feat(release): qualify the reviewed 8.4.0 picker offline

.agents/plans/08-reviewer-picker-release/README.md

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+# Offline qualification for the reviewed 8.4.0 picker
+
+The operator explicitly authorized a provider-free qualification path for this
+feature on 2026-09-14. This path covers only 8.4.0 and reviewer-picker-v1. It does
+not establish live model behavior or provide a reusable exemption for new features.
+
+## Frozen scope
+
+scripts/feature-release.ts pins the merged PR #78 commit
+ff605d9bb7e814cddd4d22f7e55ca251f8de60bc. Every enumerated picker source, server
+configuration adapter, prior flow-run guide, package manifest and build/type
+surface must match that commit's Git blob and regular-file mode exactly.
+The commit must remain an ancestor of the candidate. Any edit, removal, or mode
+change fails even if a new manifest claims approval. The approved file list is
+code-owned, not supplied by the release record.
+
+Other differences from the fully measured 8.3.0 source must satisfy the existing
+patch tooling/documentation allowance. Domain logic, persistence, validation,
+review gates, other guides, lockfiles, and unknown paths remain excluded.
+Dependencies, engines, package identity and package manager must match 8.3.0.
+Formatter settings must match the reviewed feature commit.
+
+## Baseline and assurance
+
+The original 8.3.0 matrix and canary remain baseline evidence only. The baseline
+must independently regrade under current verifier authority, match its tag and
+artifact, and satisfy the unchanged seven-day matrix and 72-hour canary limits.
+A new seal may retain the same original evidence under current verifier sources;
+it is not a rerun or a new candidate measurement. Baseline-qualified 8.3.1 cannot
+substitute for the fully measured baseline. Original evidence and seals remain intact.
+
+Candidate assurance consists of reviewed frozen code, full deterministic checks,
+all retained gated replays, package checks, and the provider-free OpenCode smoke.
+PR #78 also exercised native picker/confirmation rendering with a synthetic catalog
+and real global-config save/reset behavior in an isolated host without submitting
+a model prompt. These checks do not measure reviewer accuracy or coding outcomes.
+
+The new feature record binds exact candidate tarball/manifest hashes, names the
+reviewed commit and feature, and records the operator's rationale. Generated release
+notes explicitly state that no candidate live model eval or canary ran and that
+prior 76/76 passes belong to 8.3.0. No result is relabeled VERIFIED for 8.4.0's model
+behavior. No paid-run authorization is created by this policy.
+
+## Publication and recovery
+
+The explicit CLI mode is --feature, separate from --patch and --canary. Exactly
+one mode is accepted. CI and publication select it only when the candidate's
+record exists under evals/qualification/features/. Conflicting patch and feature
+records fail. Ordinary development commits without a new release declaration do
+not rerun candidate qualification.
+
+The baseline bundle is retained under this plan's baselines/ directory. It is a
+canonical content-addressed archive, not maintained prose or formatter input.
+Initialization and resume both recheck the exact feature record, code boundary,
+artifact and fresh baseline. Existing full and patch release records stay valid.
+The release record keeps its optional feature path and binds the feature record
+hash through bundleSha256. Remote publication convergence is unchanged.
+
+The offline CI candidate job runs replay and provider-free host smoke before
+initialization. The publication workflow also runs replay before packing, alongside
+its existing full checks and provider-free host smoke. Expired or mismatched
+evidence stops publication; it never starts a model run automatically.