Cull Release Prepare

Principle

Prepare one reproducible release commit.

Preparation cannot tag, push, dispatch workflows, publish, or update Homebrew.

Required inputs

• An explicit patch|minor|major; never infer the bump.
• Green cull-release-check evidence bound to expectedSource and expectedVersion.
• Curated release notes and compatibility-review JSON matching Cull's CLI schema.

Prepare

1. Fetch origin/main and create a dedicated clean worktree from it. Preserve unrelated dirty worktrees.
2. Confirm the check evidence still matches HEAD and the expected next version.
3. Store curated notes in a safely quoted path. Use argument arrays or separately quoted variables; never evaluate a concatenated command.
4. Run the dry run first: npm run release:cull -- prepare ... --dry-run --json.
5. Parse exactly one JSON envelope. Continue only when it lists exactly the configured version, changelog, compatibility, and state files.
6. Run the same prepare command without --dry-run.
7. Verify one chore(release): vX.Y.Z commit, state prepared, the declared file set, no tag, and no remote mutation.

On failure, show diagnostics and changed files. Never reset, discard, or overwrite work outside the release-owned file set.