The operator clarified the release model: the system keeps current and previous
state, there must be an explicit publish flag the user sets, there are approvals
for a speaker voice but none for the audiobook or chapters, the chapters that
make the m4b are the versions to flag, and a fix found after assembly causes a
change rather than editing what shipped.
Deal Hunter is the precedent, and it is measurable rather than theoretical.
Against the real package (built_at 2026-09-09T11:21:11Z), chapter 6:
ch6_full.wav 2227.26 s @ 24000 Hz what a reviewer listens to
Deal_Hunter_01_Salvage.mp3 2231.26 s @ 44100 Hz what a listener received
+4.00 s = 2 s lead + 2 s trail
plus a resample and a -20.5 dB RMS normalization. Found on 32 of 32 chapters.
The approved artifact and the published artifact were different files, and
nothing in the system recorded either fact. ar_package.json is rewritten by
every rebuild, so it is a build status, not a release record.
umbraaudio/release.py
DeliveryProfile.from_ar_package reads the profile the exporter actually used,
so the record follows the code instead of a declaration that can rot.
build_publication is read-only and pins every chapter wav, every mp3 and the
package by full SHA-256, plus a per-chapter source_unit_key_digest so a release
pins which source revision produced it, not merely which bytes.
verify_publication returns ok / drift / warnings and never silently accepts a
changed artifact. write_publication is atomic and refuses to overwrite an
existing publication id - immutability enforced by the writer, not by
convention. A later fix is edition n+1 with supersedes pointing at n.
The rule that prevents a repeat: you cannot approve a chapter and then pad it.
An approval must name the artifact a listener receives. Every record states
chapter_approved: false and audiobook_approved: false in its own words, because
that is what would have caught Deal Hunter.
The record also refuses to overstate approval. voice_status.json is an approval
LEDGER - it only holds speakers someone explicitly touched - so it has 24 entries
against 61 speakers in the profile. Reporting "24 approved" as if it meant "all
approved" would claim an approval nobody gave, so the counts are separate and the
38-speaker gap is named.
scripts/publish_release.py: dry run by default; --publish, --verify, --list,
--edition/--supersedes. Exits 2 while blockers exist.
Also found, reported and NOT fixed (specs/22 section 7 gap 1): export_m4b's
_stitch_chapter hard-codes 500 ms/0 ms silence while ChapterBuilder uses
AudioStitcher defaults and AudioConfig holds its own values, so the m4b path can
stitch a chapter with different silence than the approved one. Until that is
closed an m4b release record would pin the wrong bytes, so it is better not to
offer one yet.
And projects.status is never advanced to 'released' in any of the four live
projects - all sit at parsed/analyzed - so the publication record is currently the
only release signal in the system.
tests/test_release.py: 24 tests. Full suite 512 passed / 8 failed, the same 8
pre-existing failures. ruff clean. No export, TTS or project data was modified.
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