chore(release): prepare ACE 0.6.0 candidate

.github/workflows/publish.yml

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ on:
       tag:
         description: Git tag to publish
         required: true
-        default: v0.5.0
+        default: v0.6.0
 
 permissions:
   contents: read
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ jobs:
             exit 1
           fi
           adapter_version="$(python -c 'import pathlib, tomllib; print(tomllib.loads(pathlib.Path("adapters/reference_workspace_action/pyproject.toml").read_text())["project"]["version"])')"
-          if [ "$adapter_version" != "0.1.0" ]; then
-            echo "Reference workspace adapter version must be 0.1.0; found $adapter_version" >&2
+          if [ "$adapter_version" != "0.2.0" ]; then
+            echo "Reference workspace adapter version must be 0.2.0; found $adapter_version" >&2
             exit 1
           fi
 
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ jobs:
               pathlib.Path("adapters/reference_workspace_action/pyproject.toml").read_text()
           )["project"]
           assert project["name"] == "ace-reference-workspace-action"
-          assert project["dependencies"] == ["ace-core>=0.5.0,<0.6"]
+          assert project["dependencies"] == ["ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7"]
           PY
 
       - name: Install build tooling
@@ -74,6 +74,21 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           python -m build --outdir dist/core
           python -m build --outdir dist/reference-adapter adapters/reference_workspace_action
+
+          # The root project uses build_backend.py directly. The independently packaged adapter
+          # uses setuptools, so normalize its completed sdist through the same fixed-epoch helper
+          # before validation and upload.
+          python - <<'PY'
+          import os
+          from pathlib import Path
+
+          from build_backend import _normalize_sdist
+
+          archives = sorted(Path("dist/reference-adapter").glob("*.tar.gz"))
+          assert len(archives) == 1, archives
+          _normalize_sdist(archives[0], int(os.environ["SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH"]))
+          PY
+
           python -m twine check dist/core/* dist/reference-adapter/*
 
       - uses: actions/upload-artifact@ea165f8d65b6e75b540449e92b4886f43607fa02 # v4

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -4,6 +4,32 @@ Notable user- and contributor-visible changes are recorded here.
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+## 0.6.0
+
+### Measured Intelligence
+
+- Add domain-neutral, versioned criteria, condition, evidence, evaluation, and governance-proposal
+  contracts that link an intelligence artifact or cognition revision to exact material-use,
+  Decision, reviewed Action, observed-result, Outcome, control, and cutoff provenance.
+- Classify bounded matched evidence as `useful`, `harmful`, or `unproven` without accepting a
+  caller-supplied quality label. Missing attribution, mismatched conditions, future leakage,
+  unavailable outcomes, duplicate evidence, and insufficient matched support remain explicit.
+- Persist evaluation and proposal receipts atomically through Core's append-only record boundary.
+  Exact historical replay survives restart; divergent replay, scope drift, and unauthorized
+  promotion fail closed.
+- Keep promotion, rejection, rollback, and retirement proposals non-effective, non-selectable, and
+  unapplied. A separately authorized reviewer may record an accept/reject `no_action` Decision but
+  cannot silently change effective state.
+
+### Release and hardening boundary
+
+- Version the Core distribution at 0.6.0 and the separately packaged reference action adapter at
+  0.2.0 with an `ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7` dependency. The unchanged adapter implementation retains its
+  0.1.0 capability artifact identity.
+- Add the issue #49 F1 generation guard and durable receipt reconciliation, and pin the legacy
+  optimizer query to `self_optimizer_proposal`. F3 remains unresolved and tracked separately under
+  its explicit containment and 2026-11-05 deadline.
+
 ### Owner-governed monitoring
 
 - Add public append-only lifecycle requests, receipts, and a durable application service for one

Dockerfile

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 FROM python:3.12-slim
 
-ARG ACE_VERSION=0.5.0
+ARG ACE_VERSION=0.6.0
 LABEL org.opencontainers.image.title="ace-core" \
       org.opencontainers.image.version="${ACE_VERSION}" \
       org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/augmented-cognition-engine/core"

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ and provider-neutral, it commits every
 observation, derivation, brief, decision, action, and outcome as an immutable, product-scoped record
 under explicit authority.
 
-![version 0.5.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/version-0.5.0-blue)
+![version 0.6.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/version-0.6.0-blue)
 ![Python 3.12](https://img.shields.io/badge/python-3.12-blue)
 ![License Apache-2.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache--2.0-green)
 ![status: developer preview](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-developer%20preview-orange)
@@ -342,23 +342,31 @@ transforms only), `ace.intelligence.personas/v1alpha1` (personas plus signal-rou
 
 ---
 
-## What 0.5.0 adds
-
-0.5.0 is the **Reasoning into Action** release. It carries the governed cognition and Intelligence
-foundation from 0.4.x through an exact approved Decision into bounded, attributable work.
-
-- **Governed action execution.** Core binds an authorized Decision to one effect-free adapter plan,
-  persists admission before execution, and records success, failure, partial effect, timeout,
-  cancellation, or restart uncertainty honestly.
-- **Human review, verification, repair, and promotion.** Exact-material review happens before an
-  effect; verification and promotion remain separate after it; repair creates a linked successor
-  and is forbidden when the earlier effect is unknown.
-- **Restart-safe task control.** Negotiated cancellation, declared wall-clock limits, terminal
-  resource receipts, durable attempt identity, and deterministic linked replay support the bounded
-  journey.
-- **A separately packaged reference adapter.** `ace-reference-workspace-action==0.1.0` imports only
-  the public Core contract, is explicitly constructed and registered, and performs one create-only
-  workspace export. It is attached to the 0.5.0 GitHub Release, not bundled in `ace-core`.
+## What 0.6.0 adds
+
+0.6.0 is the **Measured Intelligence** release candidate. It adds a bounded, domain-neutral way to
+determine whether an intelligence artifact or governed cognition revision helped, harmed, or
+remains unproven under explicit product-owned criteria. The candidate is not a published release
+and no governance proposal applies itself.
+
+- **Exact evaluation identity.** Product-owned criteria, matched conditions, evaluated artifacts,
+  material-use attribution, Decisions, reviewed Actions, observed results, Outcomes, controls, and
+  cutoffs remain exact immutable coordinates rather than free-form claims.
+- **Useful, harmful, or unproven.** Missing attribution, mismatched conditions, post-cutoff
+  evidence, unavailable outcomes, duplicate evidence, and insufficient matched support fail closed
+  to explicit exclusions or `unproven` rather than manufacturing benefit.
+- **Append-only governance proposals.** Evaluations may propose promotion, rejection, rollback, or
+  retirement, but every proposal remains non-effective, non-selectable, unapplied, and subject to
+  separate human/Core authority. An authorized disposition records `accept` or `reject` as a
+  durable `no_action` Decision without silently changing live state.
+- **Durable replay and provenance.** Evaluation and proposal receipts reopen exactly across a real
+  store restart; stable replay returns historical material, while divergent replay, scope drift,
+  and unauthorized promotion fail closed.
+
+The bounded **Reasoning into Action** topology introduced in 0.5.0 remains unchanged: one ACE host,
+one durable store, and explicitly trusted in-process adapters. The separately packaged reference
+adapter candidate is distribution 0.2.0 with `ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7`; its unchanged executable
+implementation keeps artifact identity 0.1.0.
 
 The governed Intelligence foundation introduced in 0.4.0 remains part of the same install:
 
@@ -722,8 +730,9 @@ stay host-free, and host adapters are the only `core.engine` edge into the publi
 
 ## Maturity and limitations
 
-**0.5.0 is a developer preview and a single-node Reasoning into Action release.** Read this section
-before you build on it.
+**0.6.0 is an unpublished developer-preview release candidate.** Its Measured Intelligence claim
+is bounded to the recorded product criteria, matched controls, exact provenance, and single-node
+topology. Read this section before you build on it.
 
 What is bounded:
 
@@ -767,10 +776,10 @@ The north-star loop is:
 understand → reason → decide → act with authority → observe outcomes → improve future reasoning
 ```
 
-0.5.0 delivers the bounded Reasoning into Action span of that loop: an approved decision proceeds
-through exact human review into attributable action, separate verification, linked repair when
-effects are known, and explicit promotion. 0.6.0 (*Measured Intelligence*) is next and promotes or
-retires reasoning revisions because of measured outcomes.
+0.5.0 delivers the bounded Reasoning into Action span of that loop. The unpublished 0.6.0
+(*Measured Intelligence*) candidate connects that journey to later product-owned outcomes and may
+propose promotion, rejection, rollback, or retirement without applying any of them. Public artifact
+installation and release-owner acceptance remain separate gates.
 
 - [Public roadmap](https://github.com/augmented-cognition-engine/core/blob/main/ROADMAP.md) — outcome
   state, sequencing, and declared boundaries

ace/__init__.py

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """Public Python package identity for ACE."""
 
-__version__ = "0.5.0"
+__version__ = "0.6.0"

ace_mcp_client/__init__.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 # ace_mcp_client — standalone MCP thin client for ACE
 # Zero engine imports. Pure HTTP calls to the ACE API.
 
-__version__ = "0.5.0"
+__version__ = "0.6.0"

adapters/reference_workspace_action/README.md

@@ -10,9 +10,12 @@ execution creates a new file with exclusive-create semantics. Existing files, sy
 parent directories, absolute paths, traversal, and paths outside the workspace fail closed.
 
 This package is not included in the `ace-core` wheel and is not dynamically discovered. A host must
-install it, construct it, and register its exact artifact identity explicitly. The ACE 0.5.0
-release workflow builds it independently and attaches its wheel and source distribution to the
-matching GitHub Release; only the Core distribution is sent to PyPI.
+install it, construct it, and register its exact artifact identity explicitly. The ACE 0.6.0
+release-candidate workflow builds it independently and would attach its wheel and source
+distribution to a separately authorized matching GitHub Release; only the Core distribution would
+be sent to PyPI.
 
-The dependency begins at `ace-core>=0.5.0,<0.6`. Install `ace-core==0.5.0` from PyPI and the adapter
-wheel from the public [`v0.5.0` GitHub Release](https://github.com/augmented-cognition-engine/core/releases/tag/v0.5.0).
+Distribution 0.2.0 targets `ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7`. The executable implementation is unchanged from
+0.1.0, so its public capability artifact identity remains 0.1.0 rather than manufacturing a new
+implementation identity for dependency metadata alone. The 0.2.0 archives remain unpublished
+candidate artifacts until the separate release gate passes.

adapters/reference_workspace_action/pyproject.toml

@@ -4,12 +4,12 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "ace-reference-workspace-action"
-version = "0.1.0"
+version = "0.2.0"
 description = "Reference trusted workspace-export action adapter for ACE"
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.12"
 license = "Apache-2.0"
-dependencies = ["ace-core>=0.5.0,<0.6"]
+dependencies = ["ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7"]
 
 [tool.setuptools.packages.find]
 where = ["src"]

adapters/reference_workspace_action/tests/test_adapter.py

@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import ast
+import tomllib
 from datetime import UTC, datetime, timedelta
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import pytest
 from ace_reference_workspace_action import (
     ACTION_TYPE,
+    ADAPTER_ARTIFACT,
     ReferenceWorkspaceActionAdapter,
     ReferenceWorkspaceActionError,
 )
@@ -27,6 +29,16 @@
 PRODUCT = "product:reference-action"
 
 
+def test_distribution_targets_core_06_without_rekeying_unchanged_implementation() -> None:
+    project = tomllib.loads((Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "pyproject.toml").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))[
+        "project"
+    ]
+
+    assert project["version"] == "0.2.0"
+    assert project["dependencies"] == ["ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7"]
+    assert ADAPTER_ARTIFACT.implementation_version == "0.1.0"
+
+
 def _precondition(kind: str, sequence: int) -> GovernedStateHeadPreconditionV1Alpha1:
     return GovernedStateHeadPreconditionV1Alpha1(
         state_kind=kind,

core/engine/version.py

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """Single source of truth for the ACE distribution version."""
 
-VERSION = "0.5.0"
+VERSION = "0.6.0"

docs/design/measured-intelligence-v0.6.0-release-candidate-work-packet-v1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+# ACE 0.6.0 Measured Intelligence release-candidate work packet (v1)
+
+Status: **bounded release candidate; unpublished; does not close issue #38**
+
+Date: 2026-08-11
+
+## Outcome
+
+Freeze the final package and build identities for the already merged Measured Intelligence runtime
+without merging, tagging, publishing, or claiming the milestone complete. The release candidate
+must preserve the public product promise:
+
+> ACE can determine, under explicit and inspectable product-defined criteria, whether an
+> intelligence artifact or governed cognition revision helped, harmed, or remains unproven, and
+> can propose—but never silently apply—promotion, rejection, rollback, or retirement.
+
+The smallest accepted journey remains:
+
+```text
+artifact or cognition revision
+→ exact material-use attribution
+→ Decision
+→ reviewed Action
+→ observed result and Outcome
+→ matched product-owned evaluation
+→ useful | harmful | unproven
+→ non-effective governance proposal
+→ optional authorized no-action disposition
+```
+
+## Source and dependencies
+
+This packet starts from exact Core default-branch commit
+`f0d2191ba7cf2d33ccfc3c821422786929be8349`. Runtime Measured Intelligence, issue #49 F1/F5
+hardening, and owner-governed monitoring are already merged inputs. The public issue #49 checklist
+marks F1 and F5 complete; unresolved, unwaived F3 is re-dated to `2026-11-05` under documented
+containment.
+
+Release closeout still depends on review and merge of Core PR #95, review and merge of World PR
+#17, final artifact verification from the eventual release merge, clean public-index installation,
+compatibility/security acceptance, and explicit release-owner approval. This packet does not infer
+any of those outcomes.
+
+## Candidate identities
+
+| Artifact | Candidate identity | Publication boundary |
+|---|---|---|
+| Core + Intelligence | `ace-core==0.6.0` | PyPI only after a separately authorized exact `v0.6.0` release |
+| Reference action adapter | `ace-reference-workspace-action==0.2.0` | separate wheel and sdist attached to the Core GitHub Release; never bundled into Core or uploaded by the Core PyPI job |
+
+The adapter distribution changes because its dependency window becomes `ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7`.
+Its executable implementation is unchanged, so the public capability artifact identity remains
+0.1.0. Dependency metadata alone must not manufacture a new implementation identity or invalidate
+accepted action receipts.
+
+## Acceptance
+
+1. Every Core package, import, engine, reference-extension, lock, container, and workflow identity
+   agrees on 0.6.0.
+2. The adapter distribution is 0.2.0, depends exactly on `ace-core>=0.6.0,<0.7`, retains executable
+   artifact identity 0.1.0, and imports only public `ace.core` contracts.
+3. Core and adapter wheel/source archives build twice under one fixed source epoch with byte-equal
+   pairs, pass strict metadata validation, keep tests out of both wheels, exclude unintended
+   packages, and keep adapter code out of Core.
+4. A clean Python 3.12 environment installs the exact candidate archives, resolves both versions
+   from `site-packages`, exposes exactly eleven thin MCP tools, and runs the focused package,
+   measured-impact, authority, replay, and adapter suites.
+5. Required repository lint, fast, naked-kernel, security, Canvas, and Docker gates pass on the
+   final draft-PR head.
+6. The draft records exact hashes and limitations. No tag, GitHub Release, PyPI upload, milestone
+   closure, or supported/public claim occurs in this packet.
+
+## Fail-closed release conditions
+
+The candidate fails if any identity diverges; a version is already occupied on PyPI; the Core
+archive contains adapter code; an archive contains tests, credentials, or local build state; a
+proposal becomes effective or selectable; historical replay reauthorizes or recomputes; the World
+journey requires domain nouns in Core/Intelligence; or an unavailable outcome is reported as
+benefit.
+
+## Non-claims
+
+This packet does not prove causality, general benefit, SI4 completion, live freshness, hostile-code
+isolation, distributed execution, cross-process exactly-once effects, automatic promotion, or a
+general model of reality. Market's independent `unproven` reproduction remains valid evidence that
+the neutral contract can abstain; it is not a release blocker or a harmful result.
+
+## Owned files, rollback, and deletion criteria
+
+This packet owns only version identities, release workflow guards, candidate-facing README and
+changelog text, focused version tests, this work packet, and its candidate evidence. It changes no
+schema, runtime contract, durable record, authority path, Domain Pack, connector policy, MCP tool,
+tag, or publication state.
+
+Rollback reverts only those release-candidate changes. Preserve the evidence as a point-in-time
+record if final merge identities or artifact epochs change, and supersede it with public release
+evidence only after the actual tag, trusted publication, clean public-index installation, World
+artifact reproduction, and release-owner acceptance all pass.

docs/evidence/README.md

@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ superseded by later work and is kept for audit trail only.
   — candidate in-transaction generation guard, durable review reconciliation, and legacy table pin; not release closeout
 - [Measured Intelligence merged-source convergence](measured-intelligence-v0.6.0-merged-source-convergence-candidate-v1.md)
   — exact merged Core artifact, public World reproduction, independent Market restart proof, and remaining release gates; not release closeout
+- [ACE 0.6.0 Measured Intelligence release candidate](measured-intelligence-v0.6.0-release-candidate-v1.md)
+  — reproducible package identities, installed-artifact proof, and green required CI; unpublished
 - [State Engine TP0 current-runtime baseline](state-engine-tp0-runtime-baseline-v1.md)
 - [State Engine TP1A truthful observation outcomes](state-engine-tp1a-truthful-observation-outcomes-v1.md)
 - [State Engine TP1 reliable memory lifecycle](state-engine-tp1-reliable-memory-lifecycle-v1.md)