**Do not merge this as it stands — it would revert the runbook.**

Measured on main `437562d9`:

- Main already carries a `### Golden-head intake` section, landed **2026-08-02** in `c19bd1b7` ("docs(release): the respin test — golden buys its evidence once").
- `git diff origin/main..<this head> -- docs/RELEASE-RUNBOOK.md` is **-275/+42** on that region. Main's section is a **superset** of what this PR proposes.
- Merging would delete ruled discipline that is not in this branch, including: the **snapshot-at-greenlight** baseline (record the milestone's live sub-issue set the day it is greenlit, rather than reconstructing it at hand-off — which is precisely what v0.46.0 paid for), and the **release-shaped head** leg with its two checked commands (`Cargo.toml` version and the `CHANGELOG.md` heading rendered from the candidate sha, neither inferable from the other intake legs).

Everything this PR set out to establish is on main: the roles split, greenlit-form parity, the comment-on-the-milestone-issue record, relocation-or-back-to-eval for a dropped request, and the check gating the **run** rather than the merge. The operator stipulation at `4669460` is honored by the landed text.

The conflict is the symptom, not the problem — resolving it in this branch's favor is the destructive outcome.

**Recommendation: close as superseded by `c19bd1b7`.** Leaving it open leaves a merge button that silently reverts 233 lines of the release runbook. Referring the close itself to the operator rather than taking it, since this PR is theirs.