release

name	release
description	Use when preparing a release, checking what needs releasing, determining version bumps, auditing unreleased changes across engines and client SDKs, or when the user asks "what needs to be released" or "do we need a release".

Release

Audit unreleased changes across engines and client SDKs, determine version bumps, and identify what needs releasing.

Overview

This monorepo has three release layers that must be released in order:

1. Engines (Rust crates) - must be released first, SDKs depend on them
2. FFI-based SDKs - depend on flipt-engine-ffi binaries published to GitHub releases
3. WASM/WASM-JS SDKs - depend on flipt-engine-wasm / flipt-engine-wasm-js artifacts

Important JS ordering: flipt-client-react has a peer dependency on @flipt-io/flipt-client-js. When releasing both JS and React SDKs, do not publish them in parallel. Release flipt-client-js first, then bump @flipt-io/flipt-client-js in flipt-client-react/package.json, then release flipt-client-react.

Step 1: Audit Engine Changes

Find last engine release tags

Each engine has its own tag namespace:

# FFI engine (triggers: package-ffi-engine-{darwin,linux,windows,android,ios}.yml)
git tag --sort=-creatordate | grep "flipt-engine-ffi-v" | head -5

# WASM engine (triggers: package-wasm-engine.yml)
git tag --sort=-creatordate | grep "flipt-engine-wasm-v" | head -5

# WASM-JS engine (triggers: package-wasm-js-engine.yml)
git tag --sort=-creatordate | grep "flipt-engine-wasm-js-v" | head -5

List unreleased engine commits

# Changes to engine code since last FFI release
git log --oneline <last-ffi-tag>..HEAD --no-merges -- flipt-evaluation/ flipt-engine-ffi/

# Changes to WASM engine since last WASM release
git log --oneline <last-wasm-tag>..HEAD --no-merges -- flipt-evaluation/ flipt-engine-wasm/

# Changes to WASM-JS engine since last WASM-JS release
git log --oneline <last-wasm-js-tag>..HEAD --no-merges -- flipt-evaluation/ flipt-engine-wasm-js/

Check current versions

grep '^version' flipt-evaluation/Cargo.toml flipt-engine-ffi/Cargo.toml flipt-engine-wasm/Cargo.toml flipt-engine-wasm-js/Cargo.toml

Determine version bumps (semver)

• fix only -> patch bump
• feat or new capability -> minor bump
• Breaking API change -> major bump

Only bump crates that have actual changes. flipt-evaluation only needs a bump if commits touched flipt-evaluation/ directly.

Step 2: Audit Client SDK Changes

For each SDK, find its latest release tag and list unreleased commits:

git tag --sort=-creatordate | grep "flipt-client-" | head -30
git log --oneline <last-sdk-tag>..HEAD --no-merges -- <sdk-directory>/

SDK reference table

SDK	Directory	Tag Prefix	Engine Dependency
Python	flipt-client-python/	flipt-client-python-v	FFI
Ruby	flipt-client-ruby/	flipt-client-ruby-v	FFI
Java	flipt-client-java/	flipt-client-java-v	FFI
C#	flipt-client-csharp/	flipt-client-csharp-v	FFI
Dart	flipt-client-dart/	flipt-client-dart-v	FFI
Kotlin Android	flipt-client-kotlin-android/	flipt-client-kotlin-android-v	FFI
Swift	flipt-client-swift/	flipt-client-swift-v	FFI
Go	flipt-client-go/	flipt-client-go-v	WASM
JS	flipt-client-js/	flipt-client-js-v	WASM-JS
React	flipt-client-react/	flipt-client-react-v	WASM-JS + peer dependency on @flipt-io/flipt-client-js

Step 3: Categorize and Prioritize

Present a summary table classifying each SDK:

• Must release: Has feat/fix commits in its own directory (someone contributed a fix and it's not released yet)
• Should release: Benefits from engine bump + has dep updates
• No release needed: No changes since last release, no engine bump affects it

Output format

## Engine Release Status
| Engine | Current Version | Last Tag | Unreleased Commits | Bump Needed |
|--------|----------------|----------|-------------------|-------------|

## SDK Release Status
| SDK | Last Release | Unreleased Commits | Key Changes | Priority |
|-----|-------------|-------------------|-------------|----------|

Step 4: Release Engines (if needed)

Engine release is a three-step process per RELEASE.md:

1. Bump version in Cargo.toml for affected crates
2. Run cargo check to verify compilation and update Cargo.lock
3. Create a PR with the version bump, merge it
4. Create and push tags from main after merge:
   • flipt-engine-ffi-v{version} — triggers CI to build and publish FFI binaries to GitHub release
   • flipt-engine-wasm-v{version} — for bookkeeping (WASM is bundled with its SDKs at SDK release time)
   • flipt-engine-wasm-js-v{version} — for bookkeeping (WASM-JS is bundled with its SDKs at SDK release time)

Only FFI-based SDKs need to wait for engine CI — the FFI tag triggers builds that publish platform binaries. WASM/WASM-JS engines are built and bundled during SDK release, so their SDKs can be released immediately after tagging.

Step 5: Release Client SDKs

Use the non-interactive CLI script (preferred for automation):

cd release && .venv/bin/python release_cli.py --sdk flipt-client-go --bump patch             # dry-run (default)
cd release && .venv/bin/python release_cli.py --sdk flipt-client-go --bump patch --publish   # real release
cd release && .venv/bin/python release_cli.py --sdk flipt-client-js --bump patch --publish --pr

If the venv doesn't exist yet: cd release && python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

Options:

• --sdk NAME: SDK to release (required)
• --bump patch|minor|major: Version bump type
• --version X.Y.Z: Explicit version instead of bump
• --publish: Actually release (default is dry-run)
• --pr: Create a PR instead of pushing to main

The interactive version (python release.py) is also available for manual use.

Release order usually doesn't matter between independent SDKs, but FFI-based SDKs must wait for engine artifacts to be published.

JS + React release order

When releasing both flipt-client-js and flipt-client-react:

1. Release flipt-client-js first and wait for the npm publish workflow to succeed.
2. Update flipt-client-react/package.json so peerDependencies["@flipt-io/flipt-client-js"] points at the newly published JS SDK version.
3. Run npm install in flipt-client-react/ so package-lock.json is updated.
4. Commit that React dependency bump.
5. Release flipt-client-react.

Do not publish JS and React at the same time: React's package metadata must reference the JS version that is already available on npm.