STAGE 0.6.3

Released: 2026-07-23

The plugin package version is 0.6.3. SPEC.md is method version 0.6.

Release Decision

This maintenance release puts the latest owner-workflow corrections into the installed plugin without expanding STAGE's practitioner surface. It keeps one ordinary delivery route and one explicit mapping route, while moving visual work back into the real game or editor and keeping research machinery in the Maintainer Laboratory.

The release is intentionally not 1.0.0. The candidate 1.x contract and support boundary remain owner decisions rather than conclusions inferred from green repository checks.

What Changed

• Completed five owner-run Followspot slices through a real Unity production scene, including authored programs, input and persistence, structured cues, lighting feedback, and a product-integrated Light Check practice mode.
• Recorded that visual galleries, codices, bestiaries, world previewers, and almanacs are ordinary game or authoring features only when their own user and value justify them; detached review sites and contact sheets are not a default STAGE workflow.
• Added an explicit generated-to-authored ownership handoff for bootstrapped scenes, prefabs, UI, and tuned assets.
• Removed the unused Pillow dependency left after retirement of the detached visual evidence pipeline.
• Froze the current project-map and historical case-study schema fingerprints so accidental in-place drift is caught by the release gate.
• Hardened project-map migration: existing candidates and source manifests require separate explicit replacement flags, completed output is published atomically, and failed migrations leave no candidate behind.
• Added a bounded 1.0 readiness review and mechanical coverage map, then narrowed the proposed stable owner contract to the method, two installed routes, project-map interoperability, and repository-backed project-map commands.
• Made personal spare-time Unity development the primary product scope; independent transferability and longitudinal productivity remain evidence boundaries rather than release deficits to manufacture.

Compatibility

• Existing STAGE 0.6 projects require no artifact migration.
• Project-map and case-study schema versions remain unchanged.
• The plugin still packages only stage-deliver-change and stage-map-project.
• migrate_project_map.py remains non-destructive by default. Replacing an existing output now requires --force; replacing the source still requires --in-place.
• The detached visual evidence and generic gallery interfaces remain retired; no replacement artifact family is introduced.

Evidence

The release candidate passed the complete STAGE release gate, direct Codex plugin validation, validation of both packaged skills, project-map and case-study validation, frozen schema fingerprints, Markdown-link validation, the Solo Unity profile suite, and git diff --check.

The Followspot dogfood used the production scene, real input routes, focused deterministic tests, composed PlayMode checks, and native Unity inspection. No portable visual package was retained because no remote, CI, comparison, release, or retention consumer required one.

See the Followspot study, visual-work guidance, and 1.0 readiness review.

Limitations

• Followspot is same-owner dogfood, not independent adoption.
• Mechanical Unity checks do not establish control feel, pacing, palette, or visual acceptance; those remain human decisions.
• No longitudinal comparison establishes a productivity improvement.
• The project-map commands are repository tools and are not bundled into the installed plugin.
• The release preserves historical studies but does not promote case-study authoring into a stable practitioner interface.
• STAGE remains a practitioner proposal optimized first for the owner's personal workflow; it is not an engine, universal architecture, or empirical certification.