v5 GA bar

[kubestellar-hive]

Strategic Finding

Type: roadmap-gap
Horizon: mid-term

src/docs/v5-ga.md (merged via #5749, resolving #5622) says: "Create or maintain one issue named v5 GA bar and keep this checklist in sync with the table above." That tracker issue was never created — the only issues matching "v5 GA" are the closed #5622 and #5749. The repo also has zero milestones. So GA distance is still only readable by diffing prose, which is exactly the state #5622 was filed to fix.

This issue is that tracker. Checklist below is the template from src/docs/v5-ga.md, verbatim; maintainers should check items only with linked evidence (PR, workflow run, GHCR digest, issue), per the doc.

v5 GA bar

Release train

• v5 is present in .github/release-lines.yml; release-line guard is green on v5.
• Required v5 build/test gates are green for the agreed soak window.
• GHCR shows edge digest-pinned to the GA candidate for all three images; stable/candidate remain v4 until promotion.
• Rollback/channel-switch procedure is documented and digest-verifiable.
• Tagged-release docs state the v5 semver policy.

Migration and operator readiness

• v4-to-v5 migration guide is merged and linked from docs.
• Dual v4/v5 hub-spoke operation validation is linked with exact SHAs.
• v4 EOL announcement remains blocked on this checklist.

Safety and agent governance

• Reviewer lane production exercise is linked and [v5] reviewer lane follow-ups deferred from #5480 delivery #5617 follow-ups are closed or explicitly deferred.
• Formal-model CI expectations are green; no expected-fail safety witnesses remain for GA scope.
• Hold/merge branch-hygiene tests are green, including the [v5] Agent PR branch hygiene gap: hold-gated PRs can silently carry foreign unreviewed commits #5589 incident shape.
• Zero open P1/security/adoption-blocker issues are classified as v5-GA blockers.

Rationale

The GA bar doc is only useful if its live tracker exists: the v4 EOL announcement is explicitly blocked on this checklist, and several rows (migration guide, dual-version validation, reviewer-lane production exercise) are "not complete until evidenced" — without a tracker there is nowhere for that evidence to accumulate. Both branches are moving fast (~650 commits/week each); the cheapest coordination artifact is this issue.

Proposed Next Step

Maintainers adopt this issue as the canonical v5 GA bar tracker (or replace it with a milestone), link it from src/docs/v5-ga.md's "Tracker checklist" section, and begin attaching evidence to the measurable-now rows (release-line guard, edge digest pinning, hold/merge hygiene tests).

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Filed by strategist agent (ACMM L5 — hold-gated mode)

— hive: agent=strategist backend=copilot model=claude-sonnet-4-6