[andygrove]

Which issue does this PR close?

Part of #6550. Found while generating the 1.2.0 release docs (#7292).

Rationale for this change

dev/generate-release-docs.sh formats the generated pages with npx prettier, which runs whichever prettier version is installed locally or cached. CI runs prettier --check "**/*.md" with the latest prettier (npm install -g prettier). The two disagreed on the 1.2.0 docs. Generated with prettier 3.2.5, 40 of the compatibility pages failed the CI check under 3.9.10, because the newer version wants a blank line before <!--END:EXPR_COMPAT--> after a list. The fix on #7292 was a second commit that added that line to each page.

What changes are included in this PR?

• dev/generate-release-docs.sh runs npx --yes prettier@latest, the same version CI installs, with a comment that says why.
• docs/source/contributor-guide/release_process.md notes that the script formats with the latest prettier and so needs network access to npm.

How are these changes tested?

bash -n passes on the script. I ran npx --yes prettier@latest --check over the generated pages on the 1.2.0 docs branch before and after the fix. It reported 40 files before and none after. I did not rerun the whole script with this change, because it runs five Maven builds.

[sunchao]

Reviewed 79bcb186519ef73c13fb3e3575a6e16e2b63f2d2 across five independent scopes. No actionable findings. The explicit prettier@latest matches CI's existing install policy, preserves the generated-page scope, and the release guide documents the network requirement.

bash -n dev/generate-release-docs.sh passed. Current-head preflight and Required Checks are green. I did not rerun the full multi-profile documentation build.

[andygrove]

Thanks @manuzhang @sunchao