ci(release): automate release PRs and tag creation

Why
- Reduce manual release steps and avoid hand-created tags.
- Align the repository with a professional, bot-driven release workflow.

What changed
- Added Release Please workflow to run on pushes to main and manual dispatch.
- Added .release-please-config.json and .release-please-manifest.json for python package versioning and v-prefixed tags.
- Configured Release Please to use RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN with a GITHUB_TOKEN fallback.
- Removed legacy .github/workflows/release.yml to prevent duplicate/racing GitHub release creation.
- Updated README release documentation to describe the new release-PR flow and one-time token setup.
- Synced SNAPSHOT.md for the new root-level release metadata files.

Impact
- Release tags and GitHub releases are now created automatically by merging the release PR.
- Existing publish-pypi workflow remains tag-driven and continues to publish from release tags.

Tests
- Parsed new workflow/config files successfully (YAML/JSON parse checks).
- Validated tag/version metadata helper with: PYTHONPATH=src python -m agentrules.core.utils.release_metadata --tag v3.4.2.

Notes
- Repository secret RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN still needs to be configured in GitHub settings for reliable downstream workflow triggering from bot-created tags.

Author: trevor-nichols

.github/workflows/release-please.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+name: Release Please
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+permissions:
+  contents: write
+  issues: write
+  pull-requests: write
+
+concurrency:
+  group: release-please-${{ github.ref }}
+  cancel-in-progress: true
+
+jobs:
+  release-please:
+    name: Open Release PR / Publish Release
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Run release-please
+        id: release
+        uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
+        with:
+          token: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN || secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          config-file: .release-please-config.json
+          manifest-file: .release-please-manifest.json

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
+  "packages": {
+    ".": {
+      "release-type": "python",
+      "package-name": "agentrules",
+      "include-v-in-tag": true,
+      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md"
+    }
+  }
+}

.release-please-config.json

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  ".": "3.4.1"
+}

.release-please-manifest.json

@@ -336,18 +336,21 @@ Toggle outputs with `agentrules configure --outputs` or via the config TOML.
 - Run targeted tests: `python tests/phase_3_test/run_test.py`
 - Deterministic smoke runs (CI/local without API calls): `agentrules analyze --offline tests/tests_input`
 - Full suite: `python -m unittest discover tests -v`
-- Releases are tag-driven: bump `[project].version` in `pyproject.toml`, commit, create matching `vX.Y.Z` tag, and push it.
+- Releases are Release Please-driven: merges to `main` update/open a release PR, and merging that PR creates the `vX.Y.Z` tag + GitHub release automatically.
 - GitHub Actions now publishes package artifacts with Trusted Publishing (OIDC) via `.github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml` (no long-lived PyPI API token).
-- Run a safe preflight publish first from Actions with `workflow_dispatch` and `repository = testpypi`; publish to production PyPI on tag push or manual `repository = pypi`.
+- Run a safe preflight publish first from Actions with `workflow_dispatch` and `repository = testpypi`; publish to production PyPI on release-tag push or manual `repository = pypi`.
 - Keep docs and presets in sync when adding providers (`config/agents.py`, `config/tools.py`, `core/agents/*`).
 
 ### Release Process (PyPI)
 
-1. Update `[project].version` in `pyproject.toml`, then commit and push.
-2. Run `.github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml` manually with `repository = testpypi` to validate package upload first.
-3. Create and push matching tag `vX.Y.Z` to trigger Trusted Publishing to PyPI.
-4. The same tag also triggers `.github/workflows/release.yml` for GitHub Release artifact/notes.
-5. One-time setup for new projects: configure Trusted Publishers on TestPyPI and PyPI for repository `trevor-nichols/agentrules-architect`, workflow `.github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml`, and environments `testpypi`/`pypi`.
+1. Merge feature PRs into `main` using Conventional Commit-style titles/messages (for example `feat: ...`, `fix: ...`).
+2. `.github/workflows/release-please.yml` updates or opens a release PR with the version bump and changelog.
+3. (Optional, recommended) run `.github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml` manually with `repository = testpypi` from the release PR head commit.
+4. Merge the release PR. Release Please creates/pushes the matching `vX.Y.Z` tag and publishes a GitHub release.
+5. The tag push triggers `.github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml` to publish to production PyPI.
+6. One-time setup for new projects:
+   - Configure a repo secret `RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN` (PAT or GitHub App token) with permission to create/update PRs, tags, and releases. This ensures tag pushes from Release Please trigger downstream workflows.
+   - Configure Trusted Publishers on TestPyPI and PyPI for repository `trevor-nichols/agentrules-architect`, workflow `.github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml`, and environments `testpypi`/`pypi`.
 
 ## 🤝 Contributing
 

README.md

@@ -419,6 +419,8 @@
 │   │   └── __init__.pyi  # Type stub init
 │   └── tomli_w/  # Type stubs for tomli_w module
 │       └── __init__.pyi  # Type stub init
+├── .release-please-config.json
+├── .release-please-manifest.json
 ├── conftest.py  # pytest configuration, sets up live test markers
 ├── CONTRIBUTING.md
 ├── pyproject.toml  # Python project metadata and dependencies