# Release

> Cut a FastMCP release end to end. Use when the maintainer says "cut a release", "prep a patch", "ship 4.x.y", or asks what a release would contain. Covers the notes preview, the title pun, the docs changelog PR that must land before the tag, the tag itself, the publish fan-out, and verifying gofastmcp.com actually deployed.

- Skill: `jlowin/release` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add jlowin/release`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/jlowin/release/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: jlowin (https://skillmd.com/u/jlowin)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/jlowin/release

---


# Cutting a release

A release is a tag on the branch that owns the line: `<branch>` below is `main` for
the current major and `release/3.x` for 3.x maintenance. Every step runs against that
branch, including the docs PR, so a maintenance entry lands in the maintenance
branch's own changelog above its newest 3.x entry. The tag triggers `Publish fastmcp-slim to PyPI`;
its success fans out to `fastmcp-tasks`, `fastmcp-remote`, and `fastmcp`, and the
`fastmcp` publish job opens the `published-docs` PR that makes gofastmcp.com reflect
the release. Two hand-maintained docs files mirror every release and must be on the
tagged commit, so the docs PR always lands first. PyPI releases are immutable; a bad
one gets a follow-up patch, never a re-tag.

## Procedure

1. **Preview what's in it.**

   ```bash
   git fetch origin && git log v<prev>..origin/<branch> --format='%h %s'
   gh api -X POST repos/PrefectHQ/fastmcp/releases/generate-notes \
     -f tag_name=v<new> -f target_commitish=<branch> -f previous_tag_name=v<prev> --jq .body
   ```

   Read the two most recent releases for voice: `gh release list -L 5`, then
   `gh release view <tag>` on each.

2. **Propose titles.** Titles are `v<version>: <pun>`, pun on the release's main
   theme from the release preview. Check prior titles with
   `gh release list --repo PrefectHQ/fastmcp --limit 60` to avoid repeats and keep
   the options on brand: two to four words, a familiar phrase bent toward the
   theme ("Cache Me If You Can", "Trust, but Proxy", "Come Back Any Time"),
   and a running family for a major's prereleases ("Fourst Contact", "Group
   Effourt"). Offer several; the maintainer picks. Draft the handwritten notes at the
   same time: one or two sentences for a patch, narrative prose for a point release.
   Get sign-off on both before anything is pushed.

3. **Write the notes file** outside the repository (a temp directory), intro only.
   The release title is the heading, so the file has none.

4. **Docs entries.** Branch `docs/changelog-<new>` from `origin/<branch>` and insert
   both blocks (the last argument is the branch the notes are generated against):

   ```bash
   uv run .claude/skills/release/scripts/changelog_entry.py v<new> v<prev> "<pun>" /tmp/notes.md <branch>
   ```

   Validate, and repeat until it reports no errors; a parse error names the file
   and line:col:

   ```bash
   cd docs && npx --yes mint@latest broken-links
   ```

   (`@latest` on purpose: the hosted Mintlify build is always current.) Commit,
   push, open the PR titled `docs: add v<new> changelog entries` with base
   `<branch>` and a one-line body, and merge it. Branch policy needs `--admin` on a maintainer-driven release.
   The docs PR itself appears in the GitHub notes but not in the mirror; that is
   expected.

5. **Tag**, immediately after the docs PR merges. Re-run the step 1 preview first;
   if `<branch>` moved, delete the entry blocks from both docs files, re-run the
   helper (it refuses to insert a label that already exists), and land that as a
   follow-up docs PR before tagging.

   ```bash
   gh release create v<new> --target <branch> --title "v<new>: <pun>" \
     --generate-notes --notes-start-tag v<prev> --notes-file /tmp/notes.md
   ```

   `v<prev>` is the last stable tag on that branch. The compare link at the bottom of the created release must read `v<prev>...v<new>`.

6. **Watch the fan-out.** The slim run is keyed to the tag; the others are
   `workflow_run` events on the default branch, so select them by workflow name.
   The slim run appears within a minute of the tag; the `fastmcp` run is queued the
   moment slim succeeds, so watch slim to completion first and the newest `fastmcp`
   run is the right one.

   ```bash
   gh run watch $(gh run list --event release --branch v<new> --limit 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId') --exit-status
   gh run watch $(gh run list --workflow "Publish fastmcp to PyPI" --limit 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId') --exit-status
   ```

   Confirm each package with `curl -fsS https://pypi.org/pypi/<pkg>/<new>/json | jq .info.version`;
   the unversioned endpoint lags a few minutes.

7. **Publish docs** (`main` releases only; maintenance releases skip this step and
   leave gofastmcp.com on the current major). When the `fastmcp` run finishes, its last job has opened
   `Publish FastMCP v<new> docs` against `published-docs`:

   ```bash
   gh pr list --base published-docs --state open --json number,title
   gh pr merge <n> --merge --admin
   ```

   Merging pushes `published-docs`, which runs the `Deploy docs` workflow: it asks
   Mintlify's admin API for a deployment of the tip and waits for the verdict.
   That run is the signal that the site changed; the merge alone proves nothing.

   ```bash
   gh run watch $(gh run list --workflow "Deploy docs" --branch published-docs --limit 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId') --exit-status
   ```

   A red run prints Mintlify's summary and logs; fix the cause on `main` and
   publish again. If Mintlify's queue is backed up (status.mintlify.com), the run
   waits up to 40 minutes; re-run it with
   `gh workflow run deploy-docs.yml --ref published-docs` once their incident clears.

   Verify through the markdown endpoints, which bypass the HTML edge cache:
   `curl -fsS https://gofastmcp.com/changelog.md | grep -c "<pun>"`, and the same
   for `updates.md` and any page the release touched.

## Publishing docs by hand

Used when a deploy failed and was fixed on `main`, or for a docs change outside a
release. The publication commit must match `main`'s tree exactly.

```bash
git fetch origin main published-docs
git checkout -b publish-docs-<topic> origin/published-docs
git read-tree -m -u origin/main && git commit -m "docs: publish main @ $(git rev-parse --short origin/main)"
git diff --quiet HEAD origin/main && echo "tree matches main"
git push -u origin publish-docs-<topic>
gh pr create --base published-docs --title "docs: publish main to published-docs (<what>)" --body "<one line>"
gh pr merge <n> --merge --admin
```

Then watch the `Deploy docs` run and verify the endpoints as in step 7.

## Template: notes file for a patch

```
`ClientGroup` now reference-counts its context the way `Client` does, so entering a
connected group from a nested block or a concurrent task reuses the existing
connections instead of raising.
```

## Gotchas

- `--generate-notes` copies PR titles verbatim; a title containing `<1`, `{`, or `}`
  breaks MDX. `scripts/changelog_entry.py` wraps those in backticks; the validator
  in step 4 catches anything it misses.
- Mintlify's GitHub App also deploys on its own, but it only rebuilds files
  changed since the last commit it recorded, and it records commits it failed on
  or skipped. Only the `Deploy docs` run's verdict counts; its API-triggered
  deployment is what brings a page a skipped deploy left stale back in line.
- Without `--notes-start-tag`, a prerelease tag becomes the changelog start and the
  PR list is silently truncated.
- Maintenance releases publish packages and notes but never repoint `published-docs`;
  their changelog entries go on the maintenance branch under the matching major section.

## Check before finishing

Each of these prints a count above zero:
`curl -fsS https://pypi.org/pypi/fastmcp/<new>/json | grep -c '"version"'`,
`curl -fsS https://gofastmcp.com/changelog.md | grep -c "<pun>"`,
`curl -fsS https://gofastmcp.com/updates.md | grep -c "<pun>"`.