name	release-process
description	How versioning and releases work via release-please, version.txt, and the version pins across the workspace
user-invocable	true

Release Process

GoudEngine releases are automated with release-please. You do not bump versions by hand. Land conventional-commit changes on main, and release-please opens (and maintains) a Release PR that bumps the version, updates the changelog, and — once merged — tags the release.

When to Use

Read this when you need to understand how a version bump propagates, why a Release PR looks the way it does, where a version string lives, or how to recover a stuck release.

How It Works

Conventional commits drive the bump. feat: → minor, fix:/perf: → patch, feat!:/breaking → major. Config lives in release-please-config.json (release-type: simple, pre-major bumping enabled).
version.txt is the source of truth for the current released version, mirrored by .release-please-manifest.json. release-please reads and advances both.
Version pins are updated automatically. release-please-config.json lists every file that carries a version under extra-files: goud_engine/Cargo.toml, sdks/rust/Cargo.toml, sdks/typescript/native/Cargo.toml, goud_engine_macros/Cargo.toml, sdks/csharp/GoudEngine.csproj, sdks/python/pyproject.toml, sdks/typescript/package.json, codegen/goud_sdk.schema.json, ports/vcpkg/vcpkg.json, the sdks/kotlin/build.gradle.kts, and every copied goud_engine.h / goud.g.hpp.
x-release-please-version markers. In files where the version is not the obvious first string, a // x-release-please-version (or language-appropriate) comment marks the exact line release-please rewrites. They exist in goud_engine/Cargo.toml, goud_engine_macros/Cargo.toml, sdks/rust/Cargo.toml, sdks/typescript/native/Cargo.toml, sdks/python/pyproject.toml, sdks/kotlin/build.gradle.kts, and goud_engine/build_support/c_header.rs. Keep these comments intact — deleting one silently drops that file from future bumps.
Example projects are synced separately. release-please cannot glob the example .csproj files, so scripts/sync-version.sh propagates the version to examples/**/*.csproj in CI after the bump.

Steps (normal release)

Merge conventional-commit PRs to main.
release-please opens/updates a Release PR titled with the next version.
Review the changelog and the version-pin diff in that PR.
Merge the Release PR. release-please tags the release and the publish workflows run.

Verification

Confirm version.txt and .release-please-manifest.json agree after a release.
Spot-check that the extra-files pins all moved to the new version (a stale pin means a missing/broken x-release-please-version marker).

Manual Recovery

increment_version.sh is deprecated and kept only for local convenience — it bumps goud_engine/Cargo.toml, the SDK manifests, codegen/goud_sdk.schema.json, the example .csproj files, and version.txt in one shot. Prefer the release-please flow. Reach for the script only to reproduce a version state locally, never as the path to ship a release.