# Release

> Cut a new vykar release: bump versions, tag, push, wait for CI, and draft release notes.

- Skill: `borgbase/release` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add borgbase/release`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/borgbase/release/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: borgbase (https://skillmd.com/u/borgbase)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/borgbase/release

---


# vykar Release

Release workflow for vykar. The CI pipeline lives in `.github/workflows/release.yml` and triggers on `v*` tags pushed to `main`. It builds the release binaries and then publishes a GitHub Release with the artifacts and SHA256 checksums. See `.github/workflows/` for the build matrix and the exact set of targets.

## Steps

### 1. Pre-flight checks

Run `make pre-commit` first to catch formatting, clippy, and test issues before bumping versions. Fix any problems before proceeding.

### 2. Bump version

All nine crates inherit `version` from `[workspace.package]`, so there are only
two places to update:

- `Cargo.toml` — the `version` field under `[workspace.package]`
- `crates/vykar-gui/macos/Info.plist` (update both `CFBundleVersion` and `CFBundleShortVersionString`)

Run `cargo check` to regenerate `Cargo.lock` with the new versions.

### 3. Commit, tag, and push

Commit the version bump (include any other pending changes that should ship). Create a git tag `v<version>` and push both the commit and tag to `origin main`. Pushing the tag triggers the release workflow.

```
git add <changed files> && git commit -m "Bump version to <version>"
git tag v<version>
git push origin main --tags
```

### 4. Wait for the release workflow

Use the GitHub CLI to find the triggered workflow run and watch it until all jobs complete:

```
gh run list --limit 5
gh run watch <run-id> --exit-status
```

Once the build jobs finish, a `publish` job downloads the artifacts, generates SHA256 checksums, and creates the GitHub Release via `softprops/action-gh-release`.

### 5. Draft release notes

Review all commits since the previous tag:

```
git log <prev-tag>..v<version> --oneline --no-merges
```

Categorize the changes into sections (e.g. Features, Performance, Bug Fixes, Infrastructure) and update the release:

```
gh release edit v<version> --notes "<release notes>"
```

Include an "Updating" section showing the install command (```curl -fsSL https://vykar.borgbase.com/install.sh | sh```) with a link to the [quickstart guide](https://vykar.borgbase.com/quickstart#install) for other install options, followed by a downloads table listing each platform artifact.