chore: release 0.3.0-rc.1 — drop dead refs, ship 2 NuGet packages, honest install docs

[Shewart]

Summary

Release candidate for v0.3.0. Three concerns landed together because they're all about "what does shipping look like now":

1. Version + release notes — bumps suffix to rc.1, prepends a consolidated changelog covering the five fix branches (1–5) that ran during the alpha series
2. Drop dead project references — ShellUI.Components had a phantom ProjectReference to ShellUI.Core and ShellUI.CLI had one to ShellUI.Components. Both had zero using directives anywhere in source — pure dead weight. The Components→Core ghost ref is exactly what shipped the NU1102 dependency error in alpha.2
3. Honest install docs — every doc previously advertised "Option 1: CLI, Option 2: NuGet" as equivalent paths. They're not. Tailwind v4 scans source files; component source lives inside the DLL when installed via NuGet, so Tailwind never sees the utility classes and components render without their layout/spacing/typography rules. CLI is the supported path; NuGet alone is documented as a known limitation pending v0.4.x

No source code changes. Tests still pass (53/53).

Changes

Version bump

• Directory.Build.props — <ShellUIVersionSuffix>alpha.3</ShellUIVersionSuffix> → rc.1. Propagates to all four packages via the centralized version system.

Release notes

• docs/RELEASE_NOTES.md — prepended # ShellUI v0.3.0-rc.1 🚦 section covering all five fix branches (template escapes, sidebar/theme runtime, init bootstrap, data-table half-install, chart-tooltip CSS) + the test/CI infrastructure that came with them (53 tests, drift detection, CI smoke that scaffolds + builds a real app)

Dead project references removed

• src/ShellUI.Components/ShellUI.Components.csproj — dropped the ProjectReference to ShellUI.Core. Verified by grep: zero using ShellUI.Core or ShellUI.Core.* references anywhere in src/ShellUI.Components/. The ref was a phantom — it propagated to the .nuspec as a runtime dependency, which is what blew up alpha.2 with NU1102 when only Core 0.1.0 existed on NuGet.
• src/ShellUI.CLI/ShellUI.CLI.csproj — dropped the ProjectReference to ShellUI.Components. Also zero using directives anywhere in src/ShellUI.CLI/. The CLI only needs Core (for ComponentMetadata, ShellUIConfig, NuGetDependency, ProjectInfo) and Templates (for ComponentRegistry).
• src/ShellUI.Core/ShellUI.Core.csproj — marked <IsPackable>false</IsPackable>. Was emitting an orphan .nupkg no one pushed. Now dotnet pack ShellUI.sln produces exactly the two packages we actually ship.

Release workflow

• .github/workflows/release.yml — dropped the Core push step and removed Core from the GH Release asset list. Now publishes only ShellUI.CLI + ShellUI.Components to NuGet, mirroring what actually exists.

Documentation sweep

• README.md — replaced the misleading "Option 1: CLI / Option 2: NuGet" section with one honest "CLI is the install path" section + a clearly-labeled "advanced manual setup" subsection. The package-overview table now says CLI is required and the Components package is optional with a clear use-case description.
• src/ShellUI.Components/README.md (ships in the NuGet package, shows on nuget.org) — leads with a "Read this first" warning that the package alone doesn't produce styled components, explains why (Tailwind compiles by scanning source files), points users to the CLI, and notes the v0.4.x roadmap.
• src/ShellUI.CLI/README.md (also on nuget.org) — expanded the shellui init description to list everything it actually does now (theme bootstrap, render mode, shellui.js link, MSBuild integration, idempotency) so users know what they get for free.

Verification

• dotnet pack ShellUI.sln -c Release after cleaning the bin folder produces exactly two packages:

  src/ShellUI.CLI/bin/Release/ShellUI.CLI.0.3.0-rc.1.nupkg
  src/ShellUI.Components/bin/Release/ShellUI.Components.0.3.0-rc.1.nupkg
  

• Extracted ShellUI.Components.0.3.0-rc.1.nuspec confirms the dependency graph is clean — only the three real runtime deps (Blazor-ApexCharts, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web, System.Linq.Dynamic.Core), no ShellUI.Core:

  <dependencies>
    <group targetFramework="net9.0">
      <dependency id="Blazor-ApexCharts" version="6.0.2" exclude="Build,Analyzers" />
      <dependency id="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web" version="9.0.6" exclude="Build,Analyzers" />
      <dependency id="System.Linq.Dynamic.Core" version="1.7.1" exclude="Build,Analyzers" />
    </group>
  </dependencies>

  The NU1102 alpha.2-class bug is now structurally impossible.
• dotnet test ShellUI.Tests -c Release — 53/53 passing

Test plan

• Merge to main
• Tag v0.3.0-rc.1
• Confirm release.yml publishes exactly 2 nupkgs (CLI + Components) and a GitHub Release with the new top-of-file notes as the body
• dotnet tool install -g ShellUI.CLI --version 0.3.0-rc.1 works
• dotnet add package ShellUI.Components --version 0.3.0-rc.1 --prerelease resolves without trying to fetch ShellUI.Core from NuGet (this would have failed in alpha.2)
• Soak for ~3 days against real consumer projects

Next step

If the soak window stays quiet: open chore/release-0.3.0 — empty version suffix, README/PROJECT_STATUS "stable" wording, VERSIONING_STRATEGY.md API-contract doc. Then tag v0.3.0. After that, chore/net10-upgrade opens the 0.4 cycle.