v1.2 release and migration readiness

Problem

The v1.2 release will introduce breaking changes to template YAML schema, rendering behavior, or query conventions that affect published templates in the catalog. There is no migration plan, no upgrade guidance for users who forked existing templates, and no communication strategy to set expectations. Without release readiness preparation, the upgrade will break existing user dashboards silently and generate a wave of support requests that could have been prevented with proactive guidance.

Context

• Deeper or changed behavior in repeatable production, review, and publishing of quickstarts and example dashboards often creates migration work for users, operators, or downstream systems, and that work is easy to underestimate until release time.
• This task should make the release path explicit: what is changing, who is affected, what needs communication or tooling help, and how rollback would work if adoption goes sideways.
• Expected touchpoints include examples/, review/publishing docs, production-line scripts, and dashboard content fixtures, release notes, migration docs, compatibility checks, and any support/runbook surfaces that will absorb the change.

Possible Solutions

• A - Treat release readiness as a final checklist after implementation: simple, but it often surfaces migration risk too late to respond well.
• B - Recommended: plan release and migration alongside the feature depth work: document contract changes, compatibility handling, communication, and rollback before the release window.
• C - Force all users onto the new behavior with minimal migration help: faster to ship, but costly in trust and support load.

Plan

1. List the behavior, contract, or configuration changes in repeatable production, review, and publishing of quickstarts and example dashboards that could affect users, operators, or downstream consumers.
2. Define the migration path, release notes, compatibility expectations, and any temporary bridges or tooling needed for safe adoption.
3. Confirm the rollback and support posture for the riskiest changes and make sure the release owner surfaces are documented.
4. Review the plan against the actual implementation scope and create follow-up items for anything that cannot safely make the release cut.

Implementation Progress

Review Feedback

• [ ] Review cleared