9435cc506e
The previous fix moved the branch-readiness poll before the .version write, but on at least one runner the poll's curl returned CURLE_WRITE_ERROR (exit 23) immediately. With `set -e`, any non-zero status from a command substitution (`VAR=$(curl ...)`) aborts the script before the retry/echo path runs, so the failure was both deterministic and silent. Refactor the step around an `api_call` helper that wraps curl with `|| rc=$?` and emits `<http_code>|<curl_rc>` plus body, so curl exits never propagate through `set -e`. Other changes: - Create the `next-release` branch explicitly via `POST /branches` instead of relying on the `new_branch` parameter of the CHANGELOG.md PUT. Eliminates the race between branch creation and subsequent writes. - Poll branch readiness after explicit creation. - Fetch file blob SHAs from `next-release` directly (not base). - Every write (CHANGELOG.md, .version, PR) retries 5x with HTTP code, curl exit code, and response body logged on failure.