# Promote Release > Promote a QA'd Sculptor release candidate to a full production release: verify the RC build is green and has been QA'd, then from the release branch run `just promote-release` (which strips the rcN suffix, commits X.Y.0, and pushes the sculptor-vX.Y.0 tag that triggers the production build) and babysit that build up to its manual approval gate. Handles the colocated jj + git working copy and the CI flake/outage/zombie recovery playbook. Stops AT the approval gate — never approves it for you. Use when asked to "promote a release", "ship the release", or turn an RC into the real release. - Skill: `imbue-ai/promote-release` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add imbue-ai/promote-release` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/imbue-ai/promote-release/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: imbue-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/imbue-ai) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/imbue-ai/promote-release --- # Promote a Sculptor Release Turn a release candidate on `release/sculptor-vX.Y.0` into the promoted `X.Y.0` release. Read **`docs/development/release_ci_playbook.md`** first — the version model, approval-gate policy, flake-vs-outage triage, zombie recovery, and jj working-copy rules all live there and this skill depends on them. That playbook is a **living document**: anything new you learn promoting a release goes back into it in the same change. **Gate before you start:** promotion publishes the real thing. Confirm the RC build for the current `rcN` went **green and was actually QA'd** before running anything here. If it wasn't QA'd, stop and get that done first. ## Step 0 — Work out what to promote Don't assume the newest release branch is the one to ship. Branches get cut and abandoned: 0.41 and 0.43 were both cut and never promoted, so production went 0.42.0 → 0.44.0 directly. ```bash git fetch origin --tags --prune git branch -r --list 'origin/release/*' | sort -V | tail -5 # candidate branches git tag -l 'sculptor-v*' --sort=-v:refname | head # rcN tags gh release list --limit 10 # what actually shipped ``` Read those together: - The branch to promote is the one whose **`rcN` prerelease appears in `gh release list`**. That publication is proof the RC build went green *and* a human approved its gate — stronger evidence than "the build was green". - The newest non-prerelease (`Latest`) entry is what production runs today. - A release branch with no published prerelease was abandoned; leave it alone. ## Step 1 — Get onto the release branch, clean `promote-release` runs `git checkout`-based checks and needs a **real git branch** (`release/sculptor-vX.Y.0`) with a **clean tree** — not the usual jj detached HEAD. ```bash jj st # working copy clean/empty? git fetch origin release/sculptor-vX.Y.0 git checkout release/sculptor-vX.Y.0 cd sculptor && python3 -c "import tomllib; print(tomllib.load(open('pyproject.toml','rb'))['project']['version'])"; cd .. # expect X.Y.0rcN ``` If `jj st` shows unrelated working-copy work, **preserve it first** (bookmark + `jj new`, per the playbook) before the checkout — never discard it. Sanity checks the recipe also enforces, worth confirming yourself: - You're on `release/sculptor-vX.Y.0` and the version is an `rcN` pre-release. - The branch is **not behind** its upstream: ```bash git fetch --prune && git status --porcelain=2 --branch | grep '^# branch.ab' ``` If behind, pull/rebase before promoting. ## Step 2 — Promote ```bash just promote-release ``` This strips the pre-release suffix (`X.Y.0rcN → X.Y.0`), commits the version on the release branch, and pushes tag `sculptor-vX.Y.0` — which triggers the production release build. Capture the release version and tag from the output. Two outputs look wrong but are normal (playbook field notes, 2026-08-14): - `Releasing Sculptor from git sha ...` — a stale `pyproject_version()` echo. The version actually released is the stripped one. - `Bypassed rule violations for refs/tags/... creations being restricted` on the tag push. Expected — but it means you need **tag-creation bypass** on the repo ruleset; without it the promotion fails right here. ## Step 3 — Babysit the production build to the approval gate Same polling and recovery as an RC build (playbook: "Polling a build", "Flake vs. outage", "Zombie runs"): ```bash gh run list --workflow=build-desktop.yml --limit 5 # find the sculptor-vX.Y.0 run gh run view --json status,conclusion -q '.status + " / " + (.conclusion // "running")' gh api repos/imbue-ai/sculptor/actions/runs//pending_deployments -q 'length' ``` - Infra flake / cancellation → retry (`gh run rerun --failed`, or a full rerun after a cancellation). - A red `linux-arm64` is survivable: it is `allow-failure: true`, and the publisher skips a non-blocking target whose artifacts are missing. The release ships without that architecture — rerun the job if you want arm64 included. - Outage → check `githubstatus.com`, back off, don't retry into it. - **Never admin-merge / force a bad required check.** Refuse and hand back. - Gate reached (`pending_deployments` ≥ 1, run `status` = `waiting`, `release desktop (S3 publish + gh release)` = `waiting`) → verify, then **stop.** Note: if the production build is unrecoverable but the RC was fine, promotion isn't the place to cut a new RC — that's `fixup-release` on the RC side. A promoted release that later needs patching uses `just hotfix-release` (see the playbook's version model). ## Step 4 — Verify at the gate, then hand off Check what will actually ship before handing it over — `allow-failure` jobs report success to `needs`, so the gate can open with a red `linux-arm64`: ```bash gh run view --json jobs -q '.jobs[] | .name + " -> " + (.conclusion // "—")' ``` Then report that the build is parked at the `release` environment approval gate, and **do not approve it.** Per the playbook: surface it, give the user the run URL plus the env id, show them how to approve themselves (UI **Review deployments**, or the `gh api ... pending_deployments ... state=approved` command), and if asked to approve, push back gently once, then comply if they insist. If arm64 is red, rerun it first when you want that architecture in the release — and either way, tell the user which architectures this release will contain. ## Step 5 — After they approve Confirm the publish actually landed; don't trust the job status alone: ```bash gh run view --json conclusion -q .conclusion # success gh release view sculptor-vX.Y.0 --json isPrerelease,isDraft # false / false curl -s https://imbue-sculptor-releases.s3.amazonaws.com/slim/AppImage/x64/latest-linux.yml | grep '^version:' ``` That last one matters most — the auto-update manifests are the channel that actually reaches users. (A release with **0 assets is normal**: artifacts live in S3 and the release body just links them.) Follow-ups this skill does **not** do: - **Release notes** (`write-release-notes`). The range starts at the prior *promoted* tag, which may be several minors back — 0.44.0's notes had to cover 0.42.0 → 0.44.0 because 0.43 never shipped. Scoping to the previous release *branch* silently drops half of what users are receiving. The release body is pipeline boilerplate (title + `## Assets`); splice notes in **above** `## Assets` and preserve that block verbatim, via `gh release edit --notes-file `. Do **not** sign a published product changelog `(Sent by Claude)` — CLAUDE.md's transparency rule targets PR, issue, and chat messages, not user-facing release copy. - **`update-help-docs`** — **optional / deprecated.** The help docs (`docs/help/`) are no longer actively maintained, so refreshing them is no longer part of the promotion follow-up. Skip it by default; only run it (from the release branch) if you specifically want to update a page. - **Linear** hygiene for the tickets that shipped. - Slack needs nothing: the pipeline posts to `#sculptor-release` automatically on a successful publish. ## Before you finish Learned something the playbook doesn't cover? **Add it to `docs/development/release_ci_playbook.md` (Field notes) and commit it** in the same change. You have write access — write it down for the next promoter.