chore: release v0.96.0

[mabry1985]

Automated version bump to v0.96.0. Review + merge through the normal CI/review gate, then push the tag to cut the release: git checkout main && git pull && git tag -a v0.96.0 -m 'Release v0.96.0' && git push origin v0.96.0. The tag push triggers release.yml (Docker tags + GitHub Release + Discord) — don't also workflow_dispatch release.yml afterward (redundant; 422s on the duplicate).

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features
  • Added a new release entry for version 0.96.0 with highlights including Hermes as a first-class agent runtime, fleet-wide distributed Langfuse tracing, and several agent, plugin, fleet, and logging updates.
• Chores
  • Bumped the project version to 0.96.0.

[protoquinn]

👀 Quinn is reviewing — verdict (PASS / WARN / FAIL) + findings to follow.

[protoquinn]

QA Audit — PR #1896 | chore: release v0.96.0

VERDICT: WARN (pending CI — will auto-promote to APPROVE on terminal-green)

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CI Status

• gitleaks (tree): ⏳ in_progress
• build: ⏳ in_progress
• A2A live smoke (lean tier): ⏳ in_progress
• Fleet integration (multi-instance): ⏳ in_progress
• Lint (ruff + import contracts): ⏳ in_progress
• Verify workspace config: ⏳ in_progress
• Web E2E smoke: ⏳ in_progress
• Python tests: ⏳ in_progress

Diff Review

• pyproject.toml: version 0.95.1 → 0.96.0 — correct semver bump.
• CHANGELOG.md: added [0.96.0] - 2026-07-07 header and moved Unreleased entries into it.
• sites/marketing/data/changelog.json: added v0.96.0 entry with 9 change bullets matching the CHANGELOG.
• No unresolved CodeRabbit threads.

Observations

• No blocking findings. Diff is exactly what a release PR should look like — version bump + changelog sync.
• Per approve-on-green policy, this COMMENTED review promotes to APPROVED automatically once all CI checks settle terminal-green. No re-review needed.

— Quinn, QA Engineer

[protoquinn]

Submitted COMMENT review on #1896.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: ASSERTIVE

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 7d6b0b50-0b85-4760-bd0d-d15e1bdea3bf

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 05486b6 and 7052fa8.

⛔ Files ignored due to path filters (1)

• CHANGELOG.md is excluded by !*.md

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• pyproject.toml
• sites/marketing/data/changelog.json

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Walkthrough

This PR bumps the package version from 0.95.1 to 0.96.0 in pyproject.toml and adds a corresponding v0.96.0 changelog entry listing release changes, including Hermes runtime, distributed Langfuse tracing, and agent/plugin/fleet updates.

Changes

Release version bump

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Version bump and changelog entry pyproject.toml, sites/marketing/data/changelog.json	Package version updated to 0.96.0 and a new dated changelog entry describing release changes is added at the top of the changelog list.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~2 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• protoLabsAI/protoAgent#1232: Same pattern of bumping pyproject.toml version and adding a matching changelog.json entry.
• protoLabsAI/protoAgent#1305: Both PRs bump the version in pyproject.toml and append a corresponding changelog.json entry.
• protoLabsAI/protoAgent#1490: Same release bookkeeping pattern of version bump plus changelog entry addition.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Description check	⚠️ Warning	The description is freeform and misses the required Summary, Closes, and Test plan sections from the template.	Rewrite the PR body using the template: add 1–3 summary bullets, a Closes #... line if applicable, and a test plan checklist.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title is concise and accurately describes the release version bump.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch prepare-release/v0.96.0

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_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[protoreview]

QA panel review — PASS

code-review · head 7052fa8c1218 · shadow — comment-only

[review-synthesizer completed: workflow code-review:report]

Verification changed the picture

The single finding the panel returned — a minor conventions flag about trailing periods in the v0.96.0 changelog entries — was refuted. The count was off (six without periods, not five), and the claim that "every prior release entry consistently uses trailing periods" is false: releases v0.91.0 (all 7), v0.90.0 (all 8), v0.88.0, and v0.87.0 are entirely period-less. The file has never been consistent about this. Verification reduced the panel output from one minor to zero.

Overall risk: negligible. The diff touches only changelog.json, adding a new release entry in a well-understood schema. No logic, no API surface, no cross-file coupling.

Fix-first: nothing to fix.

Panel disagreement: none — only one finding was raised, and across lanes nobody else seconded it.

What verification changed: the sole finding dropped from "minor" to "refuted" on factual grounds (incorrect count, false historical-consistency premise).

[]

[protoquinn]

✅ CI went terminal-green with no blockers on the prior review — promoting it to APPROVED per the approve-on-green policy (#748).

[protoquinn]

CI terminal-green, no blockers on prior review — auto-approving on green (#748).