml (a shadowed lane region, a dangling alias) now reddens the badge.
  • How: .github/workflows/dos-gate.yml leg 3; dos.toml gained a ci lane.
• README wears the live verified-by-DOS badge, and docs/BADGE.md documents the earn-it paths with agent examples.
• verify-action copy-paste refs retargeted at refs that actually exist (fix).

publish — the pipeline distrusts the tag

• The ci-green witness gate: publish.yml refuses to upload any SHA without a completed green ci.yml run on those exact bytes — "I tagged it" is a forgeable claim; a CI run on the bytes is not.
  • How: .github/workflows/publish.yml polls for the witness, then holds at the protected pypi environment for operator approval.
• Docs-aware CI matrix with timeouts on every job — prose-only pushes run a 2-leg matrix, code runs the full 4-leg grid plus the per-platform wheel build.
  • How: .github/workflows/ci.yml.
• ci-ok — a single aggregator job for branch protection to require, instead of enumerating every matrix leg.
  • How: .github/workflows/ci.yml.

readme — rebuilt for the registry

• README source split into modular docs/readme/ parts and assembled by scripts/build_readme.py, with the prose humanized for first contact.
  • How: twelve docs/readme/NN_*.md parts + tests/test_readme_assembly.py pinning the assembly.
• All image/link targets absolutized — PyPI renders the long description from the registry, where relative paths 404.
• The value chain surfaced — the swarm-host row, the hermes dialect, and the downstream verdict flow.

quickstart — first contact, reframed

• dos quickstart reframed for the wider audience — the 60-second caught-lie demo now reads for someone who has never met the substrate.
  • How: src/dos/cli.py + docs/CLI.md, pinned by tests/test_cli_ergonomics.py.

docs — the public-repo contract

• The private sibling renamed dos-strategy → dos-private across the living contract and every doc that names it.
• The retired anthony-chaudhary/dos slug retargeted at dos-kernel everywhere it lingered (fix).
• SECURITY.md gains the Publication gate section — the public stub for the maintainer-side leak scan.
• Commits default to no agent co-author trailer — stated in the contract, public history stays clean.
• The release skills learned the public-repo era — a push is publication, the tag is the publish trigger, the leak gate is fail-closed.
• docs/292 planned — the README audience gradient, six reader on-ramps.