release

name

release

description

Automates the Pipelex release workflow: bumps the version in pyproject.toml, finalizes the CHANGELOG.md Unreleased section, runs quality checks, creates a release/vX.Y.Z branch, commits, pushes, and opens a PR to main. Use when user says "release", "cut a release", "bump version", "prepare a release", "make a release", "ship it", "create release branch", or any variation of shipping a new version of pipelex. The user can optionally provide changelog content inline when invoking the skill (e.g. "/release Added new extract backend"), which will be used as the changelog entry for this version.

Pipelex Release Workflow

This skill handles the full release cycle for the pipelex Python package.

Files touched

• pyproject.toml — the version field (line 3)
• CHANGELOG.md — add [vX.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD entry (remove [Unreleased] if present)
• uv.lock — regenerated via make li (lock + install)
• .badges/tests.json — test count updated to match actual count
• .test_durations — regenerated via make store-test-durations so the CI test shards stay balanced (see step 8b)

Workflow

1. Pre-flight checks

• Read the current version from pyproject.toml.
• Read CHANGELOG.md to understand the current state.
• Run git status and git log origin/main..HEAD to assess the working tree:
  • If there are uncommitted changes (staged or unstaged), warn the user and ask whether to commit them as part of the release, stash them, or abort.
  • If there are unpushed commits on the current branch, list them so the user is aware — these will be included in the release branch.

2. Determine the bump type

Ask the user which kind of version bump they want — patch, minor, or major — unless they already specified it. Show the current version and what the new version would be for each option so the choice is concrete.

3. Run quality checks

Run make agent-check. This is the gate — if it fails, stop and report the errors so they can be fixed before retrying. Do not proceed past this step on failure.

4. Ensure we're on the right branch

The release branch must be named release/vX.Y.Z where X.Y.Z is the new version. All file modifications (changelog, version bump, lock, badge) must happen on this branch.

• If already on release/vX.Y.Z matching the new version, stay on it.
• If on dev, main, or any other branch, create and switch to release/vX.Y.Z from the current HEAD.
• If on a release/ branch for a different version, warn the user and ask how to proceed.

5. Finalize the changelog

Add a new version entry at the top of the changelog for the release.

1. If there is an ## [Unreleased] section, remove it (including any blank lines that follow it) and replace it with the new version heading. Any content that was under [Unreleased] becomes the content of the new version.
2. If there is no [Unreleased] section, insert the new version heading directly after the # Changelog title.
3. Never add an [Unreleased] heading. The changelog should only contain concrete version entries.
4. If the user provided changelog content when invoking the skill (e.g. /release Added new extract backend), merge that content with any existing [Unreleased] content (do not discard either source). Format the combined content properly under the appropriate headings (e.g. ### Added, ### Changed, ### Fixed), inferring headings from the content when possible.
5. If the release has no changelog content yet (neither from an [Unreleased] section nor from inline user input), ask the user what to include before proceeding.
6. The result should look like:

# Changelog

## [vX.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Changed
- ...

## [vPREVIOUS] - PREVIOUS-DATE
...

6. Bump the version in pyproject.toml

Edit pyproject.toml line 3 to the new version string. Only change the version field — don't touch anything else.

7. Lock dependencies

Run make li to regenerate uv.lock and reinstall. This ensures the lockfile reflects the new version in pyproject.toml. If this step fails, stop and report the error.

8. Update the test count badge

Run make test-count to get the current number of tests. Then update .badges/tests.json — set the "message" field to the count returned by make test-count. Keep all other fields unchanged.

After updating, run make check-test-badge to verify the badge matches. If it fails, re-check the count and fix the badge file.

8b. Refresh the test-duration map

Run make store-test-durations. This runs the full test suite once and rewrites .test_durations, the per-test timing file pytest-split uses to balance the 8 CI test shards on feature PRs. It drifts as tests are added or removed, and a stale file silently unbalances the shards (some finish in seconds, one runs long), so a release is the natural point to refresh it.

• This runs the whole suite, so it takes a few minutes — expected, not a hang.
• If it changed the file, .test_durations is included in the release commit (step 9). If the suite hasn't changed since the last release it may be a no-op, which is fine — commit it if git shows a diff, skip if not.

9. Commit and push

Stage all release-related changes. This includes at minimum pyproject.toml, CHANGELOG.md, uv.lock, and .badges/tests.json, plus .test_durations if step 8b changed it, plus any other files the user chose to include in step 1 (e.g. previously uncommitted work that belongs in this release).

Commit with the message:

Release vX.Y.Z

Push the branch to origin with -u to set up tracking.

10. Open a PR

Create a pull request targeting main with:

• Title: Release vX.Y.Z
• Body: Include:
  • The changelog entries for this version (copied from CHANGELOG.md)
  • A note about the version bump from old to new

Use this format for the PR body:

## Release vX.Y.Z

Bumps version from `A.B.C` to `X.Y.Z`.

### Changelog

<paste the changelog entries for this version here>

Report the PR URL back to the user.

Important details

• The version follows semver: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.
• Always confirm the bump type with the user before making changes.
• If make agent-check fails, the release is blocked — help the user fix the issues rather than skipping the checks.
• The CI will validate that:
  • The pyproject.toml version matches the branch name (version-check.yml)
  • The CHANGELOG.md has an entry for the version (changelog-check.yml)
  • The .badges/tests.json count matches the actual test count (check-test-badge)
  • The uv.lock file is in sync with pyproject.toml (uv-lock-check)
• All checks must pass for the PR to be mergeable, so getting the changelog, version, test badge, and lockfile right is critical.
• Today's date for the changelog entry: use the current date in YYYY-MM-DD format.