Qualify and release v0.8.0

[IvanChernyshov]

Outcome

Verify the complete v0.8 contract, publish the release, and archive the completed development plan.

Depends on

• Complete v0.8.0 pre-release correctness and safety remediation #35 — Complete v0.8.0 pre-release correctness and safety remediation.
• All other required milestone issues must remain closed or explicitly deferred as recorded by Complete v0.8.0 pre-release correctness and safety remediation #35.

Scope

• Resolve, close, or explicitly defer every v0.8 milestone issue.
• Approve the final API inventory and release notes.
• Execute the version-controlled release checklist and existing release checks.
• Verify source and wheel installations across the supported Python and platform matrix.
• Verify the sdist round trip and complete wheel artifact set.
• Confirm canonical forward and inverse workflows, no-SciPy behavior, sparse behavior, docs, notebooks, README generation, metadata, and distribution contents.
• Prepare and publish v0.8.0 to PyPI.
• Create the v0.8.0 Git tag and GitHub Release.
• Create or update the corresponding Zenodo software archive and citation metadata.
• Archive the completed v0.8 development plan and update roadmap/changelog state.
• Create named follow-up issues for anything intentionally deferred.

Release gates

• Complete v0.8.0 pre-release correctness and safety remediation #35 is closed with all required remediation workstreams completed or explicitly deferred by a maintainer decision compatible with release safety.
• All required CI and wheel jobs are green on the exact release commit.
• The package version, tag, artifacts, release notes, citation metadata, and documentation agree.
• No compatibility-only surface scheduled for removal remains in wheel or sdist.
• No unsupported wheel variant is published.
• Representative v0.7 canonical numerical outputs remain unchanged unless a separately approved correctness fix documents the difference.

Acceptance criteria

• Complete v0.8.0 pre-release correctness and safety remediation #35 is closed.
• Every required milestone issue is closed or explicitly deferred with a named issue.
• Full release checks pass from a clean environment.
• All required Python 3.10–3.14 wheels are present and tested.
• The sdist independently builds and installs successfully.
• PyPI contains the intended v0.8.0 artifacts and metadata.
• The v0.8.0 Git tag points to the approved release commit.
• A GitHub Release is published with final notes and artifacts/links.
• The Zenodo archive and citation metadata identify v0.8.0 correctly.
• The development plan is marked completed and archived.
• Post-publication install and smoke verification succeeds.

Validation

Use the repository release checklist and tooling as the authoritative baseline. Record external CI, artifact, PyPI, GitHub, and Zenodo evidence in the issue before closure.

Stop conditions

Do not begin release qualification while #35 is open. Do not publish if any required platform artifact is missing, a release check is red, metadata disagree, the release commit is not final, or an unresolved correctness/API issue lacks an explicit maintainer decision.