feat: the scheduled-nightly release driver (release nightly)

[Jammy2211]

Phase 2 of PyAutoLabs/PyAutoBuild#127 — the scheduled-nightly release driver, implementing the merged design (PyAutoBuild/docs/nightly_release_design.md §3–§6, §10). This is the path the AUTONOMY.md standing grant (2026-07-09) authorises.

What's here

• agents/conductors/release/nightly.sh — deterministic driver (no LLM in the release gate): kill switch (NIGHTLY_RELEASES, scheduled runs only) → same-day tag guard → activity gate → release-blocker check → the M1–M4 validate choreography (validate.sh Phases A→C, executing the emitted dispatch plans with gh — parameters parsed from the plans, nothing duplicated) → CI snapshot assembly (cloud-safe checks + ingest + state.aggregate()) → the release-ci readiness gate through the vitals faculty (GREEN only; there is no force input) → live dispatch of Build's release.yml → one Slack message per terminal outcome. --no-dispatch gives a strictly read-only gates-only run; NIGHTLY_WINDOW_START overrides the window for verification.
• activity_gate.py — the unit-tested judgment: 11-repo release-relevant set, pipeline self-commit exclusion (^Release <YYYY.…> message or the pipeline git identity), window verdict + summary.
• .github/workflows/nightly-release.yml — the 02:00 UTC scheduler (a scheduler, nothing more). dry_run defaults true until the arming checklist flips it; concurrency-guarded so two nights can't race.
• Routing: pyauto-brain release nightly; consult_vitals_verdict gains --profile passthrough (boundary preserved — only the vitals faculty talks to Heart for the verdict).
• tests/test_activity_gate.py — first tests/ in this repo; pins the self-commit exclusion contract so release.yml identity/message drift fails a test instead of re-counting releases as activity.

The activity-window anchor is the repo Actions variable NIGHTLY_LAST_WINDOW_END, advancing only on shipped / empty-skip outcomes — dry-runs and stops never swallow unshipped activity.

Validation

• pytest tests/ — 8 passed.
• bash -n on every touched script; workflow YAML parses.
• Live read-only run (release nightly --no-dispatch): 24h window correctly quiet (today's merges were organism repos, outside the release-relevant set); 8-day window found activity in all 11 repos; after labelling #126 the blocker gate stopped with exit 2 and the paging message.

API Changes

None (no Python library surface) — new conductor subcommand release nightly.

Scripts Changed

• agents/conductors/release/nightly.sh, activity_gate.py (new), release.sh (routing), agents/_common.sh (--profile), bin/pyauto-brain (help), .github/workflows/nightly-release.yml (new), tests/test_activity_gate.py (new).

Nothing is armed by merging this: the cron fires but exits at the kill switch on scheduled runs, and dry_run defaults true. Arming is the human checklist (design §9). Companion PRs: PyAutoBuild (cron removal), PyAutoHeart (release-ci profile), PyAutoMind#43 (digest watchdog) — links in a comment.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Jammy2211]

Phase-2 PR set for PyAutoLabs/PyAutoBuild#127: #63 (driver) · PyAutoLabs/PyAutoBuild#129 (cron removal) · PyAutoLabs/PyAutoHeart#47 (release-ci profile) · PyAutoLabs/PyAutoMind#43 (digest watchdog). Merge Brain and Build the same day (Build-first leaves no scheduled path; Brain-first double-schedules nothing — the driver dispatches, the old cron rehearses — but same-day is tidiest); Heart and Mind are independent.