refactor(release): drop release-policy.json runtime dep and next branch

Strips the release-policy.json fallback from release-version.ts so the CLI
reads its version straight from packages/cli/package.json. dev → 0.0.0-private,
installed @kaelio/ktx → the real semver baked into the published package.json.
KtxCliPackageInfo collapses to { name, version, contextPackageName }; /health
no longer depends on version files surviving past a CI run.

Replaces the dual-branch (main + next) semantic-release model with a single-
branch model on main. rcs and stables interleave on the same branch via
{ name: 'main', prerelease: 'rc', channel: 'next' } / ['main']. Drops
@semantic-release/git and @semantic-release/changelog (nothing is committed
back to the repo on any channel) and the workflow's "Prepare next prerelease
branch" step plus the KTX_PRERELEASE_BRANCH plumbing. The git tag plus the
published npm artifact carry the version forward.

Updates docs/release.md, removes the two now-unused devDeps, regenerates
pnpm-lock.yaml. 611/611 @ktx/cli tests, 173/173 script tests, type-check,
biome, knip all clean.

packages/cli/src/admin-reindex.test.ts

@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ describe('admin reindex Commander routing', () => {
         force: true,
         json: true,
         output: 'plain',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
       },
       io.io,
     );

packages/cli/src/cli-program.test.ts

@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@ function stubPackageInfo(): KtxCliPackageInfo {
   return {
     name: '@ktx/cli',
     version: '0.0.0-test',
-    packageVersion: '0.0.0-private',
-    runtimeVersion: '0.0.0-test',
     contextPackageName: '@ktx/context',
   };
 }

packages/cli/src/cli-runtime.ts

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import type { KtxSlArgs } from './sl.js';
 import type { KtxSqlArgs } from './sql.js';
 import { profileMark, profileSpan } from './startup-profile.js';
 import type { KtxTextIngestArgs } from './text-ingest.js';
-import { resolveKtxRuntimeVersion } from './release-version.js';
+import { assertCliVersion } from './release-version.js';
 
 profileMark('module:cli-runtime');
 
@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@ const requirePackageJson = createRequire(import.meta.url);
 export interface KtxCliPackageInfo {
   name: string;
   version: string;
-  packageVersion: string;
-  runtimeVersion: string;
   contextPackageName: '@ktx/context';
 }
 
@@ -66,16 +64,9 @@ export function packageInfoFromJson(packageJson: unknown): KtxCliPackageInfo {
     throw new Error('Invalid KTX CLI package metadata');
   }
 
-  const runtimeVersion = resolveKtxRuntimeVersion({
-    packageName: packageJson.name,
-    packageVersion: packageJson.version,
-  });
-
   return {
     name: packageJson.name,
-    version: runtimeVersion,
-    packageVersion: packageJson.version,
-    runtimeVersion,
+    version: assertCliVersion(packageJson.version, `${packageJson.name}/package.json`),
     contextPackageName: '@ktx/context',
   };
 }

packages/cli/src/index.test.ts

@@ -45,9 +45,7 @@ describe('getKtxCliPackageInfo', () => {
   it('identifies the CLI package and its context dependency', () => {
     expect(getKtxCliPackageInfo()).toEqual({
       name: '@ktx/cli',
-      version: '0.1.0-rc.1',
-      packageVersion: '0.0.0-private',
-      runtimeVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+      version: '0.0.0-private',
       contextPackageName: '@ktx/context',
     });
   });
@@ -70,8 +68,6 @@ describe('getKtxCliPackageInfo', () => {
     ).toEqual({
       name: '@kaelio/ktx',
       version: '0.1.0',
-      packageVersion: '0.1.0',
-      runtimeVersion: '0.1.0',
       contextPackageName: '@ktx/context',
     });
   });
@@ -118,7 +114,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
 
     await expect(runKtxCli(['--version'], testIo.io)).resolves.toBe(0);
 
-    expect(testIo.stdout()).toBe('@ktx/cli 0.1.0-rc.1\n');
+    expect(testIo.stdout()).toBe('@ktx/cli 0.0.0-private\n');
     expect(testIo.stderr()).toBe('');
   });
 
@@ -282,7 +278,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
     expect(unknownIo.stderr()).toContain("unknown option '--query'");
   });
 
-  it('routes runtime management commands with the release runtime version', async () => {
+  it('routes runtime management commands with the CLI package version', async () => {
     const runtime = vi.fn(async () => 0);
     const installIo = makeIo();
     const startIo = makeIo();
@@ -308,7 +304,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
       1,
       {
         command: 'install',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         feature: 'local-embeddings',
         force: true,
       },
@@ -318,7 +314,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
       2,
       {
         command: 'start',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         projectDir: expect.any(String),
         feature: 'local-embeddings',
         force: true,
@@ -329,7 +325,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
       3,
       {
         command: 'stop',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         projectDir: expect.any(String),
         all: false,
       },
@@ -339,7 +335,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
       4,
       {
         command: 'stop',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         projectDir: expect.any(String),
         all: true,
       },
@@ -349,7 +345,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
       5,
       {
         command: 'status',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         json: true,
       },
       statusIo.io,
@@ -422,7 +418,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
       expect.objectContaining({
         command: 'query',
         projectDir: tempDir,
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         runtimeInstallPolicy: 'prompt',
         query: expect.objectContaining({ measures: ['orders.order_count'], dimensions: [] }),
       }),
@@ -437,7 +433,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
     ).resolves.toBe(0);
     expect(sl).toHaveBeenLastCalledWith(
       expect.objectContaining({
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         runtimeInstallPolicy: 'auto',
       }),
       autoIo.io,
@@ -453,7 +449,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
     ).resolves.toBe(0);
     expect(sl).toHaveBeenLastCalledWith(
       expect.objectContaining({
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         runtimeInstallPolicy: 'never',
       }),
       noInputIo.io,
@@ -589,7 +585,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
           skipAgents: false,
           inputMode: 'auto',
           yes: false,
-          cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+          cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
           skipLlm: false,
           skipEmbeddings: false,
           databaseSchemas: [],
@@ -719,7 +715,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         inputMode: 'disabled',
         depth: 'fast',
         queryHistory: 'default',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         runtimeInstallPolicy: 'never',
       },
       testIo.io,
@@ -746,7 +742,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         inputMode: 'auto',
         depth: 'deep',
         queryHistory: 'default',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         runtimeInstallPolicy: 'prompt',
       },
       testIo.io,
@@ -823,7 +819,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
           json: false,
           inputMode: 'disabled',
           queryHistory: 'default',
-          cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+          cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
           runtimeInstallPolicy: 'never',
         },
         testIo.io,
@@ -1128,7 +1124,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         command: 'run',
         projectDir: tempDir,
         inputMode: 'disabled',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         anthropicApiKeyEnv: 'ANTHROPIC_API_KEY', // pragma: allowlist secret
         llmModel: 'claude-sonnet-4-6',
         skipLlm: false,
@@ -1167,7 +1163,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         command: 'run',
         projectDir: tempDir,
         inputMode: 'disabled',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         llmBackend: 'vertex',
         vertexProject: 'local-gcp-project',
         vertexLocation: 'us-east5',
@@ -1204,7 +1200,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         command: 'run',
         projectDir: tempDir,
         inputMode: 'disabled',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         llmBackend: 'claude-code',
         llmModel: 'opus',
         skipLlm: false,
@@ -1312,7 +1308,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         projectDir: '/tmp/project',
         inputMode: 'disabled',
         yes: true,
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         skipLlm: true,
         skipEmbeddings: true,
         databaseDrivers: ['postgres'],
@@ -1653,7 +1649,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         queryFile: '/tmp/query.json',
         execute: false,
         format: 'json',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         runtimeInstallPolicy: 'auto',
       },
       autoIo.io,
@@ -1667,7 +1663,7 @@ describe('runKtxCli', () => {
         queryFile: '/tmp/query.json',
         execute: false,
         format: 'json',
-        cliVersion: '0.1.0-rc.1',
+        cliVersion: '0.0.0-private',
         runtimeInstallPolicy: 'never',
       },
       neverIo.io,

packages/cli/src/print-command-tree.ts

@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@ function stubPackageInfo(): KtxCliPackageInfo {
   return {
     name: '@ktx/cli',
     version: '0.0.0-docs',
-    packageVersion: '0.0.0-private',
-    runtimeVersion: '0.0.0-docs',
     contextPackageName: '@ktx/context',
   };
 }

packages/cli/src/release-version.ts

@@ -1,55 +1,9 @@
-import { existsSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
-import { dirname, join, parse } from 'node:path';
-import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
-
 const semverPattern =
   /^(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)(?:-([0-9A-Za-z-]+(?:\.[0-9A-Za-z-]+)*))?(?:\+[0-9A-Za-z-]+(?:\.[0-9A-Za-z-]+)*)?$/;
 
-function isPlainObject(value: unknown): value is Record<string, unknown> {
-  return typeof value === 'object' && value !== null && !Array.isArray(value);
-}
-
-function assertReleaseVersion(value: unknown, source: string): string {
+export function assertCliVersion(value: unknown, source: string): string {
   if (typeof value !== 'string' || !semverPattern.test(value)) {
-    throw new Error(`Invalid KTX release version in ${source}`);
+    throw new Error(`Invalid KTX CLI version in ${source}`);
   }
   return value;
 }
-
-function findReleasePolicyPath(startDir: string): string | undefined {
-  let current = startDir;
-  const root = parse(current).root;
-  while (true) {
-    const candidate = join(current, 'release-policy.json');
-    if (existsSync(candidate)) {
-      return candidate;
-    }
-    if (current === root) {
-      return undefined;
-    }
-    current = dirname(current);
-  }
-}
-
-function readSourceReleaseVersion(startDir = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url))): string | undefined {
-  const policyPath = findReleasePolicyPath(startDir);
-  if (!policyPath) {
-    return undefined;
-  }
-  const policy = JSON.parse(readFileSync(policyPath, 'utf8')) as unknown;
-  if (!isPlainObject(policy)) {
-    throw new Error(`Invalid KTX release policy: ${policyPath}`);
-  }
-  return assertReleaseVersion(policy.publicNpmPackageVersion, policyPath);
-}
-
-export function resolveKtxRuntimeVersion(input: {
-  packageName: string;
-  packageVersion: string;
-  startDir?: string;
-}): string {
-  if (input.packageName === '@kaelio/ktx') {
-    return assertReleaseVersion(input.packageVersion, `${input.packageName}/package.json`);
-  }
-  return readSourceReleaseVersion(input.startDir) ?? input.packageVersion;
-}