Authoritative protocol for authoring release notes as an EPIC with mining-driven iterations — scope derivation (the tracker lags shipped reality), heavy per-arc Memory-Core mining, per-claim V-B-A, the precedent-SET quality bar — majors AND minors, v13.0.0 + v12.1.0 + v11.22-24 (hero chapters, named case studies with real timelines, War Stories, honest bounds, never downplay a release), and the publish.mjs flat-root staging lifecycle. Triggers: a release window opens, release notes are requested/authored/iterated, or cut-prep begins (staging file, atomic-hash line, orphan-guard interplay).