Author v13.0.0 release notes artifact

Context

The v13 finish push needs a release-note artifact, not just a planning discussion. Discussion #12694 converged the release-note narrative shape: v13 should be framed as the Agent OS maturity release, with the Brain-built-on-Body bridge explicit, Swarm Governance promoted, and exhaustive PR/issue history kept in generated appendices rather than dumped into the narrative body.

This ticket is intentionally separate from #10321. #10321 is the future release-workflow / release-notes skill ticket and should remain parked until the v13 artifact lands, so the skill can be extracted from the real workflow instead of guessed upfront.

Live evidence refreshed before filing on 2026-06-07:

• Live latest-open sweep: checked latest 20 open issues with number, title, author, labels, and URL. No equivalent v13 release-note artifact ticket found.
• Exact live duplicate sweeps: release notes v13, v13 release artifact, Author v13 release notes, and v13 release notes drafted did not surface an open artifact ticket. Results either returned none or unrelated closed issues.
• Exact local sweep across resources/content/issues and resources/content/discussions surfaced Discussion #12694 and parked skill ticket #10321, but no actionable release-note artifact ticket.
• Semantic KB ticket sweep for ticket v13 release notes artifact release-note artifact release workflow skill did not identify an equivalent artifact ticket; it mostly surfaced ticket-create / project attachment mechanics and unrelated historical tickets.
• Project pre-flight: Project 12 is live as Neo v13 Release; this ticket is attached to Project 12 for v13 visibility.

The Problem

The release scope is too large to reconstruct ad hoc at release cut. The current live boundary shows 1,228 merged PRs and 1,629 closed issues since v12.1.0. A raw changelog is not viable, but the planning discussion is also not the release artifact. Without a ticket-backed artifact lane, tracked release-note edits would either violate the self-assigned-ticket gate or drift into the parked skill work.

The Architectural Reality

Release notes live under resources/content/release-notes/ and are consumed by release, docs, SEO, and KB paths. Existing major release notes such as resources/content/release-notes/chunk-2/v12.0.0.md and resources/content/release-notes/chunk-2/v12.1.0.md use narrative TL;DR sections, evidence-backed phases, and a full changelog strategy rather than listing every change inline.

The release publish flow also expects a release-note file: buildScripts/release/publish.mjs verifies and later parses release notes during the release process. The artifact therefore belongs in documentation / release-content substrate first, not in the future skill substrate.

The Fix

Create the v13.0.0 release-note artifact from Discussion #12694 and the verified release window evidence.

Expected shape:

• Add or prepare the v13.0.0 release-note markdown artifact in the existing release-note content structure.
• Preserve the converged thesis from Discussion #12694: Agent OS maturity, Brain-built-on-Body, Swarm Governance as a major differentiator, Body/Grid section present but not headline.
• Use live, reproducible source queries for final counts and appendices.
• Keep the final Body/Grid paragraph flexible until Claude's wrapper selection-model lane converges.
• Do not author or modify the release-workflow skill in this ticket.

Contract Ledger Matrix

Decision Record impact

None. This implements release documentation within existing content architecture; it does not amend ADR authority.

Discussion Criteria Mapping

Discussion #12694 resolved the artifact shape as follows:

Acceptance Criteria

• AC1: A v13.0.0 release-note artifact exists in the established release-note content structure or an explicitly justified release-draft location accepted by the release process.
• AC2: The artifact uses the converged thesis from Discussion #12694 and avoids public framing that reads as framework abandonment.
• AC3: The artifact does not inline all 1,228+ PRs / 1,629+ issues; exhaustive history is handled through generated appendices, reproducible queries, or linked source evidence.
• AC4: The Body/Grid section includes shipped Body/UI work and leaves final multi-body-grid wording gated on the wrapper selection-model lane.
• AC5: Final public claims are V-B-A refreshed before PR / release: boundary date, merged PR count, closed issue count, representative anchors, and release-note sync state.
• AC6: No .agents/skills/** release-workflow or release-notes skill is authored or modified by this ticket.
• AC7: Post-merge / release-cut checklist states whether #10321 should be updated with lessons from the artifact workflow.

Out of Scope

• Authoring the release-workflow / release-notes skill.
• Publishing the npm release.
• Merging any release PR; merge authority remains human-only.
• Resolving Claude's multi-body-grid implementation lane.
• Reopening the peer-selection-model-per-body option.

Avoided Traps

• Rejected: use #10321 as the authority for this work. That ticket is the future skill and is deliberately parked until after the artifact lands.
• Rejected: raw mega-changelog body. The release window is too large for a useful narrative body.
• Rejected: Body-only headline. The live v13 scope and Discussion #12694 convergence point to Agent OS maturity as the honest release thesis.
• Rejected: grid-blocked release notes. The release draft can reserve the Body/Grid section while Claude finishes the wrapper-SM lane.

Related

• Discussion #12694 - release-note narrative convergence.
• #10321 - future release-workflow skill, explicitly out of scope here.
• PR #12693 / issue #12692 - release-note sync cache hot-path fix and validation.

Origin Session ID: e8f07ef9-ef7e-4815-8ff4-7abe13720621

Retrieval Hint: v13 release notes artifact Discussion 12694 Agent OS maturity Brain built on Body Swarm Governance wrapper selection model 1228 merged PRs 1629 closed issues