feat: auto-bump on dev, merge to main via API for stable releases

No more manual bump + merge. Stable releases dispatched from dev will:
1. Auto-bump patch on dev branch
2. Push to dev
3. Merge dev → main via Gitea API (bypasses branch protection)
4. Build ZIP

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -104,15 +104,7 @@ jobs:
           INPUT_SUFFIX: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.suffix }}
         run: |
           BRANCH="${{ github.ref_name }}"
-
-          # Skip auto-bump on main — version is already set before merge
-          if [ "$BRANCH" = "main" ]; then
-            CURRENT=$(sed -n 's/.*VERSION:[[:space:]]*\([0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]\).*/\1/p' README.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
-            echo "On main — using current version ${CURRENT} (no bump)"
-            echo "version=${CURRENT}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
-            echo "zip_name=${EXT_ELEMENT}-${CURRENT}${INPUT_SUFFIX}.zip" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
-            exit 0
-          fi
+          GITEA_API="${GITEA_URL}/api/v1/repos/${{ github.repository }}"
 
           # Read current version from README.md
           CURRENT=$(sed -n 's/.*VERSION:[[:space:]]*\([0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]\).*/\1/p' README.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
@@ -163,7 +155,7 @@ jobs:
           PYEOF
           fi
 
-          # Commit bump
+          # Commit bump to current branch
           git config --local user.email "gitea-actions[bot]@mokoconsulting.tech"
           git config --local user.name "gitea-actions[bot]"
           git remote set-url origin "https://jmiller:${GA_TOKEN}@git.mokoconsulting.tech/${{ github.repository }}.git"
@@ -174,6 +166,21 @@ jobs:
             git push
           }
 
+          # For stable releases from dev: merge dev → main via Gitea API
+          if [ "$INPUT_STABILITY" = "stable" ] && [ "$BRANCH" != "main" ]; then
+            echo "Merging ${BRANCH} → main via Gitea API..."
+            MERGE_RESULT=$(curl -sf -X POST -H "Authorization: token ${GA_TOKEN}" \
+              -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+              "${GITEA_API}/merges" \
+              -d "$(jq -n \
+                --arg base "main" \
+                --arg head "${BRANCH}" \
+                --arg msg "chore(release): merge ${BRANCH} for stable ${NEW_VERSION} [skip ci]" \
+                '{base: $base, head: $head, merge_message_field: $msg}'
+              )" 2>&1) || true
+            echo "Merge result: ${MERGE_RESULT}"
+          fi
+
           echo "version=${NEW_VERSION}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           echo "zip_name=${EXT_ELEMENT}-${NEW_VERSION}${INPUT_SUFFIX}.zip" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"