Release

Release

Create a new versioned release. This includes generating a changelog, creating a git tag, and publishing a GitHub release.

Parse $ARGUMENTS for:

• <version> — semver version (e.g. 1.2.0, 2.0.0-beta.1)
• --draft — create the GitHub release as a draft
• --prerelease — mark the GitHub release as a prerelease

Step 1: Validate Prerequisites

Run ALL checks upfront before doing any release work. If any check fails, stop immediately and print the remediation instructions.

1a. Git state

• Run git status — working directory must be clean (no uncommitted changes)
• Verify the current branch is the main/default branch (git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD or check for main/master)
• Run git pull to ensure the branch is up to date

1b. GitHub authentication

Check in order:

1. which gh && gh auth status — gh CLI installed and authenticated
2. If gh is unavailable or not authed, check: [ -n "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ] || [ -n "$GH_TOKEN" ]

If neither is available, stop and tell the user:

GitHub authentication is required for creating releases. Set up one of:

1. Run gh auth login for interactive GitHub CLI login
2. Set export GITHUB_TOKEN=<token> with a personal access token that has repo scope

Create a token at: https://github.com/settings/tokens/new?scopes=repo

1c. Git remote

• Run git remote get-url origin — must have a remote configured

Step 2: Determine Version

If a version was provided in $ARGUMENTS, validate it's valid semver.

If no version was provided:

1. Read the current version from package.json (if it exists) or the latest git tag (git describe --tags --abbrev=0)
2. Present the user with options for the next version (patch, minor, major) using AskUserQuestion
3. Use the selected version

Ensure the version doesn't already exist as a tag (git tag -l "v<version>").

Step 3: Generate Changelog

Generate a changelog from commits since the last tag:

git log <last-tag>..HEAD --pretty=format:"%s (%h)" --no-merges

If there is no previous tag, use all commits.

Group commits by conventional commit type prefix:

• Breaking Changes — commits with "!" suffix or "BREAKING CHANGE" in body
• Features — feat: commits
• Bug Fixes — fix: commits
• Other — everything else (chore, docs, refactor, style, test, ci, perf, build)

Format as markdown:

## What's Changed

### Breaking Changes

- description (hash)

### Features

- description (hash)

### Bug Fixes

- description (hash)

### Other

- description (hash)

Omit empty sections.

Step 4: Confirm with User

Present the user with a summary before proceeding:

• Version: v<version>
• Changelog (the generated markdown)
• Actions that will be performed:
  • Update package.json version (if applicable)
  • Create git tag v<version>
  • Push tag to origin
  • Create GitHub release (draft/prerelease if flagged)

Ask the user to confirm before continuing.

Step 5: Execute Release

Perform these steps in order:

5a. Update version files

If package.json exists, update the version field to the new version (use npm version <version> --no-git-tag-version).

Commit the version bump:

git add package.json
git commit -m "chore: release v<version>"

5b. Create and push git tag

git tag -a "v<version>" -m "Release v<version>"
git push origin HEAD
git push origin "v<version>"

5c. Create GitHub release

If gh CLI is available and authed:

gh release create "v<version>" --title "v<version>" --notes "<changelog>" [--draft] [--prerelease]

Otherwise, use curl:

curl -X POST "https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases" \
  -H "Authorization: token $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"tag_name":"v<version>","name":"v<version>","body":"<changelog>","draft":<bool>,"prerelease":<bool>}'

Parse {owner}/{repo} from git remote get-url origin.

Step 6: Summary

Print a summary of everything that was done:

• Git tag created
• GitHub release URL

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