refactor: repo maintenance

[Agrendalath]

This:

1. Adds catalog-info.yaml.
2. Updates .gitignore.
3. Modernizes building the package.
4. Updates requirements.
5. Adds automatic Python requirement upgrades.
6. Improves CI scripts.

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[Agrendalath]

@feanil, would you mind reviewing this? I tried to make the git history easy to follow.

[feanil]

Looks good to me!

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