Portainer MCP Release

portainer-mcp release (spec bump)

This skill covers releases where the MCP minor moves with a new Portainer minor (e.g. 2.41.0 → 2.42.0). Per docs/versioning.md, the minor only moves when the embedded spec moves — patch-only releases (shaping fixes, dep bumps, profile tweaks against the same Portainer minor) follow a simpler flow that this skill does not cover. If unsure which kind you're cutting, the test is: did src/portainer_mcp/data/portainer-patched.yaml change? Spec bump → use this skill. Otherwise → patch release.

The release pipeline itself (PyPI publish via OIDC on tag push) is documented in docs/release.md; this skill is the spec-bump-specific work that has to land before the tag.

Why a skill for this

Spec bumps are infrequent (one per Portainer minor — quarterly-ish) and the work spans ten files. Most of those touches are mechanical version-pin updates, but two are easy to half-do:

• Op/tag deltas in docs/profiles.md — the orphan table and default-coverage numbers are derived from the spec. Upstream often adds/removes/renames tags between minors. Stale numbers here mean users get the wrong picture of what the default profiles cover.
• CHANGELOG entry — a one-liner that says "bumped spec" is much less useful than naming the deltas (operation count change, dropped tags). Skim of the changelog is how users decide whether the upgrade matters to them.

The script in scripts/spec_deltas.py automates the counting so neither slips.

The release in one breath

1. Find the latest 2.X patch upstream.
2. Branch off main as X.Y if you aren't already.
3. make specs VERSION=X.Y.Z.
4. uv run pytest and boot the server end-to-end.
5. Run spec_deltas.py, capture the new numbers.
6. Update nine files (see Step 6 checklist).
7. Commit as Release X.Y.0, push branch.
8. Open PR, merge to main (merge or rebase — not squash).
9. From main, git tag X.Y.0 && git push origin X.Y.0.
10. Watch the release workflow finish, verify on PyPI.

Step-by-step

1. Find the latest 2.X patch upstream

Upstream is portainer/portainer-api-docs, with per-version YAML at versions/ee/X.Y.Z.yaml. We target the latest patch of the minor we're moving to, not the .0.

Preferred — gh (no clone):

gh api /repos/portainer/portainer-api-docs/contents/versions/ee \
  --jq '.[].name' | grep -E '^2\.42\.[0-9]+\.yaml$' | sort -V

Fallback — sparse clone (if gh isn't authed):

git clone --depth=1 --filter=blob:none --no-checkout \
  git@github.com:portainer/portainer-api-docs.git /tmp/portainer-api-docs
git -C /tmp/portainer-api-docs ls-tree -r HEAD versions/ee/ \
  | grep -oE 'versions/ee/2\.42\.[0-9]+\.yaml' | sort -V

Pick the highest patch. If only .0 exists, that's your target.

2. Branch off main

If there isn't already an X.Y branch, create one:

git checkout main && git pull
git checkout -b X.Y    # e.g. 2.42

3. Regenerate the spec

make specs VERSION=X.Y.Z

This sparse-clones portainer-api-docs into spec/upstream/ and runs spec/patch_spec.py against the targeted YAML, writing the result to src/portainer_mcp/data/portainer-patched.yaml.

If the patcher fails or uv run pytest shows the spec is broken, the upstream YAML has shipped new defects — extend EXCLUDED_OPERATION_IDS, EXCLUDED_PATH_PREFIXES, or ENUM_STRIPS in spec/patch_spec.py rather than hand-editing portainer-patched.yaml. The patched file is regenerated every release; manual edits will be lost.

4. Sanity check: tests + boot

uv run pytest

Then boot the server end-to-end. This exercises FastMCP.from_openapi against the real spec and the startup select invariant — which is the only check that catches "spec parses but FastMCP can't build tools from it":

PORTAINER_URL=http://localhost PORTAINER_API_KEY=dummy uv run python -c \
  'from portainer_mcp.server import build_server; build_server()'

You want to see select arg present on all N toolsin the log output. Ifbuild_server()raises, the spec has structural issues thatpytestcouldn't catch — likely needing anotherpatch_spec.py` exclusion.

5. Compute the deltas

uv run python .claude/skills/portainer-mcp-release/scripts/spec_deltas.py

Output is in two parts: per-profile coverage numbers (use these in docs/profiles.md's "Default coverage" paragraph) and the orphan-tag markdown table (paste-ready). Compare against the previous release's docs/profiles.md to spot:

• Dropped tags: any orphan from last release that's missing now means upstream removed that tag — drop the row, drop the mention anywhere else.
• New tags: any orphan that wasn't in last release means upstream added one — decide if it belongs in a profile or stays orphan. New orphans need a one-line description in the table; lift it from a quick scan of operations carrying that tag in the spec.
• Op count shifts: per-tag deltas tell you which areas got expanded upstream. Worth a line in the CHANGELOG if a profile grew meaningfully.

6. Update files

Ten files to touch. Listed in roughly the order it's natural to edit them:

A clean CHANGELOG spec-bump entry, modeled on prior releases:

## [X.Y.0] — YYYY-MM-DD

Targets Portainer X.Y.x.

### Changed

- **Embedded spec bumped to Portainer EE X.Y.Z** (was A.B.C). Default
  `BASE,DOCKER,KUBERNETES` profile coverage grows from ~P1 to ~P2
  operations; the five-profile union grows from ~U1 to ~U2. Upstream
  removed the `<tag>` tag (N operations); dropped from the orphan tag
  list in [`docs/profiles.md`](docs/profiles.md).

Adapt to what actually happened — if no tags were dropped, drop that sentence; if a profile grew significantly, call that out specifically.

7. Commit and push

git add CHANGELOG.md Makefile README.md docs/distribution/ docs/profiles.md \
        docs/versioning.md pyproject.toml skills/portainer-mcp-hygiene/SKILL.md \
        src/portainer_mcp/data/portainer-patched.yaml uv.lock
git commit -m "Release X.Y.0

Bump embedded Portainer EE spec to X.Y.Z. <One-liner naming the headline
deltas: op-count change, dropped tags, anything notable.>"
git push -u origin X.Y

Stage files explicitly (not git add -A) — the spec regeneration may leave artifacts in spec/upstream/ that should not be committed.

8. Open the PR, merge to main

The PR description can be terse — the CHANGELOG entry is the source of truth for what shipped. The reviewer is checking: did the spec regenerate cleanly, do the recounted numbers look reasonable, did all pin references get updated.

Prefer merge or rebase, not squash. A squash collapses the spec-bump commit and any subsequent fix-up commits into one, which loses the clean "this commit is the spec bump" anchor that future spec diffs benefit from.

9. Tag on main

git checkout main && git pull
git tag X.Y.0
git push origin X.Y.0

Tag on main, not on the feature branch. The release workflow fires on tag push regardless of branch, but the tag should anchor on canonical history so it stays reachable from main and git describe works. Tagging on a branch that later gets squash-merged orphans the tag.

10. Watch the release workflow

gh run watch
# or: gh run list --workflow=release.yml --limit 3

The workflow verifies tag == pyproject.version, runs tests, builds the wheel, publishes to PyPI via OIDC Trusted Publishing. On success, the release is live at https://pypi.org/project/mcp-portainer/X.Y.0/.

The same tag also fires release-docker.yml (Docker Hub image) and release-mcpb.yml (the Claude Desktop .mcpb bundles, attached to the GitHub Release). Both are independent of the PyPI publish. The .mcpb manifest version is stamped from the tag at build time — there is no manifest file to bump in Step 6. See docs/release.md.

Gotchas

• Tag/version mismatch fails fast. If you forgot to bump pyproject.toml or tagged the wrong commit, the workflow refuses to publish. Delete the tag locally and remotely (git tag -d X.Y.0 && git push --delete origin X.Y.0), fix the version, retag. See docs/release.md for the full recovery flow.
• PyPI doesn't allow re-uploading a version. If a published version is broken, bump the patch — there's no "fix and reupload" path. (Yanking is possible but X.Y.0 still consumes that version forever.)
• TestPyPI dry-run is optional but cheap. docs/release.md describes the release-test.yml workflow you can fire manually before tagging the real release. Useful if you've touched anything that affects the wheel build (e.g. hatch config, package data inclusion).
• spec/upstream/ is checked into .gitignore — don't worry about it being a dirty working tree after make specs, but verify it's not staged.
• Don't hand-edit portainer-patched.yaml. It's regenerated every release; edits are lost. All spec workarounds live in spec/patch_spec.py.

Source: portainer/portainer-mcp — distributed by TomeVault.