Make curated release notes part of the release workflow

[Maneek21]

Current state

Refreshed September 24, 2026 against master at 1427f66.

Preview.15 already has curated highlights, installation/upgrade guidance, limitations, and a comparison link. However, the release workflow still uses --generate-notes, and RELEASING.md describes editing highlights afterward. The remaining problem is repeatability.

Remaining work and acceptance evidence

Make reviewed, release-specific curated notes an explicit input to the existing publishing workflow.

• Use a reusable notes structure covering capabilities, fresh installation, upgrades, and material limitations.
• Publish reviewed notes as the release body without requiring a subsequent manual rewrite.
• Link to the full comparison and preserve contributor attribution without dumping exhaustive history into the main summary.
• Fail clearly if required curated input is missing or belongs to another release.
• Verify note selection/publication with focused workflow coverage and update the release runbook.
• Demonstrate the rendered body for a representative preview without publishing a test release.

Scope

Preserve current release identity, artifact, signature, and provenance checks. No historical release rewrite. Do not infer Hermes certification from a core-only release.

Ownership and priority

Maintainer: @Maneek21. Next preview hardening. Requires release-workflow familiarity; no longer labeled a good first issue.