Release and store shipping

CI proves the code; a release proves the artifact. Everything here is about the exact bundle a stranger installs — built with R8, obfuscation, tree-shaking, and release-mode asserts stripped, signed by a key you must never lose, declaring things about itself to a store that will pull the app if they are untrue. This skill starts where ci-pipeline-and-gates ends and where design-review-workflow signs off.

Building, signing, uploading, and tagging are side-effecting and irreversible in part (a published build number can never be reused; an iOS build can never be unshipped). Never run them because a task seemed to imply a release — run them only when the developer asks for a release by name. Reading and enforcing the config rules below is always in scope.