Github Release

GitHub Release Skill

Critical Rules

NEVER run gh release create or gh release delete.

Blocked by hooks. Immutable releases (GA Oct 2025) make tag names permanent — a lightweight tag from gh release create burns that name forever, unrecoverably. CI creates releases from signed tags.

gh release edit is allowed ONLY for --notes / --notes-file to overhaul the release description after CI publishes. All other gh release edit flags are blocked.

No editorializing in release notes, PR/commit text and docs — state what a release does, not how good the work is; no self-praise or narrating the expected. See references/no-editorializing.md.

Start Here

scripts/release-status.sh -R owner/repo reports the phase and a computed NEXT, exiting 0 only when finished. scripts/release-notes-status.sh checks the published body.

Release Flow

1. Detect ecosystem — find the project type's version files (see references/ecosystem-detection.md)
2. Determine next version — from conventional commits or user input (major/minor/patch)
3. Bump version files — every ecosystem-specific one, consistently
4. Update CHANGELOG.md — add a release section with date and changes
5. Create release branch and PR — release/vX.Y.Z, always via PR (branch protection typically blocks direct pushes)
6. After PR merge — git checkout main && git pull, assert HEAD equals the remote tip (stale-worktree guard), then tag main's HEAD, never the release/vX.Y.Z tip: git tag -s vX.Y.Z -m "vX.Y.Z" — see references/release-process.md Phase 3.
7. Push tag — git push origin vX.Y.Z triggers CI
8. CI publishes release — artifacts, checksums, auto-generated notes
9. Overhaul release description — rewrite CI's notes into a narrative; @mention every contributor and reporter inline at their change, never as a ## Contributors section. Source them from scripts/harvest-contributors.sh, never git log. Verify with scripts/release-notes-status.sh. See references/release-process.md Phase 5.
10. Do NOT re-run the release workflow after step 9 — many regenerate the body each run, overwriting the overhaul. For downstream retries, use a dispatcher — see references/ter-republish.md.

Commands

• /release — full release flow (detect, bump, PR, tag)
• /release-prepare — bump versions and open PR only (no tag)
• /release-status — check release health (version drift, unsigned tags, missing workflows)

Delegation

• Supply chain security (SLSA, SBOMs, attestations): delegate to enterprise-readiness skill
• Branch strategy and conventional commits: delegate to git-workflow skill

References

• references/release-process.md
• references/ecosystem-detection.md — version-file patterns
• references/immutable-releases.md — immutable releases, tag burning
• references/supply-chain-security.md — SLSA, Sigstore
• references/recovery-procedures.md — burned tags, stuck drafts, drift, body clobbering
• references/ter-republish.md — TER re-publish
• references/typo3-ter-publishing.md — TYPO3 TER publish gotchas
• references/ci-workflow-templates.md — CI workflow templates
• references/no-editorializing.md — no self-praise