release

name	release
description	Use when the user wants to ship, release, or publish a new Calm the Chaos version to the Chrome Web Store — "ship it", "cut a release", "publish an update", "package the extension", "build the zip", "update the store listing", or asks how to get a fix out to users.

release — package the extension and ship it to the Chrome Web Store

Overview

Build dist/, package it as a zip the Chrome Web Store will accept, and hand the user the upload link. The store item is cholkigafekgccbkfgcmcigihipbnjoe (listing).

Core principle: the zip is built from the working tree, so the tree's state IS the release. Two failures are silent at package time and only surface as a store rejection hours later: an unbumped version, and zipping the folder instead of its contents. Verify both from inside the zip before handing it over.

Workflow

1. Report the tree state before building. git status --short. Uncommitted changes to scripts/, popup/, options/, styles/ or keywords/ get compiled into the package. Name the files and ask whether they're meant to ship. Proceed if the user says so — just never package silently.

2. Bump the version. Edit "version" in manifest.json (root, not dist/). The store rejects a package whose version is already published, and nothing local warns you. Patch bump unless the user says otherwise.

3. Build and test. npm test — runs npm run build (webpack production) then both suites. Look for compiled successfully plus # fail 0 and a green vitest summary.

4. Zip dist's contents, not the folder. manifest.json must be at the zip root:

   Compress-Archive -Path dist\* -DestinationPath calm-the-chaos-<version>.zip -Force
   

   *.zip is gitignored, so the repo root is fine.

5. Verify from inside the zip — not from dist/, since packaging is where nesting bugs appear:

   $t="$env:TEMP\ctc-zipcheck"; Remove-Item $t -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
   Expand-Archive calm-the-chaos-<version>.zip -DestinationPath $t
   Get-Content "$t\manifest.json" | Select-String '"version"|service_worker'
   

   Require: bumped version, "service_worker": "background.js" with no dist/ prefix (webpack's copy transform strips it), and manifest.json at the root.

6. Hand off the upload. It's browser-only: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/devconsole → Calm the Chaos → Package → Upload new package → Submit for review. The live version stays up until approval. Mention that permission changes trigger slow manual review; a routine MV3 update usually clears in hours to days.

Gotchas

Symptom	Reality
Old mtimes on dist/background.js, popup.js after a build	Not a stale build. Webpack reports [compared for emit] and skips rewriting byte-identical assets. Trust compiled successfully, not timestamps.
Store rejects the upload as a duplicate version	Step 2 was skipped, or that version shipped already. Bump again and re-zip.
Extension loads but the service worker 404s	The zip has a dist/ wrapper folder. Re-zip with dist\*, not dist.
Asked to ship a keyword-catalog or trending change	Catalog changes ship in the package; the trending engine does not. It runs in .github/workflows/trending.yml and publishes to a gist, so users get it with no store update. Check which one the change touches before packaging.