feat: streamline GitHub Actions workflows and improve contributor experience

- Replace complex auto-version.yml with simple PR Docker build workflow
  - Builds Docker images for all PRs using pr-number-sha tagging
  - Removes redundant versioning logic (semantic-release handles this)
  - Adds automatic PR comments with Docker usage instructions

- Optimize test.yml workflow triggers
  - Remove redundant push triggers on main branch
  - Focus on PR testing only for better developer feedback

- Add docker-release.yml for production releases
  - Triggers on GitHub release publication
  - Multi-platform builds (linux/amd64, linux/arm64)
  - Updates release notes with Docker installation instructions

- Add semantic-release.yml workflow for automated versioning
  - Uses conventional commits for version bumping
  - Automatically generates releases and tags
  - Integrates with Docker workflow via release triggers

- Add pre-commit configuration for automatic code quality
  - Includes ruff (with auto-fix), black, isort
  - Provides faster development workflow option

- Enhance contribution documentation
  - Add pre-commit hook option as recommended approach
  - Keep manual script option for comprehensive testing
  - Improve developer workflow guidance

Fixes #215 (automatic changelog generation)
Addresses #110 (Docker builds automation)
References #107 (improved version tracking)

This creates a clean, modern CI/CD pipeline that eliminates redundancy
while addressing multiple community requests around changelog generation,
Docker builds, and release automation.

.github/workflows/semantic-release.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+name: Semantic Release
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+
+permissions:
+  contents: write
+  issues: write
+  pull-requests: write
+
+jobs:
+  release:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    concurrency: release
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          persist-credentials: true
+
+      - name: Setup Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.11"
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install python-semantic-release
+
+      - name: Verify tests pass
+        run: |
+          pip install -r requirements.txt
+          pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
+          python -m pytest tests/ -v --ignore=simulator_tests/ -m "not integration"
+
+      - name: Run semantic release
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          git config --global user.name "github-actions[bot]"
+          git config --global user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
+          semantic-release version
+          semantic-release publish
+
+      - name: Upload build artifacts to release
+        if: hashFiles('dist/*') != ''
+        run: |
+          # Get the latest release tag
+          LATEST_TAG=$(gh release list --limit 1 --json tagName --jq '.[0].tagName')
+          if [ ! -z "$LATEST_TAG" ]; then
+            echo "Uploading artifacts to release $LATEST_TAG"
+            gh release upload "$LATEST_TAG" dist/* --clobber
+          fi
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}