Casca 1.5.6 (2026-06-05)Link to section

AddedLink to section

• Add SSG layout URL helpers asset_url(path), page_url(path), and canonical_url() for depth-aware output-tree URLs and absolute canonical URLs. Layouts may use the helper expression syntax {{ FN(ARG) }} so a single static build works from /, /casca/, or another URL root.

ToolingLink to section

• Workflow topology refactor. release.yml becomes the sole owner of portal site-deploy. lint-plus-policy.yml loses its site-deploy job entirely (lint and policy remain). release.yml's trigger expands to push: branches: [main], tags: ['v*'], with all binary/release jobs gated if: github.ref_type == 'tag' so they skip on non-tag pushes. A new portal-deploy job runs only on branch pushes to main, uses the Phase 096 cross-workflow cache, and skips when a v* tag points at HEAD (the tag-ref workflow run owns the deploy in that case). The existing tag-path site-deploy job is preserved unchanged for tag pushes (still uses the artifact and manifest verification from Phase 095). Per-ref concurrency group on release.yml prevents tag and main runs from the same coordinated push from cancelling each other.
• Reorder Restore cross-workflow bootstrap state BEFORE Install system dependencies in lint and the new portal-deploy. Gate Install system dependencies on cache-miss (if: steps.casca-bootstrap-cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true') so warm runs skip the apt step entirely. This eliminates the variance the user reported (apt-get update can take seconds or minutes depending on mirror response). The policy job keeps apt always-on because it runs npm-pack-all-prebuilt, and npm is not in the cache path:.
• Derive the previous monorepo tag's VERSION-css value from the git tag history in tools/release-css-mirror.sh instead of looking it up in .casca-cache/release-coordinates.tsv. The TSV path was gitignored and never persisted between v1.5.5 release runs, so the v1.5.5 mirror push tripped release-css-mirror: no release-coordinates row for v1.5.0. The replacement walks git tag --list 'v*' --sort=-v:refname newest-first and reads each candidate tag's VERSION-css via git show ${tag}:VERSION-css; the first match wins. The release-coordinates preflight job and the corresponding Makefile step (on-main-and-coordinate-match -> on-main) are removed since the TSV is no longer load-bearing.
• README rewrite for the v2-era surface: lead with the dual identity (CSS-only design system + Rust SSG), single Install section, and a shorter Highlights list. Removes the legacy "Why Casca" prose and reorders the badge strip so license and SSG badges follow the npm package badges.

CompatibilityLink to section

The SSG layout helpers asset_url(path), page_url(path), canonical_url(), and the {{ FN(ARG) }} expression syntax are public Casca CLI API as of 0.2.0. Future releases must preserve them or make a semver-major SSG compatibility change.