fix: persist bumped version back to repo after CI bump

- VERSION file updated on dev after each CI bump
- Ensures subsequent pushes see the correct (bumped) version
- Excluded from CI paths filter, so bump commits dont trigger loops
- Fix: bump version is now persisted + pushed back to dev

Author: localpibox

.github/workflows/build-and-publish.yml

@@ -120,8 +120,15 @@ jobs:
           echo "Bumping $VERSION → $NEW_VERSION"
           echo "version=$NEW_VERSION" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
-          # NOTE: bumped version is only used as CI output for build jobs.
-          # VERSION on dev stays at the previous bump value (set by prior CI run). This avoids noise commits.
+          # Persist bumped version back to repo (VERSION/lpb.stack.env excluded
+          # from CI paths filter, so this won't trigger a new CI run)
+          echo "$NEW_VERSION" > VERSION
+          sed -i "s/^LPB_PI_REF=.*/LPB_PI_REF=$NEW_VERSION/" lpb.stack.env
+          git config user.name "ci-localpibox"
+          git config user.email "ci@localpibox.dev"
+          git add VERSION lpb.stack.env
+          git commit -m "chore: bump VERSION $NEW_VERSION [skip-version]" || echo "Nothing to commit"
+          git push origin dev --force-with-lease || echo "Push failed (already up-to-date)"
 
       - name: Create tags on all repos
         env: