r4.1

Release Management r4.1 baseline for Sync26

r4.1 is the public release of the Release Management documents with repository
version 0.5.0.

The release consolidates the automated API release process documentation,
metadata schema artifacts, release progress tracking data, and validation
framework design material that landed after r3.1. It provides the Release
Management repository baseline for API teams preparing Sync26 releases and for
the continued evolution of the r4.x release process.

Key Updates

• Automated release process: release creation, review, publication,
  post-release sync, bot UX, and branch terminology documentation.
• Release metadata: release plan and release metadata schema artifacts with
  examples for API repositories.
• API readiness: updated checklist guidance for validation results, warning
  deferrals, and API description requirements.
• Validation framework reference material: requirements, detailed design,
  design-guide audit, testing-guidelines audit, and Commonalities consumption
  design documents.
• Release progress tracking: repository progress tracker workflow and
  generated progress data.
• Sync26 terminology: updated references from Fall26/Spring27 to
  Sync26/Signal27 where applicable.

Changes since r3.1

Added

• Add the release workflow and metadata foundation, including concept material, release metadata schemas, and release plan schema artifacts by @hdamker in #275 and #339
• Add the automated release process documentation set, covering release creation, release publication, post-release sync, bot UX, API readiness checklist content, and pointer branch documentation by @hdamker in #362, #364, #370, #374, #392, and #394
• Add validation framework reference material, including Commonalities consumption and bundling design, requirements, detailed design, design-guide audit, and testing-guidelines audit by @hdamker in #436, #447, and #463
• Add release progress tracker workflow and generated progress data by @hdamker in #391
• Add the automated release process update presentation by @tanjadegroot in #424

Changed

• Refine release lifecycle and readiness documentation for the edit/review split, post-release sync step, CHANGELOG handling, breaking changes handling, validation results, warning deferrals, and API description requirements by @hdamker and @tanjadegroot in #523, #569, and #586
• Update README content for the current Release Management documentation structure by @tanjadegroot in #460
• Align naming and branch terminology with Sync26/Signal27, source branch terminology, and release branch naming by @hdamker in #382, #384, #386, and #402
• Maintain release progress tracker data through Release Collector bot updates

Removed

• Remove the unused API review trigger workflow by @hdamker in #488

Full Changelog: r3.1...r4.1