We want to simplify and automate the release process.

Goals:

• Authorized users can create a release without needing credentials or keys
• No additional tools required

Proposed implementation: Add a manually triggered GitHub workflow that performs the following steps:

1. Build and test project
2. Run Self-trace script
3. Publish to Maven Central
4. Calculate checksum for release artifact
5. Create GitHub release and tag incl. artifacts

Out of scope:

• Automatic release after merge to main
• Checking preconditions (e.g. changelog release date, version, ...)
• Automatic Dependency Updates in Changelog