Release Conductor

Gate the open release-please PR before merging. release-please drafts the changelog and version bump; release.yml handles OIDC npm publish on tag push. This skill is the human-in-the-loop step between them: verifies the PR is safe to merge, then merges it.

Trigger: when the user says "ship a release", "cut a release", "merge the release PR", "is the release ready", or invokes /release-conductor. Also /release-conductor verify <tag> for post-publish smoke test.

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS — optional subcommand:

• (empty) — full gate + merge flow on the currently open release-please PR.
• verify <tag> — post-publish smoke test for a published tag (e.g. verify v2.8.0).

Lifecycle:

feature PRs merged → release-please opens release PR → /release-conductor (gate + merge) → release.yml (OIDC publish) → /release-conductor verify <tag>

Steps

0. Refresh local refs, then branch on subcommand

If $ARGUMENTS starts with verify, jump to the verify subcommand section below — it reads only from gh and needs no local git state.

Otherwise refresh before anything reads local git state:

git fetch origin main --tags --prune-tags

This is load-bearing — do not skip it. Steps 4 and 5 derive LAST_TAG from local tags and diff against origin/main. On a clone whose tags are stale, every downstream number is wrong and still looks plausible: the bump comparison, the "PRs merged since last tag" list, and the commit-type check all describe the wrong release window, and nothing blocks — the gate reports READY on a false picture.

Observed in practice: a clone three tags behind reported the bump as 2.10.0 → 2.13.0 with 23 landed PRs, when the truth was 2.12.0 → 2.13.0 with 3.

Then continue with the gate + merge flow.

1. Find the open release-please PR

gh pr list --state open --search "head:release-please--" \
  --json number,title,headRefName,mergeable,mergeStateStatus,labels,body

• Zero matches. Check what's accumulated since the last tag:

  # Requires the step 0 fetch — stale tags here mean the wrong commit window.
  LAST_TAG=$(git tag --list 'v*' --sort=-version:refname | head -1)
  [ -n "$LAST_TAG" ] || { echo "no v* tag found — run: git fetch origin --tags"; exit 1; }
  git log "$LAST_TAG"..origin/main --oneline --no-merges
  

  If the log contains feat: / fix: / perf: / refactor: commits but no PR is open, suggest:

  gh run list --workflow=release-please.yml --limit 3
  

  release-please may have failed or not run. STOP and surface the most recent run.

  If the log contains only chore: / style: / test: / build: / ci: / docs: commits, report: no shippable changes — release-please correctly held off. STOP.

• One match. Record RELEASE_PR=$pr_number and continue.

• Multiple matches. STOP and ask the user which to ship — this signals a release-please config issue (multi-package monorepo without include-component-in-tag, etc.).

2. Show what's being shipped

gh pr view $RELEASE_PR --json title,body | jq -r '.title, .body'
gh pr diff $RELEASE_PR -- CHANGELOG.md | head -120
gh pr view $RELEASE_PR --json files --jq '.files[].path'

Report:

• PR title (release-please format: chore(main): release X.Y.Z)
• The changelog section being added (first ~120 lines of the diff)
• Files changed by the PR (should be CHANGELOG.md, package.json, .release-please-manifest.json, and any post-bump regen — index/, docs/ stamps)

3. Verify CI on the release PR

gh pr checks $RELEASE_PR

• Any check failing → STOP. Print the failing check names; tell the user to address them before re-running.
• Any check pending → STOP. Tell the user to wait for CI to finish.
• All checks pass → continue.

Sanity check on main:

gh run list --branch main --limit 5 --json conclusion,name,createdAt

If the most recent run on main is failing, surface as WARNING (not blocking) — release.yml will run against the tag, not main, so a stale main failure won't break publish, but it's worth knowing.

4. Verify no release blockers and feature PRs landed

# Requires the step 0 fetch. A stale tag here silently shifts the whole
# release window: wrong bump, wrong landed-PR list, wrong commit-type check.
LAST_TAG=$(git tag --list 'v*' --sort=-version:refname | head -1)
[ -n "$LAST_TAG" ] || { echo "no v* tag found — run: git fetch origin --tags"; exit 1; }
LAST_TAG_DATE=$(git log -1 --format=%cI "$LAST_TAG")

# Feature PRs merged since last tag
gh pr list --state merged --search "merged:>$LAST_TAG_DATE base:main" \
  --limit 50 --json number,title,headRefName,labels

# Open PRs flagged as blockers
gh pr list --state open --search "label:release-blocker,do-not-release,wip" \
  --json number,title,labels

• Report count of feature PRs merged since $LAST_TAG.
• Any open PR with release-blocker or do-not-release label → STOP. Surface the PR numbers.
• Any merged PR with those labels (mistakes happen) → surface as WARNING.

5. Sanity-check the bump

PREV_VERSION=${LAST_TAG#v}
NEW_VERSION=$(gh pr view $RELEASE_PR --json title --jq .title \
  | grep -oE '[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -1)
echo "Bump: $PREV_VERSION → $NEW_VERSION"

Inspect conventional-commit types since last tag:

git log "$LAST_TAG"..origin/main --pretty=format:'%s%n%b' --no-merges \
  | grep -E '^(feat|fix|perf|refactor|docs)(\(.+\))?!?:|BREAKING CHANGE:' \
  | sort -u

Expected bump (post-1.0):

• feat!: or BREAKING CHANGE: anywhere → major
• feat: (no breaking) → minor
• fix: / perf: / refactor: only → patch

For pre-1.0 packages, read release-please-config.json — bump-minor-pre-major promotes major→minor; bump-patch-for-minor-pre-major promotes minor→patch.

If release-please's bump diverges from expectation, surface as WARNING with the divergence (likely config). Do not block — release-please's config is the source of truth.

6. Go/no-go summary

Release-conductor: PR #$RELEASE_PR — $PREV_VERSION → $NEW_VERSION

  Step 2 — Files:           CHANGELOG.md, package.json, .release-please-manifest.json, …
  Step 3 — CI release PR:   ✓ green
                         |  ✗ failing: <names> (BLOCKED)
                         |  ⏳ pending (BLOCKED — wait)
  Step 3 — CI main:         ✓ green
                         |  ⚠ recent failures (not blocking publish)
  Step 4 — Blockers:        none
                         |  ✗ open: PR #N (label) (BLOCKED)
  Step 4 — Landed PRs:      N feature PRs since $LAST_TAG
  Step 5 — Bump:            ✓ matches commit types
                         |  ⚠ release-please chose $NEW_VERSION, expected $EXPECTED (<reason>)

Status: READY — say "ship" to merge PR #$RELEASE_PR (squash) and trigger release.yml.
     |  BLOCKED — <reason>. Fix and re-run /release-conductor.

7. Merge on explicit approval

Wait for the user to say ship, merge, go, or lgtm. CI green alone is not authorization.

On approval:

gh pr merge $RELEASE_PR --squash --delete-branch

If the repo overrides merge method (check .github/settings.yml or repo settings UI), follow the override and note it in the report.

8. Report the publish pipeline run

release-please's GitHub Action creates the v$NEW_VERSION tag immediately after merge; the tag push fires release.yml. Report the most recent runs so the user can track:

TAG="v$NEW_VERSION"
gh run list --workflow=release.yml --limit 3 \
  --json url,headBranch,status,conclusion,createdAt

Do not poll. Print:

Merged PR #$RELEASE_PR ($PREV_VERSION → $NEW_VERSION)
Tag should appear shortly: $TAG
Track release.yml above. Once it shows ✓ success:
  /release-conductor verify $TAG

verify <tag> subcommand

Post-publish smoke test. No gating, no merge — just three checks.

TAG=$(echo "$ARGUMENTS" | awk '{print $2}')
VERSION=${TAG#v}
PKG=$(node -p "require('./package.json').name")

# 1. release.yml conclusion for this tag
gh run list --workflow=release.yml --branch "$TAG" --limit 1 \
  --json conclusion,url,databaseId

# 2. npm has the version
npm view "$PKG@$VERSION" version dist.tarball

# 3. GitHub release exists
gh release view "$TAG" --json url,publishedAt,name

Report PASS / FAIL per check. Specifics:

• release.yml conclusion — success = PASS. in_progress = "still running, retry in ~60s." failure = FAIL, print URL.
• npm view — exit 0 = PASS. 404 = "not yet propagated (npm CDN lag, up to ~60s)." Other error = FAIL.
• gh release view — exit 0 = PASS. release not found = FAIL.

Rules

• Never reimplement release-please. This skill does not write CHANGELOG.md, bump versions, or create tags. release-please owns that; this skill only gates the merge of release-please's PR.
• Never publish to npm directly. OIDC publish happens in release.yml on tag push. The skill stops at gh pr merge.
• Require explicit verbal approval. ship / merge / go / lgtm. CI green alone is not authorization.
• One release PR at a time. Multiple open release-please--* PRs → stop and ask. Likely a config issue.
• Squash merge by default. Matches /merge-pr convention. Repo override (if any) wins, but record it.
• No polling. Print the run URL and exit. Use verify <tag> later.
• Pre-1.0 bump checks read config. Don't assume semver — release-please-config.json may have bump-minor-pre-major flags that alter the expected bump.
• Always fetch tags before reading them. LAST_TAG comes from the local tag list; a stale clone yields a wrong release window that still reports READY. Step 0's fetch is not optional.