ship-release

name

ship-release

description

Cut a tagged GitHub release from the default branch. Trigger when the user says "ship a release", "cut a release", "tag a release". Auto-sizes the semver bump from conventional-commit prefixes in the commit range since the last tag — patch / minor / major — and respects an explicit size hint (`patch|minor|major`) or exact version (`vX.Y.Z`). Writes CHANGELOG.md, tags, pushes, creates the GitHub release. Aborts if the tree is dirty, the default branch isn't pushed, or the tag already exists.

You are running the ship-release skill. Full canonical spec: harness/skills/ship-release.md in the agentm repo. The summary below is the operational version.

Preconditions (check first, abort if not met)

1. gh auth status — authenticated.
2. Current branch is the default branch (gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef -q .defaultBranchRef.name).
3. Working tree clean: git status --porcelain empty.
4. Local is pushed: git fetch && [ -z "$(git log origin/HEAD..HEAD --oneline)" ].
5. At least one commit since the last tag. If git describe --tags HEAD equals the last tag exactly, abort with "nothing to ship".

Input handling

The user may pass:

• No argument → auto-size from commits.
• patch / minor / major → force that size.
• vX.Y.Z → use verbatim, skip auto-sizing.
• --dry-run → compute + print, don't tag.
• --draft → create as draft release.

Workflow

1. Classify commits in the range

PREV=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")
RANGE="${PREV:+${PREV}..}HEAD"
git log "$RANGE" --pretty=format:'%s%n%b%n---COMMIT---'

Classification rules:

• feat!:, fix!:, any !: subject, or body contains BREAKING CHANGE: → major
• feat: or feat(scope): → minor
• fix:, perf:, refactor: → patch
• docs:, chore:, test:, ci:, build: → no-bump
• Anything else → patch

Take the max across all commits. Respect the user's size hint if it's larger; warn + confirm if it's smaller.

2. Compute next version

Parse PREV as vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Bump per the resolved size. If no prior tag, propose v0.1.0.

3. Draft release notes

Group commits by section (Added / Changed / Fixed / Breaking / Internal), newest first. Show the draft to the user for edit before tagging. Sections with no commits are omitted.

4. Update CHANGELOG.md

Prepend a new section to CHANGELOG.md at repo root (create if missing, with a Keep-a-Changelog-style header). Commit it with message chore(release): vX.Y.Z. Show the diff and confirm before committing.

5. Tag + push + release

git tag -a "vX.Y.Z" -m "Release vX.Y.Z — <title>"
git push origin HEAD
git push origin "vX.Y.Z"
gh release create "vX.Y.Z" \
  --title "vX.Y.Z — <title>" \
  --notes-file .release-notes.md \
  --verify-tag

If any step fails, delete the local tag (git tag -d vX.Y.Z) before exiting.

6. Print the release URL

gh release view vX.Y.Z --json url -q .url.

Guardrails

• Never push to a non-default branch.
• Never overwrite or move existing tags.
• Never include uncommitted changes.
• Never amend the release commit after tagging.

Output contract

On success:

ship-release: cut vX.Y.Z
  commits:   N (maj/min/patch classification)
  notes:     CHANGELOG.md updated + pushed
  release:   https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/releases/tag/vX.Y.Z

On abort, one line: what failed and what the user should do next.