Make distro packages the single source of truth for GTK/X11 Python bindings instead of advertising them as wheel-managed runtime dependencies. Update the uv, CI, and packaging workflows to use system site packages, regenerate uv.lock, and keep portable and Arch metadata aligned with that contract.
Pull runtime policy, audio probing, and page builders out of config_ui.py so the settings window becomes a coordinator instead of a single large mixed-concern module. Rename the config serialization and logging helpers, and stop startup logging from exposing raw vocabulary entries or custom model paths.
Remove stale helper aliases and add regression coverage for safe startup logging, packaging metadata and module drift, portable requirements, and the extracted audio helper behavior.
Validated with uv lock, python3 -m compileall -q src tests, python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_*.py', make build, and make package-arch.
Add the repo-side pieces for milestone 5: MIT licensing, real maintainer and forge metadata, a public support doc, 1.0.0 release notes, release-prep tooling, and CI uploads for the full candidate artifact set.
Keep source-tree version surfaces honest by reading the local project version in the CLI and About dialog, and cover the new release-prep plus version-fallback behavior with focused tests.
Document where raw validation evidence belongs, add the GA validation rollup, and archive the latest readiness review. Milestone 5 remains open until the forge release page is published and the milestone 2 and 3 matrices are filled with linked manual evidence.
Validation: PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_*.py'; PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m unittest tests.test_release_prep tests.test_portable_bundle tests.test_aman_cli tests.test_config_ui; python3 -m py_compile src/*.py tests/*.py; PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m aman version
Make the X11 user path visible on first contact instead of burying it under config and maintainer detail.
Rewrite the README around the supported quickstart, expected tray and dictation result, install validation, troubleshooting, and linked follow-on docs. Split deep config and developer material into separate docs, add checked-in screenshots plus a short WebM walkthrough, and add a generator so the media assets stay reproducible.
Also fix the CLI discovery gap by letting `aman --help` show the top-level command surface while keeping implicit foreground `run` behavior, and align the settings, help, and about copy with the supported service-plus-diagnostics model.
Validation: `PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m unittest tests.test_aman_cli tests.test_config_ui`; `PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_*.py'`; `python3 -m py_compile src/*.py tests/*.py scripts/generate_docs_media.py`; `PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m aman --help`.
Milestone 4 stays open in the roadmap because `docs/x11-ga/first-run-review-notes.md` still needs a real non-implementer walkthrough.
