promoting-dev-to-main

# Promoting dev to main ## Core rule Merge `dev → main` release PRs with a **merge commit**. Never squash or rebase these promotions. Ordinary contribution PRs still target `dev` and may be squash-merged. The release promotion is the exception because `main` must retain `dev` in its ancestry. Squashing a promotion makes the next release re-present old commits and can create large false conflicts. ## Workflow 1. Confirm the PR is exactly `base=main`, `head=dev` and no duplicate release PR is open. 2. Review `main..dev`, required CI, and deployment checks. 3. In GitHub, open the merge-method dropdown and choose **Create a merge commit**. With the CLI, use: ```bash gh pr merge <number> --repo Human-Agent-Society/CORAL --merge ``` 4. Keep the long-lived `dev` branch. Do not delete or force-push it. 5. Fetch both branches and verify the released `dev` tip is an ancestor of `main`: ```bash git fetch origin dev main git merge-base --is-ancestor origin/dev origin/main ``` Exit status `0` is required. 6. Confirm post-merge CI, release automation, deployments, and production smoke checks. ## If GitHub reports conflicts Do not force-rebase the shared `dev` branch. First inspect the topology and reproduce conflicts with `git merge-tree`. If an earlier release was squash-merged, `main` may have the same tree as an earlier `dev` commit without sharing its ancestry. Verify tree equivalence before choosing a repair. Prefer merging `main` back i...