From 0bd36b1f57786c92f90d57d865f4b43d1490ff6d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ramesh Padmanabhaiah <22363102+codeforester@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:33:41 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] docs: add README release metadata strip

---
 CHANGELOG.md      | 2 ++
 README.md         | 4 ++++
 tests/validate.sh | 6 ++++++
 3 files changed, 12 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4a37df8..0c6543e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -101,6 +101,8 @@ the API stability policy and migration guide before upgrading from `0.3.x`.
 
 - Reclassify the project as Beta in package metadata to reflect its documented
   API stability policy, compatibility suite, and production-adoption guidance.
+- Add a version, license, install, and release-notes strip to the README and
+  validate it against the repository version contract.
 
 ### Planned
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 030108c..83ccd49 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # `base-cli`
 
+| Version | License | Install | Release notes |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| `0.4.0` | [Apache-2.0](LICENSE) | `python -m pip install base-cli` | [v0.4.0](https://github.com/basefoundry/base-cli/releases/tag/v0.4.0) |
+
 `base-cli` is the PyPI distribution; import it in Python as `base_cli`.
 
 Install it with:
diff --git a/tests/validate.sh b/tests/validate.sh
index 6c70ed0..a99f716 100755
--- a/tests/validate.sh
+++ b/tests/validate.sh
@@ -42,4 +42,10 @@ for file in "${required_files[@]}"; do
   }
 done
 
+version="$(head -n 1 VERSION | tr -d '\r')"
+if ! sed -n '1,12p' README.md | tr -d '\r' | grep -F "| \`$version\` | [Apache-2.0](LICENSE) | \`python -m pip install base-cli\` | [v$version](https://github.com/basefoundry/base-cli/releases/tag/v$version) |" >/dev/null; then
+  printf 'README.md release strip does not match VERSION (%s), license, install command, and release link.\n' "$version" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 printf 'Repository baseline is present.\n'