Prepare for 26.5.0 release (#2171)

Codex/fail empty root ingest (#2160)

Fix release source ref issue (#2149)

Otel introduction (#2145)

backport: (main --> 26.05)PDF pre-split docs + service-only pdf_split…

…_config note (NVBugs 6218013) (#2126)

Helm fixes latest (#2121)

Fix ASR and media pipeline parameter handling (#2101)

(cherry picked from commit 744f0bc)

Helm nemotron parse (#2092)

Add PR install smoke for Windows and macOS (#2078)

(cherry picked from commit 73f3d5f)

Add PyPI build/publish debug logging for artifact layout

Log pwd, run metadata, directory trees, and glob probe results so CI
failures show whether wheels are missing, mis-staged, or the workflow
YAML is frozen from an older re-run.