[rogerchappel]

Summary

• Add a maintainer-focused pre-release checklist to README with concrete clean-tree, validation, and npm registry status checks.
• Clearly state that registry install and npx remain unavailable when the package is not found, and require explicit maintainer authorization before release.

Commits

• 501926a docs: add maintainer pre-release checklist

Files changed

• README.md

Verification

• git diff --check — passed.
• npm ci — passed.
• npm run release:check — passed (31 tests; types, build, CLI, package and version smokes).
• npm pack --dry-run — passed.

Manual review

• Verified pull requests run CI and release dry-run only. The publishing release workflow triggers only on v*.*.* tags; this branch push and draft PR do not publish or deploy.
• Read .github/pull_request_template.md; this body follows its summary, verification, risk, rollback, and human-decision sections.

Risk Level

• Low

Rollback Plan

• Revert the documentation commit.

Human Decision Needed

• Maintainer review