1.6.0rc5 Release Status

RC5 is authorized. PR #623 was merged on 2026-10-16. The frozen runtime candidate is exact main 890925afdff68e97cafe38a28605d2874c9dad79. GitHub, PyPI and all three container publication workflows passed. Post-publication acceptance passed on the first attempt, all 12 jobs; see the publication evidence. Published RC4 evidence remains historical and immutable.

RC5 packages the RC4 feedback corrections, source/output contract, portable business rules and MCP permission reference. The runtime campaign evidence separates the earlier campaign from fresh exact-RC5 checks, artifact identities and coverage limits.

Completed candidate checks

  • The confirmed DECIMAL formatting issue is fixed, with focused regressions.
  • The full exact-main gate passed: 4197 tests, 23 classified skips and 91.49% coverage. Strict documentation and OpenSpec checks passed.
  • Independent AI source review approved that exact main SHA. CI, Containers, Documentation and Security passed on the same commit.
  • Both installed MCP SDK matrices passed 600/600 logical cells, with two seeded repeats per cell. Fresh Ubuntu no-publish artifacts were downloaded and independently rehashed. See the candidate checkpoint.
  • Actual Codex and current-specification human acceptance passed: full-file review and new consent preceded generation; validation and the separate artifact audit passed. See the manual evidence and observation limits.

These results belong to the frozen candidate, not to later documentation commits. A changed release candidate needs its own exact-commit evidence.

Publication and retained limits

The completed manual acceptance is bound to the frozen candidate and the exact reviewed specification. Separate trust/tool UI prompts and normal client exit/disconnect were not independently observed; the final bound MCP process check found none remaining. The separately gated transformation/session campaign is still open, and this synthetic scenario grants no local preservation authority.

The signed tag and acceptance manifest bind the frozen source and Ubuntu preflight hashes. GitHub/PyPI publication and the three-target container publication workflow succeeded. Public PyPI hashes match the preflight.

The three immutable image digests and publication signature checks are recorded in the published release evidence. Verify Published Release passed with all 12 jobs on the first attempt, including the Python-package/documentation job, all seven public installation profiles and all three container targets. Release-specific publication and public acceptance are complete.