flyingrobots · flyingrobots · Sep 7, 2026 · Aug 4, 2026 · Aug 4, 2026 · Aug 4, 2026
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -43,6 +43,23 @@ jobs:
       - name: Provider component fixture inventory
         run: cargo +"${{ matrix.rust-version }}" xtask provider-component-fixtures --check
 
+  release-dates:
+    name: release-dates (git tag reconciliation)
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      # The reconciliation compares recorded dates against the tags that
+      # published them, so this job needs the tags. The default shallow
+      # checkout fetches none, which is why this cannot ride along on the
+      # matrix job above.
+      - uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0
+        with:
+          persist-credentials: false
+          fetch-depth: 0
+      - name: Install Rust
+        run: rustup toolchain install stable --profile minimal
+      - name: Reconcile release dates against git tags
+        run: cargo +stable xtask release-dates --check
+
   windows-lawpack-containment:
     name: windows lawpack containment
     runs-on: windows-latest

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.1.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.1.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.1.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-06-24
+Target date: 2026-06-21
 
 Status: published as a GitHub prerelease from the signed `v0.1.0-alpha.1` tag
 on 2026-06-21.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.10.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.10.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.10.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-10-21
+Target date: 2026-06-29
 
 Status: published GitHub prerelease notes for `v0.10.0-alpha.1`, with
 post-publication evidence recorded on `main`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.11.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.11.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.11.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-11-04
+Target date: 2026-06-30
 
 Status: published GitHub prerelease notes for `v0.11.0-alpha.1`, with
 post-publication evidence recorded on `main`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.2.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.2.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.2.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-07-01
+Target date: 2026-06-21
 
 Status: published as a GitHub prerelease from the signed `v0.2.0-alpha.1` tag
 on 2026-06-21.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.3.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.3.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.3.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-07-15
+Target date: 2026-06-24
 
 Status: published as a GitHub prerelease from the signed `v0.3.0-alpha.1` tag
 targeting `4ea3d993f74490b495fe6e6a9ec2d52f889ccceb`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.4.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.4.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.4.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-07-29
+Target date: 2026-06-25
 
 Status: published as a GitHub prerelease from the signed `v0.4.0-alpha.1` tag
 targeting `65c80ce4660b384ebf9fd482c59fff402f34d47b`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.5.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.5.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.5.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-08-12
+Target date: 2026-06-25
 
 Status: published as a GitHub prerelease from the `v0.5.0-alpha.1` tag
 targeting `e680adf0a3ccc72559d1c4710e81010738918532`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.6.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.6.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.6.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-08-26
+Target date: 2026-06-26
 
 Status: published as a GitHub prerelease from the `v0.6.0-alpha.1` tag
 targeting `ec1ce8a5186801caa3c627c6714cedff7fdf43bc`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.7.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.7.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.7.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-09-09
+Target date: 2026-06-27
 
 Status: published GitHub prerelease notes for `v0.7.0-alpha.1`, with
 post-publication evidence recorded on `main`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.8.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.8.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.8.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-09-23
+Target date: 2026-06-28
 
 Status: published GitHub prerelease notes for `v0.8.0-alpha.1`, with
 post-publication evidence recorded on `main`.

diff --git a/docs/releases/v0.9.0-alpha.1.md b/docs/releases/v0.9.0-alpha.1.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # v0.9.0-alpha.1 Release Notes
 
-Target date: 2026-10-07
+Target date: 2026-06-28
 
 Status: published GitHub prerelease notes for `v0.9.0-alpha.1`, with
 post-publication evidence recorded on `main`.

diff --git a/docs/topics/release-process/README.md b/docs/topics/release-process/README.md
@@ -55,10 +55,60 @@ captured in [`policy.toml`](./policy.toml). [RELEASE-REQ-009]
 `cargo xtask release-prep <version>` scaffolds the mechanical release-prep
 surfaces that must move together: workspace package versions, lockfile package
 versions, a dated changelog section, release policy boundary block, release
-notes stub, release boundary test stub, changelog date guard entry, and paired
-release-process test-plan rows. The command does not write the release thesis,
-replace topic-shelf audits, or decide scope/non-goals; reviewers must replace
-the scaffold placeholders before release. [RELEASE-REQ-024]
+notes stub, and paired release-process test-plan rows. The command does not
+write the release thesis, replace topic-shelf audits, decide scope/non-goals, or
+generate Rust test stubs; reviewers must replace the scaffold placeholders
+before release. An explicit `--date` must be a valid fixed-width ASCII
+`YYYY-MM-DD` calendar date; malformed values fail as `InvalidIsoDate` before
+release files are read or written. Without `--date`, the CLI supplies the current
+clock to the scaffold helper, which derives its UTC date. Pre-epoch clocks fail
+as `ClockBeforeEpoch`; clocks beyond the four-digit year range fail as
+`ClockOutOfRange`. An explicit valid date takes precedence over the clock.
+[RELEASE-REQ-024]
+
+The policy structural guard preserves the historical release identities from
+`v0.2.0-alpha.1` through `v0.11.0-alpha.1` while allowing later completed
+release-prep blocks. An added release cannot hide the loss of a historical block
+by keeping the total count unchanged. Git tag reconciliation separately checks
+coverage for every actual tagged release. Required `scope` and `non_goals`
+values are parsed as TOML string arrays; comments and string contents cannot
+satisfy field presence. The structural guard and date reconciliation use the
+same parsed fields. [RELEASE-REQ-025]
+
+`cargo xtask release-dates` reconciles the dates recorded in the release policy,
+`CHANGELOG.md`, and `docs/releases/*.md` against the git tags that published
+them. Those three surfaces are written from one field at scaffold time, so
+comparing them against each other only proves the copy succeeded; the tags are
+the independent authority for when a release happened. The check runs inside
+`cargo xtask verify` and reports uncovered surfaces separately from date drift.
+A clone without tags fails rather than passing silently, because a missing
+independent authority is not approval. Each published policy block must also
+have its tag in the inventory, so a partially fetched or missing historical tag
+cannot disappear from the check. Untagged `prep` and `planned` blocks are allowed.
+The pure comparison returns structured
+finding kinds with tag, surface, expected-value, and actual-value fields. The
+command renders those findings as text; callers and tests do not parse prose to
+identify missing surfaces, mismatched dates, or pending publication status.
+[RELEASE-REQ-008]
+
+For a published release, `target_date` in [`policy.toml`](./policy.toml) and
+`Target date:` in `docs/releases/*.md` record the date the release was tagged,
+not a date it was planned for and not the GitHub Release publication timestamp.
+For example, `v0.4.0-alpha.1` was tagged 2026-06-24 in PDT, which is
+2026-06-25 in UTC; its recorded date is 2026-06-25.
+The field keeps its scaffold-era name because the reconciliation parses that
+exact literal. [RELEASE-REQ-008]
+
+Tag dates are read in UTC. `%(taggerdate)` renders in the reading machine's
+timezone by default, so a tag created near midnight resolves to different days
+for different operators. `v0.4.0-alpha.1` is such a tag: 2026-06-24 in PDT and
+2026-06-25 in UTC. The recorded date is the UTC one, so a local run and a CI run
+agree. [RELEASE-REQ-008]
+
+Release tags must be annotated. A lightweight tag has no tagger date, so the
+check would fall back to the tagged commit's committer date and a tag placed on
+an older commit would report a date that never corresponded to a release. The
+reconciliation rejects lightweight `v*` tags instead. [RELEASE-REQ-008]
 
 Every release-prep branch must audit `docs/topics/` coverage and accuracy before
 the release-prep pull request opens. Coverage is audited topic shelves divided

diff --git a/docs/topics/release-process/policy.toml b/docs/topics/release-process/policy.toml
@@ -44,8 +44,6 @@ scaffold_outputs = [
   "dated_changelog_section",
   "release_policy_boundary_block",
   "release_notes_stub",
-  "release_boundary_test_stub",
-  "alpha_changelog_date_guard_entry",
   "release_process_test_plan_rows",
 ]
 steps = [
@@ -146,7 +144,7 @@ required_evidence = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_2_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.2.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-07-01"
+target_date = "2026-06-21"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 28
 scope = [
@@ -166,7 +164,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_3_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.3.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-07-15"
+target_date = "2026-06-24"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 35
 scope = [
@@ -191,7 +189,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_4_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.4.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-07-29"
+target_date = "2026-06-25"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 39
 scope = [
@@ -213,7 +211,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_5_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.5.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-08-12"
+target_date = "2026-06-25"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 42
 scope = [
@@ -240,7 +238,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_6_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.6.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-08-26"
+target_date = "2026-06-26"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 50
 scope = [
@@ -271,7 +269,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_7_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.7.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-09-09"
+target_date = "2026-06-27"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 59
 published_at = "2026-06-27T22:31:49Z"
@@ -316,7 +314,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_8_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.8.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-09-23"
+target_date = "2026-06-28"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 62
 published_at = "2026-06-28T01:41:16Z"
@@ -365,7 +363,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_9_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.9.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-10-07"
+target_date = "2026-06-28"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 70
 published_at = "2026-06-28T07:04:06Z"
@@ -407,7 +405,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_10_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.10.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-10-21"
+target_date = "2026-06-29"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 76
 published_at = "2026-06-29T04:21:11Z"
@@ -446,7 +444,7 @@ non_goals = [
 
 [release_notes.v0_11_0_alpha_1]
 tag = "v0.11.0-alpha.1"
-target_date = "2026-11-04"
+target_date = "2026-06-30"
 status = "published"
 release_issue = 109
 published_at = "2026-06-30T07:58:29Z"