./VERSION (NUCLEIC_MARKETING_VERSION + NUCLEIC_BUILD_NUMBER) is the single source of truth, read by package-app.sh and bumped by release-macos.sh. Every release increments the build number by 1; 'make release-beta BUMP=major|minor|patch' also bumps that semver component (resetting lower ones). The bumped VERSION is committed on success so build numbers stay monotonic. Seeded at 827 (the prior git-derived count) so numbering is continuous.
scripts/bump-version.sh does the arithmetic and rewrites VERSION; package-app.sh now reads version+build from VERSION (env NUCLEIC_VERSION/NUCLEIC_BUILD still override; missing file falls back to 0.1.0 + git count, so app-* and fresh checkouts are unaffected).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
