Land working-tree changes as logical commits — the work grouped by concern, topped by a release commit (version bump, changelog, regenerated artifacts) and an annotated tag. Verify, commit, tag. Stops at "committed and tagged locally" — no push, no publish. The release-and-publish skill picks up from here. Distilled from the git_wrapup_instructions protocol.
Land working-tree changes as logical commits — the work grouped by concern, topped by a release commit (version bump, changelog, regenerated artifacts) and an annotated tag. Verify, commit, tag. Stops at "committed and tagged locally" — no push, no publish. The release-and-publish skill picks up from here. Distilled from the git_wrapup_instructions protocol.
Working-tree or staged changes are ready to ship as a new version. This skill lands them as a stack of logical commits — the work grouped by concern, topped by a release commit (version + changelog + tree) — with an annotated tag. It does NOT push or publish — that's a separate step (release-and-publish).
Common triggers:
Feature work, bug fixes, or dependency updates are done and tested
A maintenance or polish pass left changes in the working tree
An orchestrator says "wrapup this project"
Pre-wrapup gate checklist
Every item must be true before starting wrapup. Committing means releasing — a commit only happens when the work is ready to ship, not just "the edits are done." Each item is a goal to verify.
Changes exist — uncommitted files or commits since the last tag
Work is complete — no half-finished features, no "I'll add the test later," no TODO placeholders. The diff represents a shippable unit.
Code simplified — if the diff spans more than ~50 changed lines or touches 3+ source files, the code-simplifier skill has been run across the changes
bun run devcheck passes — typecheck + lint clean
bun run rebuild succeeds — full clean build from scratch
All tests pass — bun run test:all (or bun run test), plus bun run test:package where the project defines one: it guards the public-export manifest and is not part of test:all. New tests and regression tests added as needed for the changes being shipped.
Fixes verified — bug fixes validated, generally via bun run rebuild and field-testing. Not just written — confirmed to resolve the described behavior.
No known regressions — the changes don't break existing functionality
GH issues updated — issues addressed by this work commented with what landed and any follow-ups needed. Concise. Backlinked as needed.
Docs updated — surgical updates to existing docs as needed. New docs for new features. No large rewrites for documentation that's still accurate.
If any gate is red, fix it before proceeding. This skill re-verifies build + tests in step 6, but starting wrapup on a broken tree wastes the version number and creates a revert-or-amend situation.
Steps
1. Review the diff
Understand what's about to ship before touching version numbers:
git status
git log v<latest-tag>..HEAD --oneline # commits since last release
git diff --stat# uncommitted changes
git diff # review the actual content
If the working tree is clean AND there are no commits since the last tag, halt — nothing to wrap up.
2. Determine the new version
Read the current version from package.json. Apply the intended bump:
New tools, new features, new env vars, behavioral changes
major
Breaking changes to tool schemas, removed tools, incompatible config
Default to patch unless the diff clearly warrants minor or major.
3. Bump version everywhere
Every file that declares a version must be updated. Skip any file that doesn't exist in the project. For @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core projects:
package.json — version
server.json — top-level version AND every packages[].version entry
manifest.json (if present) — version. Verify name is the bare package name (e.g. bls-mcp-server, not @cyanheads/bls-mcp-server)
.claude-plugin/plugin.json and .codex-plugin/plugin.json (if present) — version. Packaging validation fails on a mismatch; .codex-plugin/mcp.json is connection config and carries none
README.md — version badge
CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md — if they pin a version string
Dockerfile — OCI labels if they pin the version
Catch stragglers (replace the placeholder with the actual current version string, e.g. 0.9.7):
Resolve hits case by case — historical changelog entries are correct as-is; everything else should match the new version.
4. Author the changelog
Create changelog/<major.minor>.x/<version>.md. Use changelog/template.md as the format reference — never edit, rename, or move that file.
Frontmatter (required):
---summary:"<one-line headline, ≤350 chars, no markdown>"breaking:false# true if consumers must change code to upgradesecurity:false# true ONLY for a security fix in this server's own source — NOT a dependency/transitive CVE bump (those go under ## Dependencies)---
Write summary: LAST, derived from the body you just wrote — never independently. It is the line most readers see, and it propagates unedited to three further surfaces: the CHANGELOG.md rollup, the GitHub Release body, and the annotated tag (which cannot be edited once pushed). Written from recollection rather than from the body, it reliably names a mechanism that was never built or a target that was never fixed, while the body beside it stays correct. After writing it, re-read the body and confirm every claim in the summary appears there. Derived-from-the-body means the facts come from the body — not that every body item appears: the summary is the tag's theme line, and comma-stitching every change into an inventory near the 350-char cap is the failure mode.
security: is a source-code signal — not a dependency-CVE signal. Set security: true only when this release fixes a vulnerability or adds hardening in code this server ships. A dependency or transitive CVE bump — even one that clears an advisory (bun audit going 1 → 0) — is routine maintenance: record it under ## Dependencies with the advisory ID and leave the flag false. The 🛡️ Security badge answers "does the server itself have a vuln"; a dep bump must not trip it.
Body: Section order follows Keep a Changelog — Added / Changed / Deprecated / Removed / Fixed / Security. Include only sections with entries. Delete empty sections.
Tone: Terse, fact-dense. Bullet = symbol + what changed + at most one consumer-facing caveat; one sentence by default, two max — a bullet past ~40 words or three sentences is wrong. The linked issue carries the why and the commit diff the how; the changelog names what changed and what a consumer does about it. Cut: history/justification narration, design-rationale defense, "X unchanged" clauses (short parenthetical only where a misread is likely), edge-case inventories. Verified ≠ included — the diff-is-source-of-truth rule bounds the truth of what you write, never the amount. Model length on changelog/template.md's authoring guide, never on the previous entry (entries modeled on entries compound). agent-notes carries adoption steps only, never a second rendering of the body; a consequence shared by many bullets is stated once, not per bullet. Full conventions: the authoring guide in changelog/template.md.
5. Regenerate derived artifacts
bun run changelog:build # rebuilds CHANGELOG.md rollup from per-version files
bun run tree # regenerates docs/tree.md — run when files were added, removed, or moved in src/
Both scripts are idempotent — safe to run even if nothing changed.
6. Run the verification gate
The tree being committed must pass verification. Both must succeed:
bun run devcheck
bun run test:all # or `bun run test` if no test:all script exists
bun run test:package # only if the script exists — NOT part of test:all
If either fails, halt. Do not bypass verification to land the commit. Fix the issue first, then re-run from step 6.
7. Commit — group by concern, release artifacts on top
Do NOT git add -A into one commit. Group the working tree into a handful of logical commits — never one blob:
The work — one commit per concern. A feature spanning multiple layers splits by layer: runtime/logic, linter/tooling, docs/skills. Unrelated changes (two separate fixes, an incidental doc tweak) are their own commits. Work commits do not carry the version.
The release commit — last, on top. Version bumps (package.json, server.json, manifest.json, the plugin manifests, README badge, CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md), the changelog entry, CHANGELOG.md, and docs/tree.md go in a single final commit that sits on top of the work stack — never mixed into a feature commit.
Stage each group explicitly, commit it, then move to the next — the release commit goes last:
git add <paths-for-this-concern>
git commit -m "<subject>"# repeat per concern; version + changelog + tree are the final commit
The file is the atomic boundary: NEVER split a single file's changes across commits. When one file serves two concerns, it ships whole in the commit of its dominant concern.
Subject format: Conventional Commits.
Work commits (no version): feat: hosted server endpoint, fix: handle empty SPARQL result sets, feat(linter): enrichment contract rules, docs: document the enrichment block
Release commit (subject leads with the version): chore(release): 0.2.1 — empty SPARQL result handling
Body: every commit has one, and it is one or two lines. Uniform across the stack — no commit ships subject-only, none ships a paragraph. One sentence stating the why or the load-bearing constraint, a second only if the first genuinely cannot carry it. Two lines is the hard ceiling.
fix: handle empty SPARQL result sets
Upstream returns 200 with an empty bindings array rather than 404.
Never put a closing keyword in a commit body.Fixes #N, Closes #N, Resolves #N and friends close the issue the moment the commit is pushed — before the close-out comment recording what shipped, so the issue closes with no account of the fix. Reference issues as bare (#N) backlinks in the subject or body; closing is a deliberate later step.
A body is too long the moment it:
enumerates the files, subsystems, or symbols touched — that is git show --stat
walks through how the implementation works — that is the code
narrates a fix's mechanism across multiple sentences — that is the changelog entry
runs to a second paragraph, ever
The changelog carries the depth, the tag carries the headline, the commit carries one line of why. When the body wants to grow, that pressure is telling you the content belongs in the changelog entry.
Rules:
Plain -m flag only — no heredoc, no command substitution
No Co-authored-by or Generated with trailers
No marketing adjectives ("comprehensive", "robust", "enhanced", "seamless", "improved")
Each commit message stands alone for someone reading git log — no chat context, option numbers, or "as discussed"
Right-size it. "Group by concern" is not "always split." A genuinely single-concern change — one fix, a dependency bump, a small doc edit — is one work commit plus the release commit; when the change and its version bump are inseparable for a tiny patch, a single commit whose subject leads with the version is fine. The failure mode to prevent is the inverse: a large, multi-layer feature crammed into one commit alongside the release artifacts.
8. Create an annotated tag
git tag -a v<version> --cleanup=whitespace -m "<tag message with embedded newlines>"
Use -m with embedded newlines in the string (the commit -m-only constraint applies here too — no heredoc). The tag message renders as the GitHub Release body via --notes-from-tag. It must be structured markdown, not a flat string.
--cleanup=whitespace is load-bearing. The default cleanup (strip) deletes #-leading lines as comments, so markdown headers silently vanish from the tag body. --cleanup=verbatim is worse: it skips end-of-message normalization, so with tag signing enabled the signature is appended flush against the message's last character — git then can't parse its own signature (the tag reads as unsigned) and the whole -----BEGIN SSH SIGNATURE----- block publishes verbatim into the GitHub Release body.
Format — a headline digest, never a section-by-section changelog mirror:
Subject line omits the version number (GitHub prepends v<VERSION>: to the release title)
Flat bullets only — never Keep-a-Changelog section headers.Added:/Changed:/Fixed:/Dependency bumps: belong in the changelog file; a tag that mirrors the changelog's structure is wrong even when every line is accurate
Complete at headline granularity — every changelog-worthy change stays visible: notable changes get their own bullet, minor/internal items (build config, repo hygiene, metadata) share ONE grouped compact bullet. Nothing silently dropped, nothing expanded — the changelog carries the depth, the tag carries the existence
Deps: one line max, naming only what earns it (the framework bump, a major); per-package arrows for the rest live in the changelog entry only
No gates line — test counts and devcheck status are changelog detail, not release-body material
No narrative preamble — bullets under the subject, no paragraph blocks
No marketing adjectives
Length is earned — a subject + two bullets + changelog link is a fine tag for a small patch
Issue backlinks: when changes address GitHub issues, include (#N) references in the relevant bullets — same as the changelog entry. The backlinks render as clickable links in the GitHub Release body.
Changelog link (final line): end the tag body with a Markdown link to this version's changelog file, so the GitHub Release offers a one-click jump to the full entry — [CHANGELOG v<version>](https://github.com/<OWNER>/<REPO>/blob/main/changelog/<major.minor>.x/<version>.md). Derive <OWNER>/<REPO> from the origin remote; the path mirrors the file authored in step 4 (e.g. changelog/0.10.x/0.10.12.md). Keep the blank line above it so it renders as its own paragraph, not appended to the gates line.
9. Verify end state
git log --oneline -8 # confirm the commit stack: work commits + release commit on top
git show v<version> --stat | head -20 # confirm tag points at HEAD (the release commit)
git status # must be clean
git tag -l v<version> --format='%(if)%(contents:signature)%(then)signed%(else)unsigned%(end)'# with tag signing enabled, must print "signed"
If the working tree isn't clean or the tag doesn't point at HEAD, something went wrong — investigate before proceeding. unsigned under enabled tag signing means the signature didn't parse (see step 8's cleanup note) — delete and recreate the tag before it leaks the signature block into the GitHub Release body.
Do NOT push. This skill stops here. Use the release-and-publish skill for the push + publish workflow.
Constraints
Local only. No git push, no remote operations
Never stash. Not for quick checks, not for testing, not for any reason
Never destructive. No git reset --hard, git restore ., git clean -f, git checkout -- .
Bash git only. Drive every git operation through the shell
If v<version> already exists as a tag, halt and report the conflict — include the version string, existing tag SHA, and current HEAD SHA so the caller can resolve it. Do not delete or move tags without explicit authorization
Checklist
Diff reviewed end-to-end before version bump
Version bumped in every declaring file (package.json, server.json, manifest.json, .claude-plugin/plugin.json, .codex-plugin/plugin.json, README badge, CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md if they pin a version)
GH issues addressed by this work commented with what landed (if working from GH issues)
Docs updated for any new or changed features
Changelog authored at changelog/<major.minor>.x/<version>.md
CHANGELOG.md rollup regenerated (bun run changelog:build)
docs/tree.md regenerated if structure changed (bun run tree)
bun run devcheck passes
bun run test:all (or test) passes
bun run test:package passes, when the project defines it — it guards the public-export manifest and test:all does not run it
Work grouped into logical commits (large features split by layer); release artifacts (version + changelog + tree) committed separately on top, subject leading with the version
Every commit carries a body, and every body is one or two lines — none subject-only, none a paragraph
Annotated tag v<version> with structured markdown message, final line linking this version's changelog file
