Prepare Code Freeze

Companion Guidance

Use update-project-version for version semantics, maintain-ci if the freeze changes nightly or release-branch automation, prepare-pr before opening the PR, and create-rc-tag to create the initial release candidate.

Workflow

Assume upstream is the NVIDIA repository remote (NVIDIA/NeMo-Fabric) and origin is a maintainer's fork.

1. Confirm the target release version from upstream/main:Cargo.toml. Derive the release branch as release/<major>.<minor>.
2. Prompt for <next-version> if the user did not provide it. This is the version that main moves to after the release branch is cut.
3. Fetch the latest main and create the release branch from upstream/main: