Automate releases through CI

We should be able to automate the following tasks:

- [ ] Deployment to Central when we add a release tag
- [ ] Update all references to the version and prepare it for the next snapshot (e.g. pom file, docs, etc)

Start by locating the CI configuration, release-tag handling, pom file, and documentation references mentioned in the issue. Trace how a release is currently prepared and deployed to Central, then define the version-update flow for the next snapshot. Done means a release tag triggers deployment and all relevant version references are updated consistently.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.