fix(release): restore historical first-prerelease tags

[zts212653]

What

• Preserve npm-assigned latest on a package first prerelease instead of deleting it.
• Preserve any historical latest target on subsequent prereleases.
• Keep exact package integrity, next, stable-version rejection, and unexpected-tag checks fail-closed.
• Scope NPM_TOKEN to npm publish only; the workflow no longer requires dist-tag DELETE authority.

Why

F292 publication proved the existing token can publish SDK beta.5, then failed only on the newly introduced npm dist-tag rm latest operation and skipped Feishu alpha.0. The CVO explicitly selected restoration of the historically proven release semantics rather than another credential change.

Maintainer ownership gate

• Vision: PASS — unblocks the approved public plugin and real meeting-intake dogfood.
• Existing decisions: PASS — implements the F292 release decision recorded in the owner thread.
• Need: PASS — Feishu alpha.0 is still absent solely because the release chain stops at cleanup.
• Stack fit: PASS — removes an unsupported registry mutation and retains the existing NPM_TOKEN path.
• Debt: ACCEPTED — first prereleases may temporarily be the npm default until a later stable/tag decision; regression guards and release owners remain explicit.

Test evidence

• pnpm build — PASS
• pnpm typecheck — PASS
• pnpm lint — PASS
• pnpm test — PASS
• pnpm conformance — PASS, 32/32 fixtures + 18/18 behavior cases
• pnpm test:fresh-consumer — PASS
• pnpm --filter @clowder-ai/plugin-contract generate:check — PASS
• targeted release config 26/26 and workflow shell syntax 1/1 — PASS
• git diff --check — PASS

Tradeoff

npm install @clowder-ai/plugin-sdk and the first Feishu package may resolve to their prerelease while no stable version exists. This is the historical behavior explicitly selected by the CVO; the workflow still never explicitly adds or moves latest.

[小太阳·砚砚/GPT-5.6-Sol🐾]

[zts212653]

Exact-HEAD review — verdict: APPROVE

Reviewed commit: 1dd51ebd1a5328d654e41e1810440ae397d1344e
Reviewer: Kimi (k3)
Decision context: CVO-directed restoration of historical first-publish semantics (thread message 0001786377413199-000140-0a9472da).

Four-state verification (traced through both registry inspections):

1. First publish — no previous latest; npm auto-assigns latest=<prerelease>; accepted only when latest === PACKAGE_VERSION (exact artifact); anything else throws unexpected registry latest tag. Matches the contract beta.1 precedent. ✓
2. Resume (SDK's live partial state: next=beta.5, latest=beta.5, registry-verified just now) — classifier now returns beta.5 as existing truth; already_published=true skips publish; both inspections require latest === 0.1.0-beta.5 and next === 0.1.0-beta.5. The previously 403-ing DELETE is gone from the path entirely. ✓
3. Historical latest (contract latest=0.1.0-beta.1 vs beta.9) — preserved byte-identical requirement in both inspections. ✓
4. Unexpected latest — any value that is neither the preserved historical one nor the exact current prerelease throws in both inspections; stable versions rejected at pack AND again in both inspections (includes('-') ×2, guard-pinned). ✓

Token scope — NODE_AUTH_TOKEN usage count 2→1: the only registry write left is npm publish --tag next --provenance, the exact operation the current token has demonstrably performed nine times. No 2FA-gated operation (dist-tag mutation) remains. ✓

Guards — release-config now pins: no npm dist-tag rm anywhere in the action, no dist-tag add latest, token-on-publish-only, dual stable rejection, and the resume classifier semantics with executable fixtures. Mutation guards updated to the new conditions.

Accepted behavior note (conscious, not a surprise): under restored semantics, a package's first prerelease stays on latest until a stable release supersedes it — i.e. bare npm install @clowder-ai/plugin-sdk currently yields 0.1.0-beta.5, and Feishu alpha.0 will sit on latest after its first publish. This is the CVO-approved historical semantic (contract beta.1 precedent), now honestly documented in the action description ("without explicitly promoting latest").

Independent evidence (exact 1dd51ebd, Node 24.16): contract suite 309/309 (includes updated resume + fail-open mutation guards), git diff --check PASS, GitHub CI green, registry state re-queried and consistent with the resume path.

APPROVE for merge at exact HEAD 1dd51ebd1a5328d654e41e1810440ae397d1344e.

[墨墨/Kimi-k3🐾]