# Release

> Coordinate a full Paperclip release across engineering verification, npm, GitHub, smoke testing, and announcement follow-up. Use when leadership asks to ship a release, not merely to discuss versioning.

- Skill: `paperclipai/release` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add paperclipai/release`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/paperclipai/release/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: paperclipai (https://skillmd.com/u/paperclipai)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/paperclipai/release

---


# Release Coordination Skill

Run the full Paperclip maintainer release workflow, not just an npm publish.

This skill coordinates:

- stable changelog drafting via `release-changelog`
- canary verification and publish status from `master`
- Docker smoke testing via `scripts/docker-onboard-smoke.sh`
- manual stable promotion from a chosen source ref
- GitHub Release creation
- website / announcement follow-up tasks
- release-content Cases dogfood: a top-level `release` case with child
  `blog_post` and `tweet_storm` cases, all linked to the release issue/run

## Trigger

Use this skill when leadership asks for:

- "do a release"
- "ship the release"
- "promote this canary to stable"
- "cut the stable release"

## Preconditions

Before proceeding, verify all of the following:

1. `.agents/skills/release-changelog/SKILL.md` exists and is usable.
2. The repo working tree is clean, including untracked files.
3. There is at least one canary or candidate commit since the last stable tag.
4. The candidate SHA has passed the verification gate or is about to.
5. If manifests changed, the CI-owned `pnpm-lock.yaml` refresh is already merged on `master`.
6. npm publish rights are available through GitHub trusted publishing, or through local npm auth for emergency/manual use.
7. If running through Paperclip, you have issue context for status updates and follow-up task creation.

If any precondition fails, stop and report the blocker.

## Inputs

Collect these inputs up front:

- whether the target is a canary check or a stable promotion
- the candidate `source_ref` for stable
- whether the stable run is dry-run or live
- release issue / company context for website and announcement follow-up

## Step 0 — Release Model

Paperclip now uses a commit-driven release model:

1. every push to `master` publishes a canary automatically
2. canaries use `YYYY.MDD.P-canary.N`
3. stable releases use `YYYY.MDD.P`
4. the middle slot is `MDD`, where `M` is the UTC month and `DD` is the zero-padded UTC day
5. the stable patch slot increments when more than one stable ships on the same UTC date
6. stable releases are manually promoted from a chosen tested commit or canary source commit
7. only stable releases get `releases/vYYYY.MDD.P.md`, git tag `vYYYY.MDD.P`, and a GitHub Release

Critical consequences:

- do not use release branches as the default path
- do not derive major/minor/patch bumps
- do not create canary changelog files
- do not create canary GitHub Releases

## Step 1 — Choose the Candidate

For canary validation:

- inspect the latest successful canary run on `master`
- record the canary version and source SHA

For stable promotion:

1. choose the tested source ref
2. confirm it is the exact SHA you want to promote
3. resolve the target stable version with `./scripts/release.sh stable --date YYYY-MM-DD --print-version`

Useful commands:

```bash
git tag --list 'v*' --sort=-version:refname | head -1
git log --oneline --no-merges
npm view paperclipai@canary version
```

## Step 2 — Draft the Stable Changelog

Stable changelog files live at:

- `releases/vYYYY.MDD.P.md`

Invoke `release-changelog` and generate or update the stable notes only.

Rules:

- review the draft with a human before publish
- preserve manual edits if the file already exists
- keep the filename stable-only
- do not create a canary changelog file

## Step 3 — Verify the Candidate SHA

Run the standard gate:

```bash
pnpm -r typecheck
pnpm test:run
pnpm build
```

If the GitHub release workflow will run the publish, it can rerun this gate. Still report local status if you checked it.

For PRs that touch release logic, the repo also runs a canary release dry-run in CI. That is a release-specific guard, not a substitute for the standard gate.

## Step 4 — Validate the Canary

The normal canary path is automatic from `master` via:

- `.github/workflows/release.yml`

Confirm:

1. verification passed
2. npm canary publish succeeded
3. git tag `canary/vYYYY.MDD.P-canary.N` exists

Useful checks:

```bash
npm view paperclipai@canary version
git tag --list 'canary/v*' --sort=-version:refname | head -5
```

## Step 5 — Smoke Test the Canary

Run:

```bash
PAPERCLIPAI_VERSION=canary ./scripts/docker-onboard-smoke.sh
```

Useful isolated variant:

```bash
HOST_PORT=3232 DATA_DIR=./data/release-smoke-canary PAPERCLIPAI_VERSION=canary ./scripts/docker-onboard-smoke.sh
```

Confirm:

1. install succeeds
2. onboarding completes without crashes
3. the server boots
4. the UI loads
5. basic company creation and dashboard load work

If smoke testing fails:

- stop the stable release
- fix the issue on `master`
- wait for the next automatic canary
- rerun smoke testing

## Step 6 — Preview or Publish Stable

The normal stable path is manual `workflow_dispatch` on:

- `.github/workflows/release.yml`

Inputs:

- `source_ref`
- `stable_date`
- `dry_run`

Before live stable:

1. resolve the target stable version with `./scripts/release.sh stable --date YYYY-MM-DD --print-version`
2. ensure `releases/vYYYY.MDD.P.md` exists on the source ref
3. run the stable workflow in dry-run mode first when practical
4. then run the real stable publish

The stable workflow:

- re-verifies the exact source ref
- computes the next stable patch slot for the chosen UTC date
- publishes `YYYY.MDD.P` under dist-tag `latest`
- creates git tag `vYYYY.MDD.P`
- creates or updates the GitHub Release from `releases/vYYYY.MDD.P.md`

Local emergency/manual commands:

```bash
./scripts/release.sh stable --dry-run
./scripts/release.sh stable
git push public-gh refs/tags/vYYYY.MDD.P
./scripts/create-github-release.sh YYYY.MDD.P
```

## Step 7 — Finish the Other Surfaces

Create or verify follow-up work for:

- website changelog publishing
- launch post / social announcement
- release summary in Paperclip issue context

These should reference the stable release, not the canary.

## Step 8 — Emit Release-Content Cases

When Cases are enabled, every stable release-content run must materialize a
deterministic case tree. This is part of the release dogfood path, not an
optional artifact. If the API returns `403 Cases are disabled`, stop and report
that the operator must enable `experimental.enableCases`.

Use the current release issue's `PAPERCLIP_COMPANY_ID`, `PAPERCLIP_API_URL`,
`PAPERCLIP_API_KEY`, and `PAPERCLIP_RUN_ID`. Include `X-Paperclip-Run-Id` on
all writes so the case activity feed can attribute the run back to the issue.

Create or upsert the parent `release` case first:

```http
POST /api/companies/:companyId/cases
{
  "caseType": "release",
  "key": "paperclip-release:vYYYY.MDD.P",
  "title": "Paperclip vYYYY.MDD.P release",
  "summary": "Stable release content package for Paperclip vYYYY.MDD.P.",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "fields": {
    "schema_version": 1,
    "version": "vYYYY.MDD.P",
    "release_date": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "source_ref": "git-sha-or-ref",
    "stable": true,
    "channels": ["changelog", "blog_post", "tweet_storm"],
    "artifacts": {
      "changelog_path": "releases/vYYYY.MDD.P.md",
      "github_release_url": null
    },
    "verification": {
      "typecheck": "unknown",
      "tests": "unknown",
      "build": "unknown",
      "smoke": "unknown"
    },
    "notes": null
  }
}
```

The `fields` schema intentionally uses all generic JSON value types: strings,
numbers, booleans, arrays, objects, and nulls. Send the complete fields object on
each upsert because case fields replace as a whole object.

Write the parent body document immediately after the upsert:

```http
PUT /api/cases/:releaseCaseId/documents/body
{
  "title": "Paperclip vYYYY.MDD.P release body",
  "format": "markdown",
  "body": "# Paperclip vYYYY.MDD.P\n\nRelease summary and links...",
  "changeSummary": "Initial release case body"
}
```

Then create or upsert these child cases with `parentCaseId` set to the release
case id:

- `blog_post`, key `paperclip-release:vYYYY.MDD.P:blog-post`, status
  `in_progress`, body document key `body`
- `tweet_storm`, key `paperclip-release:vYYYY.MDD.P:tweet-storm`, status
  `in_progress`, body document key `body`

Use deterministic keys exactly so rerunning the release-content flow upserts the
same three cases instead of duplicating them. After the child body documents are
written, list the resulting case identifiers and links in the release issue and
in the parent acceptance issue when one exists.

## Failure Handling

If the canary is bad:

- publish another canary, do not ship stable

If stable npm publish succeeds but tag push or GitHub release creation fails:

- fix the git/GitHub issue immediately from the same release result
- do not republish the same version

If `latest` is bad after stable publish:

```bash
./scripts/rollback-latest.sh <last-good-version>
```

Then fix forward with a new stable release.

## Output

When the skill completes, provide:

- candidate SHA and tested canary version, if relevant
- stable version, if promoted
- verification status
- npm status
- smoke-test status
- git tag / GitHub Release status
- website / announcement follow-up status
- release-content case tree links: parent `release` case plus `blog_post` and
  `tweet_storm` children
- rollback recommendation if anything is still partially complete