docs verify: DEVELOPMENT.md in STAGE_READMES; self-labelling release notes; prose corrections to 4.6.0 (#47 Block 3)

Files changed:
- .gitea/workflows/release.yml
- CHANGES.md
- VERSION
- instructions/dev/stack-close/SKILL.md
- tools/CONTRACT.md
- tools/chemenu/commands/docs_verify.py
- tools/chemenu/commands/git_publish.py
- tools/chemenu/tests/test_docs_verify.py

tools/chemenu/commands/docs_verify.py

@@ -136,7 +136,17 @@ ROOT_README = config.ROOT / "README.md"
 # tools/README.md is exactly the file it drifted in. INSTALL.md is here for the
 # same reason: it is human-facing prose about installing an instance, and the
 # command reference lives exactly once, in tools/CONTRACT.md.
-STAGE_READMES = ("tools/README.md", "INSTALL.md")
+#
+# DEVELOPMENT.md joined them after it drifted the same way (Gitea #47): it grew
+# a table describing what each verify command checks, which had to be removed by
+# hand because nothing compared it to anything. It is not shipped - dist_cmd
+# .ROOT_FILES excludes it - and that is not an argument against listing it here:
+# `check_readmes_have_no_command_table` skips a file that does not exist, so in
+# a distributed instance this entry is simply inert, while in the dev checkout
+# (the only place the file exists, and the only place it can drift) it is
+# checked. The name is now narrower than the tuple - these are the human-facing
+# prose docs that must not re-list commands, stage README or not.
+STAGE_READMES = ("tools/README.md", "INSTALL.md", "DEVELOPMENT.md")
 
 # Docs that must not re-introduce the pre-migration bare-enum `type:` form.
 # The per-collection contracts are appended at call time, since which ones exist

tools/chemenu/commands/git_publish.py

@@ -441,13 +441,18 @@ STACK_MACHINERY_NOTE = (
 
 
 def touches_stack_machinery(changed_files: list[str]) -> bool:
-    """Whether `changed_files` includes a path under `version-parts.md`'s
-    scope for the stack version - `tools/`, `types/`, `instructions/`,
-    `AGENTS.md`, or any `<stage>/CONTRACT.md`. A publish in this class is,
-    by construction of the `stack-dev`/`stack-close` split, always followed
-    by the unchecked closing phase - `STACK_MACHINERY_NOTE` times a reminder
-    to land exactly there, for any session, not only one that read the
-    skill that names it."""
+    """Whether `changed_files` includes a path under the stack version's own
+    scope - `tools/`, `types/`, `instructions/`, `AGENTS.md`, or a path ending
+    in `CONTRACT.md` at any depth. A publish in this class is, by construction
+    of the `stack-dev`/`stack-close` split, always followed by the unchecked
+    closing phase - `STACK_MACHINERY_NOTE` times a reminder to land exactly
+    there, for any session, not only one that read the skill that names it.
+
+    Deliberately a shade broader than CI's version gate, which matches
+    `<one-segment>/CONTRACT.md` only: this decides whether to print a sentence,
+    so over-matching costs a reminder nobody needed, while under-matching costs
+    the reminder in the one case it was built for. The two are not the same
+    predicate and should not be described as one."""
     for path in changed_files:
         if path in STACK_MACHINERY_NAMES:
             return True

tools/chemenu/tests/test_docs_verify.py

@@ -100,6 +100,30 @@ def test_install_md_is_checked_too(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
     assert any("`doctor`" in issue for issue in issues)
 
 
+def test_development_md_is_checked_too(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """DEVELOPMENT.md drifted exactly this way once (Gitea #47): a table
+    describing what each verify command checks, removed by hand because nothing
+    compared it to anything."""
+    root = tmp_path
+    (root / "DEVELOPMENT.md").write_text(
+        "| Command | Purpose |\n| `docs verify` | checks docs |\n", encoding="utf-8"
+    )
+    monkeypatch.setattr(docs_verify.config, "ROOT", root)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(docs_verify, "ROOT_README", root / "README.md")  # doesn't exist here
+    issues = docs_verify.check_readmes_have_no_command_table()
+    assert any("`docs verify`" in issue for issue in issues)
+
+
+def test_an_absent_listed_doc_is_skipped_not_reported(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """The distributed-instance case: DEVELOPMENT.md is not shipped, so listing
+    it must stay inert where the file does not exist rather than failing a tree
+    that is correct."""
+    root = tmp_path
+    monkeypatch.setattr(docs_verify.config, "ROOT", root)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(docs_verify, "ROOT_README", root / "README.md")
+    assert docs_verify.check_readmes_have_no_command_table() == []
+
+
 def test_legacy_type_blocks_are_absent():
     assert docs_verify.check_legacy_type_blocks() == []