Public release checklist — companion candidate#

This is an unreleased development candidate. See release readiness for exact observed results. Historical v0.4.1 verification remains in VERIFICATION-v0.4.1.md; its checkmarks do not certify this candidate. No publication is authorized by this checklist.

Implemented and checked#

• Existing repository and stable release preserved; development uses a separate worktree.
• Coordinating runtime frozen; original source hashes unchanged.
• Exact installed-model selection, durable jobs/results, outbox and review gates.
• Duplicate/restart/cancellation/ownership and unavailable-review regressions.
• Real local GPT-OSS code, test and documentation contributions, including rejections.
• Native Tk dock controls and independent controller/worker lifetime tests.
• User, contributor, configuration, security, upgrade and architecture documentation.
• Public allowlist audit; wheel/source content inspection; clean venv install.
• Synthetic v0.4.1 database upgrade and uninstall preserving data.
• Obsolete/unreachable code removed; meaningful safety tests and evidence retained.
• MIT and separately installed dependency notices retained.
• Actual pre-companion v0.5 feature-preservation matrix and reachable catalog/workflow regressions.
• Durable workflow steps/checkpoints reuse the existing engine, budgets and evidence validation.
• Exact installed Qwen3 14B retained and exercised in independent sequential consensus.
• Direct Bridge versus workflow/consensus development contributions identified explicitly.

Remaining gates#

• Specifically approved live Codex callback and exact-session resumption.
• Packaged local workflow with independently recorded Codex review and finalization (no authenticated callback claim).
• Fresh Windows-machine acceptance beyond this host's clean virtual environment.
• Python minimum-version and other supported-platform compatibility matrix.
• Active CPU/peak memory, true callback latency and perceptual UI measurements.
• Native symlink rejection under Windows Developer Mode or equivalent symlink privilege.

The focused recovery repair resolves the reproduced cross-database process-crash blocker. Legacy missing output and ambiguous records remain explicit intervention cases. Callback, fresh-machine and visual gates are separate from that verdict; the original broad preservation audit is retained.

The candidate does not bundle a model, require one public model tag, automatically buy credits, or publish releases. Pattern scans and tests are scoped evidence, not proof against every possible security issue. Keep raw task/results and model history private; publication needs a separate explicit decision after its gates.