chore: scheduled maintenance — Jul 17 housekeeping

[cobusgreyling]

Summary

Scheduled housekeeping for the loop-engineering reference repo.

• Release path for loop-gate: add .github/workflows/release-loop-gate.yml and document it in docs/RELEASE.md (first publish still needs tag loop-gate-v1.0.0 + npm trusted publisher / NPM_TOKEN).
• STATE.md: clear in-flight notes for published loop-context 1.3.0 / loop-worktree 1.2.0; surface open PRs Add loop worktree story #299, feat: wire loop-gate into starter loop scripts #302, Feat mcp loop gate #303; keep loop-gate first-publish as high priority.
• Hygiene: regenerate CONTRIBUTORS.md (19), prune run-log entry older than 30 days, append maintenance run, refresh RELEASE_NOTES_DRAFT.md.
• Local readiness audit: 100 / L3. CI green on main at start of run.

Human gates after merge

1. Review/merge open contributor PRs when ready: Add loop worktree story #299 (story), feat: wire loop-gate into starter loop scripts #302 (starters), Feat mcp loop gate #303 (MCP gate).
2. Publish gate: git tag loop-gate-v1.0.0 && git push origin loop-gate-v1.0.0 (after npm package trusted publisher is configured if using OIDC).

Test plan

• node tools/loop-audit/dist/cli.js . → 100/L3
• cd tools/loop-gate && npm test → 31 pass
• CI validate + audit on this PR

[github-actions]

Thanks @cobusgreyling for contributing a docs improvement — visible, reviewable PRs like this grow the reference for everyone.

What happens next

• Maintainer aims for same-day review on story, adopter, and scoped docs/example PRs (CONTRIBUTING.md).
• good first issue PRs: comment on the linked issue so we can assign and close on merge.

More ways to help

• Contributor quickstart + open issues
• Good first issue backlog

— loop-engineering maintainers

[github-actions]

Loop Readiness Audit

Score: 100/100 (L3)

Strong loop readiness — good candidate for L3 with explicit gates.

No suggestions — looking good.

_{Posted by audit.yml · loop-audit docs}