openclaw-release-maintainer

name	openclaw-release-maintainer
description	Maintainer workflow for OpenClaw releases, prereleases, changelog release notes, and publish validation. Use when Codex needs to prepare or verify stable or beta release steps, align version naming, assemble release notes, check release auth requirements, or validate publish-time commands and artifacts.

OpenClaw Release Maintainer

Use this skill for release and publish-time workflow. Keep ordinary development changes and GHSA-specific advisory work outside this skill.

Respect release guardrails

• Do not change version numbers without explicit operator approval.
• Ask permission before any npm publish or release step.
• This skill should be sufficient to drive the normal release flow end-to-end.
• Use the private maintainer release docs for credentials, recovery steps, and mac signing/notary specifics, and use docs/reference/RELEASING.md for public policy.
• Core openclaw publish is manual workflow_dispatch; creating or pushing a tag does not publish by itself.

Keep release channel naming aligned

• stable: tagged releases only, with npm dist-tag latest
• beta: prerelease tags like vYYYY.M.D-beta.N, with npm dist-tag beta
• Prefer -beta.N; do not mint new -1 or -2 beta suffixes
• dev: moving head on main
• When using a beta Git tag, publish npm with the matching beta version suffix so the plain version is not consumed or blocked

Handle versions and release files consistently

• Version locations include:
  • package.json
  • apps/android/app/build.gradle.kts
  • apps/ios/Sources/Info.plist
  • apps/ios/Tests/Info.plist
  • apps/macos/Sources/OpenClaw/Resources/Info.plist
  • docs/install/updating.md
  • Peekaboo Xcode project and plist version fields
• Before creating a release tag, make every version location above match the version encoded by that tag.
• For fallback correction tags like vYYYY.M.D-N, the repo version locations still stay at YYYY.M.D.
• “Bump version everywhere” means all version locations above except appcast.xml.
• Release signing and notary credentials live outside the repo in the private maintainer docs.
• Every OpenClaw release ships the npm package and macOS app together.
• The production Sparkle feed lives at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openclaw/openclaw/main/appcast.xml, and the canonical published file is appcast.xml on main in the openclaw repo.
• That shared production Sparkle feed is stable-only. Beta mac releases may upload assets to the GitHub prerelease, but they must not replace the shared appcast.xml unless a separate beta feed exists.
• For fallback correction tags like vYYYY.M.D-N, the repo version still stays at YYYY.M.D, but the mac release must use a strictly higher numeric APP_BUILD / Sparkle build than the original release so existing installs see it as newer.

Build changelog-backed release notes

• Changelog entries should be user-facing, not internal release-process notes.
• When cutting a mac release with a beta GitHub prerelease:
  • tag vYYYY.M.D-beta.N from the release commit
  • create a prerelease titled openclaw YYYY.M.D-beta.N
  • use release notes from the matching CHANGELOG.md version section
  • attach at least the zip and dSYM zip, plus dmg if available
• Keep the top version entries in CHANGELOG.md sorted by impact:
  • ### Changes first
  • ### Fixes deduped with user-facing fixes first

Run publish-time validation

Before tagging or publishing, run:

node --import tsx scripts/release-check.ts
pnpm release:check
pnpm test:install:smoke

For a non-root smoke path:

OPENCLAW_INSTALL_SMOKE_SKIP_NONROOT=1 pnpm test:install:smoke

Check all relevant release builds

• Always validate the OpenClaw npm release path before creating the tag.
• Default release checks:
  • pnpm check
  • pnpm build
  • node --import tsx scripts/release-check.ts
  • pnpm release:check
  • OPENCLAW_INSTALL_SMOKE_SKIP_NONROOT=1 pnpm test:install:smoke
• Check all release-related build surfaces touched by the release, not only the npm package.
• Include mac release readiness in preflight by running the public validation workflow in openclaw/openclaw and the real mac preflight in openclaw/releases-private for every release.
• Treat the appcast.xml update on main as part of mac release readiness, not an optional follow-up.
• The workflows remain tag-based. The agent is responsible for making sure preflight runs complete successfully before any publish run starts.
• Any fix after preflight means a new commit. Delete and recreate the tag and matching GitHub release from the fixed commit, then rerun preflight from scratch before publishing.
• For stable mac releases, generate the signed appcast.xml before uploading public release assets so the updater feed cannot lag the published binaries.
• Serialize stable appcast-producing runs across tags so two releases do not generate replacement appcast.xml files from the same stale seed.
• For stable releases, confirm the latest beta already passed the broader release workflows before cutting stable.
• If any required build, packaging step, or release workflow is red, do not say the release is ready.

Use the right auth flow

• OpenClaw publish uses GitHub trusted publishing.
• The publish run must be started manually with workflow_dispatch.
• The npm workflow and the private mac publish workflow accept preflight_only=true to run validation/build/package steps without uploading public release assets.
• The private mac workflow also accepts smoke_test_only=true for branch-safe workflow smoke tests that use ad-hoc signing, skip notarization, skip shared appcast generation, and do not prove release readiness.
• preflight_only=true on the npm workflow is also the right way to validate an existing tag after publish; it should keep running the build checks even when the npm version is already published.
• Validation-only runs may be dispatched from a branch when you are testing a workflow change before merge.
• .github/workflows/macos-release.yml in openclaw/openclaw is now a public validation-only handoff. It validates the tag/release state and points operators to the private repo; it does not build or publish macOS artifacts.
• Real mac preflight and real mac publish both use openclaw/releases-private/.github/workflows/openclaw-macos-publish.yml.
• The private mac workflow runs on GitHub's xlarge macOS runner and uses a SwiftPM cache because the Swift build/test/package path is CPU-heavy.
• Private mac preflight uploads notarized build artifacts as workflow artifacts instead of uploading public GitHub release assets.
• Private smoke-test runs upload ad-hoc, non-notarized build artifacts as workflow artifacts and intentionally skip stable appcast.xml generation.
• npm preflight, public mac validation, and private mac preflight must all pass before any real publish run starts.
• Real publish runs must be dispatched from main; branch-dispatched publish attempts should fail before the protected environment is reached.
• The release workflows stay tag-based; rely on the documented release sequence rather than workflow-level SHA pinning.
• The npm-release environment must be approved by @openclaw/openclaw-release-managers before publish continues.
• Mac publish uses openclaw/releases-private/.github/workflows/openclaw-macos-publish.yml for build, signing, notarization, packaged mac artifact generation, and stable-feed appcast.xml artifact generation.
• After a successful real private mac publish, the agent must download macos-release-<tag> from that run and upload the packaged mac assets to the existing GitHub release in openclaw/openclaw.
• For stable releases, the agent must also download the signed macos-appcast-<tag> artifact from the successful private mac workflow and then update appcast.xml on main.
• For beta mac releases, do not update the shared production appcast.xml unless a separate beta Sparkle feed exists.
• The private repo targets a dedicated mac-release environment. If the GitHub plan does not yet support required reviewers there, do not assume the environment alone is the approval boundary; rely on private repo access and CODEOWNERS until those settings can be enabled.
• Do not use NPM_TOKEN or the plugin OTP flow for OpenClaw releases.
• @openclaw/* plugin publishes use a separate maintainer-only flow.
• Only publish plugins that already exist on npm; bundled disk-tree-only plugins stay unpublished.

Fallback local mac publish

• Keep the original local macOS publish workflow available as a fallback in case CI/CD mac publishing is unavailable or broken.
• Preserve the existing maintainer workflow Peter uses: run it on a real Mac with local signing, notary, and Sparkle credentials already configured.
• Follow the private maintainer macOS runbook for the local steps: scripts/package-mac-dist.sh to build, sign, notarize, and package the app; manual GitHub release asset upload; then scripts/make_appcast.sh plus the appcast.xml commit to main.
• scripts/package-mac-dist.sh now fails closed for release builds if the bundled app comes out with a debug bundle id, an empty Sparkle feed URL, or a CFBundleVersion below the canonical Sparkle build floor for that short version. For correction tags, set a higher explicit APP_BUILD.
• scripts/make_appcast.sh first uses generate_appcast from PATH, then falls back to the SwiftPM Sparkle tool output under apps/macos/.build.
• For stable tags, the local fallback may update the shared production appcast.xml.
• For beta tags, the local fallback still publishes the mac assets but must not update the shared production appcast.xml unless a separate beta feed exists.
• Treat the local workflow as fallback only. Prefer the CI/CD publish workflow when it is working.
• After any stable mac publish, verify all of the following before you call the release finished:
  • the GitHub release has .zip, .dmg, and .dSYM.zip assets
  • appcast.xml on main points at the new stable zip
  • the packaged app reports the expected short version and a numeric CFBundleVersion at or above the canonical Sparkle build floor

Run the release sequence

1. Confirm the operator explicitly wants to cut a release.
2. Choose the exact target version and git tag.
3. Make every repo version location match that tag before creating it.
4. Update CHANGELOG.md and assemble the matching GitHub release notes.
5. Run the full preflight for all relevant release builds, including mac readiness.
6. Confirm the target npm version is not already published.
7. Create and push the git tag.
8. Create or refresh the matching GitHub release.
9. Start .github/workflows/openclaw-npm-release.yml with preflight_only=true and wait for it to pass.
10. Start .github/workflows/macos-release.yml in openclaw/openclaw and wait for the public validation-only run to pass.
11. Start openclaw/releases-private/.github/workflows/openclaw-macos-publish.yml with preflight_only=true and wait for it to pass.
12. If any preflight or validation run fails, fix the issue on a new commit, delete the tag and matching GitHub release, recreate them from the fixed commit, and rerun all relevant preflights from scratch before continuing. Never reuse old preflight results after the commit changes.
13. Start .github/workflows/openclaw-npm-release.yml with the same tag for the real publish.
14. Wait for npm-release approval from @openclaw/openclaw-release-managers.
15. Start openclaw/releases-private/.github/workflows/openclaw-macos-publish.yml for the real publish and wait for success.
16. Download macos-release-<tag> from the successful private mac run and upload the .zip, .dmg, and .dSYM.zip artifacts to the existing GitHub release in openclaw/openclaw.
17. For stable releases, download macos-appcast-<tag> from the successful private mac run, update appcast.xml on main, and verify the feed.
18. For beta releases, publish the mac assets but expect no shared production appcast.xml artifact and do not update the shared production feed unless a separate beta feed exists.
19. After publish, verify npm and the attached release artifacts.

GHSA advisory work

• Use openclaw-ghsa-maintainer for GHSA advisory inspection, patch/publish flow, private-fork validation, and GHSA API-specific publish checks.