Release Notes — v0.6.8

Summary

Tightened the branch_pr batch task contract so included tasks retain accurate route metadata and stale batch ownership is cleaned without corrupting newer batch assignments.
Hardened release publication evidence handling so completed publishes are not marked failed by best-effort follow-up automation.
Added stricter release readiness diagnostics for hidden task artifacts, release-next-action state, npm publication truth, GitHub release state, and workflow evidence.

Added a compact release next-action diagnostic that reports the release SHA, release-ready artifact state, publish workflow state, publish-result state, npm registry status, git tag state, GitHub Release state, and the next manual action.
Added JSON output for the expanded release next-action diagnostic so agents and scripts can consume the same release evidence without parsing human text.
Added regression coverage for release next-action diagnostics, including repository override handling for --github-repo during GitHub Release lookup.
Added branch_pr batch ownership coverage for included-task route fallback, stale include cleanup, empty include cleanup, and reassignment to a different primary batch.

Improved branch_pr batch ownership persistence by recording primary and included task relationships in task extensions, giving included tasks a reliable fallback for route/status/handoff output.
Improved stale batch cleanup so an older primary task only removes ownership metadata that still points back to that same primary task.
Improved publish workflow permissions by granting the workflow token actions: write, allowing release evidence automation to dispatch follow-up CI where repository policy permits it.
Improved publish evidence automation so post-publish evidence branch creation, CI dispatch, PR creation, and merge attempts are best-effort after the authoritative publish result is already written.
Improved shared guard usage in branch_pr batch metadata code so release guardrails pass without duplicating local object-shape helpers.

Fixed a release readiness blind spot where directories under .agentplane/tasks without a README.md could be missed by strict task registry checks.
Fixed release evidence workflow behavior that could turn an otherwise completed publish red when follow-up evidence automation failed for token or checkout reasons.
Fixed GitHub Release truth lookup in release next-action so --github-repo <owner/repo> is honored instead of implicitly using the current local repository.
Recorded hosted publish evidence from the previous patch line so the release baseline now carries the expected publication artifact trail.

No breaking changes.
Repositories that rely on workflow-dispatched release evidence should ensure GitHub Actions has read and write workflow permissions and that the publish workflow keeps actions: write for the evidence dispatch step.

Release candidate checks are expected to run through release:prepublish, release parity, release readiness, hosted PR checks, publish workflow dispatch, npm publication smoke, GitHub tag verification, and GitHub Release verification.