Runner image bumps now roll out automatically, no manual pod cleanup needed. Stale Pending runner Pods are deleted and replaced on the current image. Idle Running Pods on the old image are drained cooperatively: dispatch polling returns a 410 signal that lets the runner shut itself down cleanly, and replacements are staggered over ~3.5 minutes to keep the warm pool from collapsing.
Release tagging now keys off the changed files in a path, not the commit message scope, so future controller and runner-image changes are always picked up for release even if the PR title scope differs.