Release 0.15.1 — task lifecycle hardening

[jumski]

Outcome

Ship one 0.15.1 patch release that completes the current task-lifecycle hardening, fixes Windows CLI installation, and publishes the related operator documentation.

The first unchecked item under Critical path is the current next task.

Already on main, not yet released

• Skip paths archive sibling messages but never terminalize sibling step_tasks rows, leaving status='started' tasks on completed runs #638 — terminalize active task rows under skipped steps, fixed by Skip paths archive sibling messages but never terminalize sibling step_tasks rows, leaving status='started' tasks on completed runs #649.
• Failed runs leave unfinished sibling tasks queued or started instead of cancelled #645 — cancel unfinished tasks when runs fail, fixed by fix(core): terminalize unfinished tasks when runs fail #663.
• requeue_stalled_tasks() uses flow timeout instead of effective step timeout #621 — use the effective step timeout during stalled recovery, fixed by fix(core): use effective step timeout for stalled tasks #664.

All three changes landed after 0.15.0. They remain unreleased until #659 merges.

Critical path

• Make start_tasks() apply task visibility before handlers run #656 — make start_tasks() apply visibility before handlers run.
• Consolidate the four unreleased Core migrations into one task_lifecycle_hardening migration against the 0.15.0 baseline.
• Preserve and test every migration-only repair and ordering requirement listed below.
• Require every Version Packages #659 check to pass.
• Merge Version Packages #659, which publishes 0.15.1 through Changesets.

Parallel release work

• Bug: postinstall script fails on Windows #610 — remove the Windows-breaking CLI postinstall and add a packed-tarball Windows smoke job.
• Document the worker-function enable fence for production deployments #654 — document the worker-function enable fence for production deployments.
• Docs: update “Delete Flow and its Data” — pgflow.delete_flow_and_data available since v0.10.0 #608 — correct the delete_flow_and_data() documentation.
• Publish pkgs/website/src/content/docs/news/pgflow-0-15-1-task-lifecycle-hardening.mdx.

Consolidated migration safeguards

Atlas generates the structural diff, but it cannot infer migration-only data repairs. Audit the generated migration against the three migrations currently on main and the temporary #656 migration before deleting them.

The consolidated migration must preserve:

1. The final step_tasks.valid_status constraint, including skipped and cancelled.
2. The final definitions and attributes of every changed function.
3. The Skip paths archive sibling messages but never terminalize sibling step_tasks rows, leaving status='started' tasks on completed runs #638 repair that marks active tasks under skipped steps as skipped.
4. The Failed runs leave unfinished sibling tasks queued or started instead of cancelled #645 repair that marks remaining active tasks under failed runs as cancelled.
5. Repair order: skipped-task repair before failed-run cancellation.

Check function signatures, return types, SECURITY DEFINER, SET search_path, grants, and statement order. After any migration-only manual edits, regenerate atlas.sum.

Only disposable databases consumed the current unreleased migrations, so they may be replaced before publication.

The release upgrade fixture must start from 0.15.0, apply the consolidated migration, and check both historical repairs and final runtime behavior.

Windows package check

Add one small windows-latest job rather than a full Windows CI matrix. It must build and pack pgflow, install the tarball into a clean directory with lifecycle scripts enabled, and run the npm-created pgflow.cmd --version shim.

News article

Suggested title: pgflow 0.15.1: Reliable Task Finalization and Recovery.

Cover #638, #645, #621, #656, #610, automatic historical repair, and the normal update instructions. Merge the article after the release scope is final and immediately before #659.

Release boundary

#647 remains outside 0.15.1. Start it after publication as the breaking 0.16.0 release, then continue the #653 sequence with #650 and #651.