chore: retire the npm next prerelease channel

README.md

@@ -517,33 +517,16 @@ To force a specific version, add `Release-As: 2.0.0` in a commit message body.
 - `.release-please-manifest.json` tracks the current version
 - `.github/workflows/release-please.yml` handles release PR creation and npm publish
 - `.github/workflows/test.yml` runs tests on PRs and pushes to main
-- `.github/workflows/publish-next.yml` publishes prereleases to the `next` dist-tag (see below)
 
-### Prerelease channel (`@next`)
+### Testing unreleased changes
 
-Every push to `main` (except release commits) publishes a prerelease to npm under the `next` dist-tag, e.g. `1.5.1-next.20260714093000.g325093a`. Regular users are unaffected: `npm install zerion-cli` keeps resolving the `latest` tag, which only moves when a release-please release PR is merged.
-
-To try the latest merged-but-unreleased work:
-
-```bash
-npx zerion-cli@next --help
-# or
-npm install -g zerion-cli@next
-```
-
-To test an unmerged branch, install straight from git — no publish needed:
+Only release-please releases are published to npm; there is no prerelease channel. To try `main` or any branch before it ships, install it straight from GitHub:
 
 ```bash
 npm install -g github:zeriontech/zerion-ai#<branch>
 ```
 
-A prerelease can also be published from any branch manually via the **Publish next** workflow in the Actions tab (`workflow_dispatch`).
-
-If a `next` build turns out broken, point the tag back at a known-good version:
-
-```bash
-npm dist-tag add zerion-cli@<version> next
-```
+`npm install -g zerion-cli` switches back to the latest release.
 
 ## Resources
 

cli/tests/unit/cli/router.test.mjs

@@ -55,8 +55,7 @@ describe("CLI routing", () => {
     it("shows version with --version", async () => {
       const { code, stdout } = await run(["--version"]);
       assert.equal(code, 0);
-      // Allow prerelease suffixes: publish-next.yml bumps to e.g. 1.5.1-next.<ts>.g<sha>
-      // before `npm publish`, whose prepublishOnly hook re-runs this test
+      // Also accept prerelease versions (e.g. 2.0.0-rc.1)
       assert.match(stdout.trim(), /^\d+\.\d+\.\d+(-[0-9A-Za-z.-]+)?$/);
     });
   });