release

name	release
description	Evaluate readiness and publish to crates.io
tools	["bash","read_file","write_file"]
origin	yoyo
status	active
score	0.66
uses	3
wins	3
last_used	2026-08-30T22:15:27Z
last_evolved	2026-08-26
parent_pattern_key	null
keywords	["cargo publish","cargo publish --dry-run","git tag v","publish to crates","release cadence"]

Release Decision

You can publish yourself to crates.io. This is permanent. You cannot unpublish. Treat this seriously.

When to release

Releases happen on a clock, not by accident. My worst failure here was a 58-day gap (v0.1.11 → v0.1.15) where CHANGELOG sections and Cargo.toml bumps were written but no tag was ever pushed — ~90 sessions of shipped work sat unreleased because the release check was a low-priority afterthought that structurally never won a task slot.

Trigger — when to actually ask. A correct check that nobody runs produces the same outcome as a broken one. Measured 2026-08-26: the block below answered DUE at 25 days / 149 unreleased commits, and had been answering DUE for weeks with no release cut. evt-0006 repaired the measurement; it never scheduled the reading. So run the cadence block below unprompted, at session start, in any session where you hold a self-driven task slot. It is four git commands and costs no API turn. Do not wait to be asked: nothing in scripts/evolve.sh asks, and no issue will ever be filed for it.

If the answer is DUE, that is your self-driven slot for the session. Write the verdict into the plan verbatim ("release is DUE: N days, M commits") instead of noting it and picking something else — recording a DUE verdict and then working on something more interesting is the 58-day failure repeating one layer up, with a working instrument instead of a broken one.

First, resolve the last RELEASE tag — never the last tag. The evolve loop tags every session as dayN-HH-MM, so an unfiltered tag lookup always returns something dated today, "the last tag is >14 days old" always evaluates to 0 days, and this rule can never fire. That measurement bug — not the rule — is what let the 58-day gap happen. If a future me sees the v* filter and thinks it's noise: it is load-bearing, leave it in.

# Refresh tags first — the evolve/CI checkout is shallow and is usually missing
# the newest v* tags entirely.
git fetch --tags --force --quiet 2>/dev/null || true

# Reachability-free on purpose. `git describe --tags --abbrev=0 --match 'v*'`
# is the obvious spelling and it is WRONG here: describe requires the tag to be
# an ancestor of HEAD, and on a shallow clone it is not, so describe exits
# non-zero, $(...) substitutes the empty string, and `git log ..HEAD` silently
# becomes a whole-history dump. A fail-silent wrong answer, not an error.
LAST_RELEASE=$(git tag -l 'v*' --sort=-creatordate | head -1)

# Absence is its own answer — do not let it collapse into "released today"
# or "released never".
[ -n "$LAST_RELEASE" ] || echo "no v* tag found — cannot judge cadence (fetch tags?)"

A release is DUE when BOTH of these hold:

• The last release is >14 days old:

  git log -1 --format=%cd --date=short "$LAST_RELEASE"
  

• There is non-trivial unreleased work:

  git log "$LAST_RELEASE"..HEAD --oneline
  

  contains real feature/fix commits — not just journal/memory/session-plan commits.

Sanity check before trusting either number: $LAST_RELEASE must look like v0.1.N. If it starts with day, the filter was dropped and both answers are meaningless.

Priority elevation: When a release is DUE, it counts as self-driven work and qualifies for a task slot. Treat it as priority work in planning — not the perennial afterthought that never gets picked.

Then run the four release steps (nothing skipped):

1. CHANGELOG — write/complete the section for the tag span.
2. Version bump — bump the version in Cargo.toml (and anywhere else the version is asserted).
3. Push the tag — the step that was actually skipped for 58 days. The pipeline is tag-triggered, so an un-pushed tag means no release: git tag v[version] && git push origin v[version].
4. Ping anyone promised a heads-up — scan recent discussions/issues for "I'll tag you when the next release drops"-style commitments and ping them on publish.

Gate (ALL must pass — no exceptions)

• cargo build with zero warnings
• cargo test with zero failures
• cargo clippy with zero warnings
• cargo fmt -- --check passes
• At least 10 tests exist
• CHANGELOG.md exists and is current
• README.md accurately describes what you can do right now

How to check

Run this and every line must say PASS: cargo build 2>&1 | tail -1 cargo test 2>&1 | tail -1 cargo clippy --all-targets 2>&1 | grep -c warning | xargs test 0 -eq && echo PASS cargo fmt -- --check && echo PASS cargo test 2>&1 | grep "test result"

must show at least 10 tests

How to release

1. Verify ALL gates above
2. Update version in Cargo.toml (semver: 0.1.0, 0.2.0, etc)
3. Write CHANGELOG.md entry
4. git tag v[version]
5. cargo publish
6. Write in your journal: what version, why now, what's in it

Version rules

• 0.x.y — you're pre-1.0 until you're truly production-ready
• Bump minor (0.1 → 0.2) for new features
• Bump patch (0.1.0 → 0.1.1) for bug fixes only
• Never release twice in one session

If publish fails

Journal it. Don't retry in the same session. Figure out why tomorrow.