Align project policies and simplify the release workflow

docs/policy/agents.md

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+# Agent Policy
+
+**Base Policy Version:** 1.1
+
+**Last Updated:** 2026-09-23
+
+## Purpose
+
+Agents must follow these house rules before recommending, planning, or
+implementing repository changes.
+
+## Implementation Discipline
+
+Write the simplest idiomatic code that satisfies the user's request.
+Simplify the mechanism, not the user's choices. Do not implicitly strengthen
+requirements, restrictions, or guarantees.
+
+**Keep implementation machinery proportionate.** Use straightforward,
+idiomatic code and introduce only the machinery needed to support the requested
+behavior and flexibility. Optimize for conceptual simplicity and
+maintainability, not for the fewest lines, fewest options, or narrowest product
+surface.
+
+**Do not invent restrictions.** Do not reject, prohibit, constrain, cap,
+harden, or otherwise narrow behavior unless required by the user, an explicit
+repository contract, or an unavoidable correctness constraint. Preserve
+operator and caller choice where policy has not been established. If an
+additional restriction appears advisable, present it as a decision rather than
+silently implementing it.
+
+A correctness constraint must follow from the requested behavior or an
+established invariant, not from the convenience of the chosen implementation.
+Explain the specific failure it prevents and why a less restrictive
+implementation cannot satisfy the contract.
+
+**An implementation detail is not repository policy.** Tests and documentation
+must not elevate incidental behavior into a durable guarantee or restriction
+unless that behavior was expressly selected as part of the contract. Existing
+explicit contracts remain authoritative; changing or weakening one requires a
+deliberate decision rather than being inferred from this principle.
+
+Agent-authored plans, tests, documentation, and prior implementations are not
+evidence that an additional restriction was deliberately approved. Identify the
+authorizing requirement or decision; when that authority is unclear, surface
+the ambiguity rather than treating repetition as approval.
+
+**Do not invent guarantees.** Do not strengthen public contracts, guarantees,
+or invariants beyond those expressly requested by the user.
+
+**Use the standard library.** Prefer simple, idiomatic standard-library
+implementations when they satisfy the requested behavior. Do not add custom
+power-loss protection or defenses against privileged concurrent filesystem
+actors unless expressly required. Preserve existing repository contracts.
+
+## Git Commit Policy
+
+By default, create a commit after completing each coherent unit of work, using a
+concise, plain-English message describing what changed. This policy is standing
+authorization to create those local commits; a separate user request is not
+required. An explicit user instruction to leave work uncommitted takes precedence.
+
+A unit of work is a focused, reviewable outcome, including its relevant tests and
+documentation. Do not commit after every intermediate edit or create empty commits.
+Complete the appropriate validation before committing. If work is incomplete or
+validation is blocked, report that state rather than presenting it as completed.
+
+Before committing:
+
+1. Run `git status --short` and review the relevant diff, including any staged
+   changes. Identify changes that predate the current unit of work.
+2. Exclude secrets, local environment files, generated junk, and unrelated changes.
+3. Stage only the files or hunks belonging to the completed unit. Use `git add .`
+   only when every included change belongs to that unit. Do not disturb unrelated
+   staged or unstaged work.
+4. Review `git diff --staged` and run appropriate checks for the change. Do not
+   repeat checks already passed for unchanged content merely to create a commit.
+5. Review `git log --oneline -n 10` and use
+   `git commit -m "<concise plain-English commit message>"`.
+6. Report the commit identifier and any remaining uncommitted work.
+
+If the unit cannot be safely separated from pre-existing work, leave it uncommitted
+and explain the overlap rather than silently including that work. If a commit
+fails, preserve the changes and report the failure; do not bypass hooks.
+
+Default commit authorization does not authorize pushing, publishing, amending,
+resetting, reverting, or rewriting history. Those actions require a separate user
+instruction. Do not use `git commit -a` or `git commit --no-verify` to bypass the
+staging and validation discipline above.