ACES release procedure

Procedure version 1.0. Effective 5 November 2026.

Initial framework record

Framework adoption, current-member acceptance on the coordinator's confirmation, and Reuven Farchi's initial contributor acceptance are complete as recorded in Notices.md. Do not require those steps to be repeated before publishing this package. The remaining initial release tasks are deployment and publication-record operations.

Each public release

• Confirm the exact document version, technical status, Scope and legal-file versions. Keep the distinction between an effective framework and a technical working draft.
• For new material, confirm the applicable member or non-member acceptance, contribution authority, provenance and third-party notices. Preserve previous licenses; do not relicense unrelated website assets.
• Distribute the full CSL, applicable source-code license, Scope, notice snapshot, licensing, membership, contribution, governance and identity policies with the specification. Include the CSL Section 8.2 distribution disclaimer in technical material.
• Review submitted notices, including unmerged notice pull requests. Identify known exclusions and applicable open review periods without claiming that all patents have been cleared.
• Check that all distributed specification formats agree and are legible. Verify public links and downloads without an authenticated session. Ensure the contribution contact and required CSL repository-notice route are usable.
• Publish versioned artifacts and identify the source commit/tag. Record actual first-publication date/time, URLs, evidence and hashes; preserve an independent archive/deposit reference where available. A legal effective date, document date or private commit is not a substitute for public-disclosure evidence.
• Keep historical releases and issue corrections as new revisions. Regenerate SHA256SUMS.txt after edits and retain the matching notice/Scope snapshot.

Public disclosure can be relevant prior art depending on content, accessibility and timing. It does not stop every patent filing, invalidate earlier patents or prevent protection of genuinely new improvements. Publication decisions for new potentially patentable material must account for possible loss of filing rights. See the primary sources in SOURCES.md.

Before Approved Specification designation

Apply Governance.md: identify the frozen candidate and complete required portions, conduct the announced review, preserve the actual CSL exclusion opportunities, resolve recorded exclusions and known blocking licensing issues affecting required features, and record consensus, authority, exact version and approval date. These are technical-approval gates, not a new adoption process for the effective framework.

Before product certification

Apply TRADEMARKS.md: establish rights and delegation, adopt the operator and assessment rules, and publish permitted claims, scope, renewal and appeals. Do not describe a draft implementation or consortium membership as product certification.