diff --git a/.claude/skills/intentumdiff-release/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/intentumdiff-release/SKILL.md
index 51ca2c6..3d5c319 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/intentumdiff-release/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/intentumdiff-release/SKILL.md
@@ -63,6 +63,120 @@ impossible.
 3. Tag from `main`; the tag triggers publication
 4. Open the next RC branch immediately, so in-flight work has a base
 
+## Definition of ready to release
+
+**Nothing is published until every box below is ticked.** Not "mostly", not "the important
+ones" — all of them. This list exists because 0.0.1 was published with green CI and had to
+be pulled from three registries within a day.
+
+If a box cannot be ticked, the release does not happen. The correct response to schedule
+pressure is a later release, never a lower bar.
+
+### Artefact
+
+- [ ] `smoke_published_wheel.py` passes against a **locally built** artefact
+- [ ] Every check inside it passes — install, import, console script, `python -m`, a real
+      diff, **clean stderr**, **all URLs resolve**
+- [ ] The extension VSIX installs into a **clean VS Code profile** and works there
+- [ ] Extension host log is clean — no errors, no warnings about missing files
+- [ ] Tested on every platform the artefact claims to support
+
+### Docs
+
+- [ ] Documentation site is **live**, not planned
+- [ ] **Every** example in **every** README has been extracted and run verbatim, and its
+      real output matches what the doc claims
+- [ ] **Every** link in user-facing docs resolves — READMEs, error messages, `--help`,
+      the Marketplace listing
+- [ ] No reference to a page, domain or command that does not exist
+- [ ] Demo media shows the CURRENT build, not an older UI
+
+### Correctness
+
+- [ ] Full test suite green in every affected repo, run in **that** repo
+- [ ] The headline claim demonstrably works on a real repository — not a fixture
+- [ ] Known limitations are written down and honest. A missing capability documented is
+      fine; one implied to work is not
+- [ ] No regression against the previous release on a real-world diff
+
+### Release hygiene
+
+- [ ] Version is a **prerelease** unless the artefact has been used in anger
+- [ ] Tag matches the manifest exactly
+- [ ] CHANGELOG says what changed, in the user's terms
+- [ ] Prior broken versions yanked or unpublished
+- [ ] A rollback plan exists — and note that for PyPI and the marketplaces, "rollback"
+      means yank plus a new version, never delete
+
+### The rule behind the list
+
+**Green CI is not evidence a product works.** It is evidence the code compiles and the
+tests we thought to write pass. Every 0.0.1 defect passed CI and was obvious thirty seconds
+after installing the package.
+
+Before publishing, someone must install the artefact and use it the way the README says to.
+Every time. No exceptions, however small the change looks.
+
+## MANDATORY: smoke-test the artefact before any publish
+
+**CI proves the code builds. It does not prove the artefact works.** These are different
+claims, and only the second one matters to a user.
+
+IntentumDiff **0.0.1 shipped broken and had to be pulled from PyPI and both extension
+marketplaces**, despite every check being green. Four defects, all invisible to CI and all
+obvious within thirty seconds of installing the published package:
+
+| Defect | Why CI could not see it |
+|---|---|
+| ~69 "Failed to catalog parser plugin" errors on every run | the distribution name was missing from the package's own first-party trust list; in a source checkout the distribution resolves differently and the check passes |
+| `python -m intentumdiff` failed | no `__main__.py`; nothing in CI invoked it |
+| Error message linked to an unregistered domain | no test followed a documented URL |
+| README's headline example raised `NameError` | it was a fragment; nothing ever ran it |
+
+None of these is exotic. All four were found by installing the wheel and typing what the
+README says to type.
+
+### The gate
+
+Before tagging **any** release:
+
+```bash
+python scripts/smoke_published_wheel.py --wheel dist/<built>.whl   # pre-publish
+python scripts/smoke_published_wheel.py                            # post-publish
+```
+
+It installs into a clean venv and checks what a user does in their first five minutes:
+install, import, console script, `python -m`, a real diff, **clean stderr**, and that
+**every URL in the output resolves**.
+
+Two of those deserve emphasis, because exit codes hide both:
+
+- **Clean stderr.** 0.0.1 returned correct results *and* printed 69 errors. Exit code 0.
+- **Live URLs.** A link in an error message is a promise; a dead one is worse than none.
+
+### Beyond the script
+
+The script is the floor, not the ceiling. Also required before a release:
+
+- **Run every example in every README verbatim.** Extract the code block, execute it,
+  compare against the documented output. A fragment that cannot run is a broken example.
+- **Follow every link in user-facing docs.** Dead links are how docs rot silently.
+- **Exercise the extension in a vanilla VS Code**, not a dev host — a clean profile, no
+  workspace settings, no other extensions.
+- **Confirm the claimed feature actually works.** Not "the code path is covered" — install
+  it and watch it do the thing.
+
+## Ship beta first
+
+The first release of anything user-facing is a **prerelease**: `0.0.2b1`, `0.0.2-beta.1`.
+
+A version without a beta marker is a claim of stability. Make that claim after the artefact
+has been installed and used, never before — the cost of retracting it is far higher than
+the cost of a `b1` suffix. PyPI cannot delete a version and a Marketplace listing cannot be
+overwritten, so "we can fix it in the next one" is not a recovery plan.
+
+Promote to a stable version only once the beta has been smoke-tested and actually used.
+
 ## Version rules
 
 - The tag **must** match the version in the manifest — `pyproject.toml`, `package.json`,
diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yml b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
index eac3770..e77e0cd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           persist-credentials: false
 
-      - uses: actions/download-artifact@c850b930e6ba138125429b7e5c93fc707a7f8427 # v4.1.4
+      - uses: actions/download-artifact@3e5f45b2cfb9172054b4087a40e8e0b5a5461e7c # v8.0.1
         with:
           pattern: dist-*
           path: downloaded-dist/
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           persist-credentials: false
 
-      - uses: actions/download-artifact@c850b930e6ba138125429b7e5c93fc707a7f8427 # v4.1.4
+      - uses: actions/download-artifact@3e5f45b2cfb9172054b4087a40e8e0b5a5461e7c # v8.0.1
         with:
           pattern: dist-*
           path: downloaded-dist/