Meaningfy Release

Meaningfy Release Lifecycle

Overview

How a Meaningfy artifact goes from merged commits to a versioned, published, documented release. This skill owns the release lifecycle; it cites the neighbours that already own their slice and never restates them.

1. Versioning policy

• SemVer is a contract, not a vibe: MAJOR = backward-incompatible change to the public API; MINOR = backward-compatible addition; PATCH = backward-compatible fix. See semver.org.
• Public API = what a consumer can import/call without reaching into a private name (leading _) or an undocumented internal module. If it's public, changing it incompatibly is a MAJOR. Decide and document a module's public surface so "breaking" is decidable, not arguable.
• Pre-releases use dotted identifiers: 1.5.0-rc.1, 1.5.0-rc.2, 1.5.0 (final). Use -rc.N for release candidates, -beta.N/-alpha.N earlier. A pre-release sorts below its final.
• Version of record = the git tag (vX.Y.Z), mirrored into pyproject.toml. One bumper keeps them in sync (§5) — never hand-edit both.

2. Release & hotfix branches

GitFlow for public/client repos (a simpler flow internally — that policy lives in meaningfy-git-workflow). The branch mechanics (rebase/merge, force-push etiquette) are owned there; the release-specific lifecycle is owned here and detailed in references/gitflow-release-runbook.md:

• release/X.Y.Z — cut from the integration branch; stabilisation-only commits; tag on merge.
• hotfix/X.Y.Z — cut from the released tag, patch, tag, then back-merge to all long-lived lines.

3. Changelog & release notes

• Maintain CHANGELOG.md in Keep a Changelog format with an Unreleased section that fills as commits land (project-setup ships the stub).
• Auto-generation is the starting point, not the product. The release engine drafts the entry from Conventional Commits; a human adds breaking-change callouts and migration steps.
• CHANGELOG vs GitHub Release body: the CHANGELOG is the durable in-repo history; the GitHub Release body is the published announcement for that tag (link back to the CHANGELOG section).

4. The release engine — release-please (semi-automated)

We don't release by hand and we don't auto-release on every merge. Conventional Commits drive a release proposal that a human approves:

feat:/fix: commits land on the release line
        │
        ▼
release-please opens a "release PR"  →  version bump + CHANGELOG generated
        │  (human reviews — four-eyes; free-tier needs no draft PR)
        ▼  merge the release PR
tag vX.Y.Z  →  GitHub Release drafted  →  publish job runs (§5)

This honours GitFlow + four-eyes and is free-tier-safe (no draft PRs needed — see the GitHub constraints in meaningfy-git-workflow).

5. Publishing

• Library → PyPI via Trusted Publishing (OIDC), no API tokens. Full setup in references/pypi-publishing.md: a release GitHub environment, id-token: write, pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish, and a TestPyPI dry-run gate before the real upload.
• Deployable service → GHCR image — owned by ci-cd-delivery (semver + git sha → registry). This skill does not restate it; the tag from §4 is its version source.

6. Supply-chain hardening (recommended, not required)

Documented target, adopted per-repo and incrementally — no repo is blocked from releasing without it. Detail in references/supply-chain.md: PyPI attestations, Sigstore/cosign keyless signing, SLSA Level 2 provenance, and an SBOM (Syft) attached to the GitHub Release.

7. Governance

• SECURITY.md + coordinated disclosure via GitHub Security Advisories (private report → fix → CVE → publish). Required for public repos; projected by project-setup.
• Yank, don't delete. A broken release already on PyPI is yanked (stays installable for existing pins, hidden from new resolves) and superseded by a PATCH. Deleting breaks downstream pinned installs.
• Deprecate before you break. A MAJOR bump that removes public API is preceded by a deprecation cycle (warn in a MINOR, remove in the next MAJOR), recorded in the CHANGELOG.

Error / decision matrix

Boundary & Related Skills

Owns: the release lifecycle — versioning policy, the release/hotfix branch lifecycle, changelog + GitHub release notes, the release-please engine, PyPI Trusted Publishing, opt-in supply-chain, and release governance (SECURITY.md, yank, deprecation). Does NOT own: commit/branch/PR mechanics (meaningfy-git-workflow), the GHCR image + deploy + secrets flow (ci-cd-delivery), or CI + scaffolding/projection (project-setup). Related: meaningfy-git-workflow, ci-cd-delivery, project-setup.