refactor(Versioning): Publish a feature version with an AuthorData

[khvn26]

• I have read the Contributing Guide.
• I have added information to docs/ if required so people know about the feature.
• I have filled in the "Changes" section below.
• I have filled in the "How did you test this code" section below.

Changes

Stacked on #8308.

In this PR, we accommodate EnvironmentFeatureVersion.publish() to the AuthorData dataclass.

EnvironmentFeatureVersion.publish() took published_by and published_by_api_key, so every caller had to categorise a request user. That split was written four ways across the codebase, and one of them was wrong: EnvironmentFeatureVersionCreateSerializer only handled FFAdminUser, so a version created with publish_immediately by a master API key recorded no publisher at all. Fixed here, with a test.

publish() now takes an AuthorData, which callers construct directly, or via AuthorData.from_request(request) where a request is available.

We also drop a dead serializer.save(published_by=request.user) kwarg in EnvironmentFeatureVersionViewSet.publish — the serializer reads the author from the request context and ignored it.

No behaviour change beyond the attribution fix.

How did you test this code?

Added unit tests, and modified existing tests asserting EnvironmentFeatureVersion.publish().

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3 Skipped Deployments

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
docs	Ignored	Preview	Aug 16, 2026 3:38pm
flagsmith-frontend-preview	Ignored	Preview	Aug 16, 2026 3:38pm
flagsmith-frontend-staging	Ignored	Preview	Aug 16, 2026 3:38pm

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[github-actions]

Docker builds report

Image	Build Status	Security report
ghcr.io/flagsmith/flagsmith-api-test:pr-8310	Finished ✅	Skipped
ghcr.io/flagsmith/flagsmith-e2e:pr-8310	Finished ✅	Skipped
ghcr.io/flagsmith/flagsmith-frontend:pr-8310	Finished ✅	Results ✅
ghcr.io/flagsmith/flagsmith-api:pr-8310	Finished ✅	Results ✅
ghcr.io/flagsmith/flagsmith:pr-8310	Finished ✅	Results ✅
ghcr.io/flagsmith/flagsmith-private-cloud:pr-8310	Finished ✅	Results ✅

[github-actions]

✅ private-cloud · depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16 — run #19450 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (private-cloud - depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16)

 2 passed

Details

 2 tests across 2 suites
 1 minute, 1 second
 187c818
 🔄 Run: #19450 (attempt 1)

🗂️ Previous results

✅ private-cloud · depot-ubuntu-latest-16 — run #19450 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (private-cloud - depot-ubuntu-latest-16)

 3 passed

Details

 3 tests across 3 suites
 33.1 seconds
 187c818
 🔄 Run: #19450 (attempt 1)

✅ oss · depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16 — run #19450 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (oss - depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 44.7 seconds
 187c818
 🔄 Run: #19450 (attempt 1)

✅ oss · depot-ubuntu-latest-16 — run #19450 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (oss - depot-ubuntu-latest-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 33.7 seconds
 187c818
 🔄 Run: #19450 (attempt 1)

✅ private-cloud · depot-ubuntu-latest-16 — run #19447 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (private-cloud - depot-ubuntu-latest-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 55.2 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19447 (attempt 1)

✅ private-cloud · depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16 — run #19447 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (private-cloud - depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16)

 3 passed

Details

 3 tests across 3 suites
 37.1 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19447 (attempt 1)

✅ private-cloud · depot-ubuntu-latest-16 — run #19446 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (private-cloud - depot-ubuntu-latest-16)

 3 passed

Details

 3 tests across 3 suites
 56.4 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19446 (attempt 1)

✅ private-cloud · depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16 — run #19446 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (private-cloud - depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 35.1 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19446 (attempt 1)

✅ oss · depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16 — run #19447 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (oss - depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 46.9 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19447 (attempt 1)

✅ oss · depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16 — run #19446 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (oss - depot-ubuntu-latest-arm-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 46.4 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19446 (attempt 1)

✅ oss · depot-ubuntu-latest-16 — run #19447 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (oss - depot-ubuntu-latest-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 41.7 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19447 (attempt 1)

✅ oss · depot-ubuntu-latest-16 — run #19446 (attempt 1)

Playwright Test Results (oss - depot-ubuntu-latest-16)

 1 passed

Details

 1 test across 1 suite
 40.9 seconds
 3e25f55
 🔄 Run: #19446 (attempt 1)

[github-actions]

Visual Regression

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[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 98.64%. Comparing base (d54e52f) to head (187c818).

Additional details and impacted files

@@                      Coverage Diff                      @@
##           chore/update-flag-cleanup    #8310      +/-   ##
=============================================================
- Coverage                      98.78%   98.64%   -0.14%     
=============================================================
  Files                           1605     1606       +1     
  Lines                          64417    64434      +17     
=============================================================
- Hits                           63633    63560      -73     
- Misses                           784      874      +90     

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