Just curious: is this dead?
As explained on the hibernate.org website:
Hibernate Shards has not been kept up to date with the latest Hibernate ORM versions. Some community members have interest in making it catch up. If you are interested, contact us.
In fact, Hibernate Shards has never had a Final version. Since this is an open-source project, it means there was not enough interest to make it happen and the Hibernate core team is already busy with the other projects which are in demand.