diff --git a/.claude/skills/audit-comet-expression/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/audit-comet-expression/SKILL.md
index 60237fc7c9..da1c4082d1 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/audit-comet-expression/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/audit-comet-expression/SKILL.md
@@ -4,6 +4,25 @@ description: Audit an existing Comet expression for correctness and test coverag
 argument-hint: <expression-name>
 ---
 
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
 Audit the Comet implementation of the `$ARGUMENTS` expression for correctness and test coverage.
 
 ## Overview
diff --git a/.claude/skills/bug-triage/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/bug-triage/SKILL.md
index 41f4f68754..7453a578a9 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/bug-triage/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/bug-triage/SKILL.md
@@ -3,6 +3,25 @@ name: bug-triage
 description: Triage open Comet issues marked `requires-triage` per the project bug triage guide. Applies the recommended priority and area labels, removes `requires-triage`, and files a dated summary issue listing what was done. A human reviews the summary issue and closes it when satisfied.
 ---
 
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
 Run a bug triage pass for the `apache/datafusion-comet` repository.
 
 ## Overview
diff --git a/.claude/skills/implement-comet-expression/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/implement-comet-expression/SKILL.md
index e1cd2bd7ae..529293f378 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/implement-comet-expression/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/implement-comet-expression/SKILL.md
@@ -4,6 +4,25 @@ description: Use when implementing a new Spark expression in DataFusion Comet. W
 argument-hint: <expression-name>
 ---
 
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
 Implement Comet support for the `$ARGUMENTS` Spark expression.
 
 ## Background reading
diff --git a/.claude/skills/review-comet-pr/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/review-comet-pr/SKILL.md
index 03485ef54c..a39d230e42 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/review-comet-pr/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/review-comet-pr/SKILL.md
@@ -4,6 +4,25 @@ description: Review a DataFusion Comet pull request for Spark compatibility and
 argument-hint: <pr-number>
 ---
 
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
 Review Comet PR #$ARGUMENTS
 
 ## Before You Start
diff --git a/.claude/skills/wire-datafusion-function/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/wire-datafusion-function/SKILL.md
index 3cfee7412b..02bc493ceb 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/wire-datafusion-function/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/wire-datafusion-function/SKILL.md
@@ -4,6 +4,25 @@ description: Use when wiring an existing DataFusion or datafusion-spark function
 argument-hint: <expression-name>
 ---
 
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
 Wire Comet support for the `$ARGUMENTS` Spark expression by reusing an existing DataFusion or `datafusion-spark` function. **No native Rust is written here** — if upstream coverage is missing, stop and run `implement-comet-expression`.
 
 ## Wiring patterns
diff --git a/dev/release/rat_exclude_files.txt b/dev/release/rat_exclude_files.txt
index f1861926da..0f44154d93 100644
--- a/dev/release/rat_exclude_files.txt
+++ b/dev/release/rat_exclude_files.txt
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
 *.gitignore
 *.dockerignore
 .github/pull_request_template.md
+.github/workflows/README.md
 .gitmodules
 native/Cargo.lock
-native/testdata/backtrace.txt
-native/testdata/stacktrace.txt
-native/core/testdata/backtrace.txt
-native/core/testdata/stacktrace.txt
+native/jni-bridge/testdata/backtrace.txt
+native/jni-bridge/testdata/stacktrace.txt
 dev/copyright/scala-header.txt
 dev/diffs/iceberg/*.diff
 dev/release/requirements.txt
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 611cdf7f2e..f53b153d28 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1167,6 +1167,12 @@ under the License.
             <exclude>docs/source/contributor-guide/*.svg</exclude>
             <exclude>dev/release/rat_exclude_files.txt</exclude>
             <exclude>dev/release/requirements.txt</exclude>
+            <exclude>dev/release/venv/**</exclude>
+            <exclude>dev/release/comet-rm/workdir/**</exclude>
+            <exclude>dev/dist/**</exclude>
+            <exclude>dev/release/rat.txt</exclude>
+            <exclude>dev/release/filtered_rat.txt</exclude>
+            <exclude>dev/release/*.jar</exclude>
             <exclude>native/proto/src/generated/**</exclude>
             <exclude>benchmarks/tpc/queries/**</exclude>
             <exclude>.claude/**</exclude>