release

name	release
description	Cut a versioned per-target release of Oedipa. m4l publishes to GitHub Releases (tag + asset + notes); vst is local-only since the paid pivot (CMakeLists VERSION bump + `make release-vst` to produce signed/notarized dmg AND pkg in dist/, no tag, no GH release — upload to the paid distribution platform happens out of band). Verifies repo state, bumps semver, runs the build (vst), drafts notes (m4l), and walks each step with explicit user approval. `none` bump (vst only) keeps the current version and regenerates artifacts — for doc-only fixes to bundled files.
argument-hint	<m4l|vst> [major|minor|patch|none]
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Bash(git *), Bash(gh *), Bash(stat *), Bash(ls *), Bash(rm /tmp/oedipa-*), Bash(make release-vst), Bash(make release-m4l*), Bash(xcrun stapler validate *)

Release Oedipa

Cut a versioned per-target release. The first $ARGUMENT selects the target (m4l or vst); the second is the bump (major / minor / patch / none, default patch). none is vst-only — keep the current version and regenerate artifacts only.

m4l publishes to GitHub Releases with tags namespaced as m4l-vX.Y.Z. vst is local-only since the paid pivot — no tag, no GH release; the in-tree vst/CMakeLists.txt project(... VERSION …) is the version source of record, and the dmg is uploaded to the paid platform out of band.

The legacy v0.1.0 tag (m4l-only, pre-vst introduction) is retained as historical. The first per-target release of m4l is m4l-v0.1.1 (or later); vst's vst-v0.1.0 / v0.1.1 / v0.1.2 tags remain in the repo as source history with no GH release entries.

The release asset is target-specific, and the filename always embeds the version (-vX.Y.Z) so multiple builds can coexist in dist/ and the Save As default name in Max already carries the version. dist/ only ever holds frozen / signed-and-notarized artefacts.

• m4l → dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd — frozen .amxd. The skill bakes + stages an un-frozen versioned copy at m4l/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd (gitignored) in Step 1.6; the user opens that file in Max, Freezes, and Save-As's into dist/ (default filename is already correct). See ADR 007.
• vst → dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.pkg (recommended installer) and dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.dmg (drag-to-install fallback) — both signed / notarized / stapled, built in lockstep by make release-vst. The build scripts read the version from vst/CMakeLists.txt. Distribution is via the paid platform (out of band, not GitHub). Both artifacts are uploaded. See ADR 009.

⚠️ vst paid pivot (2026-05-11; Polar selected 2026-05-16). vst does not publish to GitHub. No tag is created, no GH release is created, no asset is uploaded. /release vst ends locally at Step 1.6: a signed/notarized/stapled dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.pkg and dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.dmg in dist/ + (when bumping) a CMakeLists VERSION bump committed to main. The build itself (make release-vst) runs inside the skill at Step 1.6. Uploading both artifacts to Polar and writing the listing copy happens out of band, outside this skill — the skill does not draft release notes for vst.

Existing vst-v0.1.0 / v0.1.1 / v0.1.2 tags remain in the repo as source history; their GH release entries (which previously carried the dmg) are already deleted. No new vst tags will be created going forward. m4l remains a free GitHub Releases distribution (tag + release + asset).

Pre-flight checks (do these BEFORE the publish step)

Once a release ships (m4l: tag pushed + GH release; vst: dmg uploaded to the paid platform), it is harder to undo cleanly. Run all checks; STOP and ask the user if any fail.

Check 1 — Working tree is clean

git status --porcelain must be empty. Uncommitted changes leak into the release context. Halt if dirty.

Check 2 — main is synced with origin

git fetch origin --quiet
git rev-list --count main..origin/main   # must be 0 (origin not ahead)
git rev-list --count origin/main..main   # must be 0 (local not ahead)

If origin is ahead, git pull. If local is ahead, push first (via /commit for any unstaged work, then a normal push). Then re-run.

Check 3 — CI is green on HEAD

gh run list --branch main --limit 5 --json conclusion,headSha,workflowName

The most recent completed run for the current HEAD SHA must have conclusion: "success". If still in progress or failed, halt and ask. Don't ship distribution artifacts past a red gate — chasing "probably just CI flake" has historically masked real regressions.

(For m4l, the asset freshness gate now lives in Step 1.6 — the bake + stage + freeze flow runs after Step 1 picks the version, so the dist filename dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd isn't known yet at pre-flight time. For vst, the build is run by the skill itself in Step 1.6 and the artifact freshness check lives there too.)

Drafting

After pre-flight passes:

Step 1 — Determine next version

The second $ARGUMENT is the bump (default patch). none is vst-only and means "keep the current version, just regenerate artifacts" — useful when only bundled docs / readmes change and the plug-in binary doesn't actually need a new version.

For m4l, parse the highest m4l-v* tag and bump per the second $ARGUMENT:

git tag -l 'm4l-v*' | sort -V | tail -1

(none is rejected for m4l — m4l version metadata isn't in-tree, so re-freezing at the same version would just produce a duplicate tag, which the skill blocks.)

For vst, no tags are created anymore — the in-tree project(Oedipa VERSION X.Y.Z) line in vst/CMakeLists.txt is the authoritative previous version. Bump from there, or keep with none:

grep '^project(Oedipa VERSION' vst/CMakeLists.txt

If no prior version exists for this target, propose m4l-v0.1.0 / 0.1.0.

Show the proposed version to the user and confirm before proceeding. The user can override.

Step 1.5 — Bump version metadata (vst only; skipped on none)

If Step 1 resolved to a new version (bump): edit vst/CMakeLists.txt so project(Oedipa VERSION X.Y.Z) matches the target version. Also prompt the user to add a Changelog entry to vst/scripts/README.txt describing what changed in this release — that file ships inside the dmg and is the only user-visible changelog (vst has no GH release notes since the paid pivot). Wait for the user to write the entry; do not auto-generate from git log.

Then commit and push to main BEFORE the build runs in Step 1.6. The plist version reported to the DAW and the v… label drawn in the editor header both come from the CMakeLists line; the __VERSION__ placeholder in welcome / conclusion / INSTALL / README files is substituted at build time by build-pkg.sh / build-dmg.sh (do not hard-code the version in those files).

# In vst/CMakeLists.txt, line 2:
# project(Oedipa VERSION <old>) → project(Oedipa VERSION <new>)
# Then add a Changelog entry to vst/scripts/README.txt (user writes
# the prose; pause until they confirm).
git add vst/CMakeLists.txt vst/scripts/README.txt
git commit -m "chore(vst): bump version to X.Y.Z"
git push origin main

If Step 1 was none (regen at same version): skip this step entirely — nothing to commit, nothing to push. Proceed to Step 1.6 so the build picks up whatever other source changes triggered the regen (e.g. bundled README / INSTALL.txt fixes).

For m4l this step is skipped — m4l version metadata isn't in-tree (the freeze captures whatever is on disk).

Step 1.6 — Build / stage and verify (target-specific)

For vst, run make release-vst to produce both artifacts (codesign + notarize + staple + dmg + pkg are wrapped in the script chain):

make release-vst

This takes a few minutes — notarization is the long leg (waits on Apple's service). Requires DEVELOPER_TEAM_ID env var + im9-notary keychain profile + Developer ID Application and Developer ID Installer certs in the login keychain. If make release-vst fails, halt and surface the error; do not retry blindly — notarization rejections, expired certs, and missing env all need investigation before re-run.

After build, verify both artifacts are present, fresh, and have a stapled notarization ticket (filenames carry the version parsed by the build scripts from vst/CMakeLists.txt):

ls -la dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.pkg dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.dmg
stat -f '%m' dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.pkg                 # mtime as epoch
stat -f '%m' dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.dmg                 # mtime as epoch
git log -1 --format=%ct -- vst/Source/ \
                            vst/CMakeLists.txt \
                            vst/scripts/ \
                            vst/tests/              # latest vst-source commit time
xcrun stapler validate dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.pkg
xcrun stapler validate dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.dmg

Both dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.pkg AND dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.dmg mtimes must be >= the latest vst-source commit time, and stapler validate must succeed on both. If either check fails, halt — something went wrong in build or notarization.

Manual host smoke (Logic AU MIDI FX + Bitwig VST3 MIDI fx) is recommended before handing the artifacts off.

vst stops here. Steps 2-5 are m4l-only. Upload both artifacts to the paid distribution platform and write the listing copy out of band — the skill does not interact with the platform directly.

---

For m4l, run make release-m4l with the version from Step 1 to bake the host bundle and stage a versioned, un-frozen copy of the baked .amxd next to the source bake target. dist/ is for frozen artefacts only — the un-frozen staging file lives in m4l/ (gitignored as m4l/Oedipa-v*.amxd) so the Save As dialog opens with the versioned filename pre-filled when the user freezes.

make release-m4l VERSION=X.Y.Z

Output: m4l/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd (un-frozen). Then prompt the user:

Open m4l/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd in Max → click the snowflake (Freeze) button in the patcher toolbar → File → Save As → navigate to dist/ and save (the default filename Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd is already correct — just confirm the location).

Wait for the user to confirm freeze + Save As is complete before continuing. Then verify the saved .amxd exists in dist/ and its mtime is fresher than the latest m4l-source commit:

stat -f '%m' dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd                # mtime as epoch
git log -1 --format=%ct -- m4l/Oedipa.maxpat \
                            m4l/cellstrip-renderer.js \
                            m4l/lattice-renderer.js \
                            m4l/separator-renderer.js \
                            m4l/oedipa-host.entry.mjs \
                            m4l/engine m4l/host      # latest m4l-source commit time

If dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd is missing or older, halt and re-prompt — the user didn't actually Save As into dist/.

Manual smoke test in a fresh Live track is recommended before tagging — drag dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd onto a new MIDI track, confirm it loads, plays, slot rehydrate works. CI does not (and cannot) cover this.

Step 2 — Draft release notes (m4l only)

For vst, skip this step — the skill does not draft listing copy. Write the product / release description for the paid distribution platform out of band.

For m4l, compute the previous-release boundary (highest m4l-v* tag) and generate the changelog from the commit log between it and HEAD:

PREV=$(git tag -l 'm4l-v*' | sort -V | tail -1)
git log "${PREV:-}"..HEAD --pretty=format:'- %s' -- m4l/

If $PREV is empty (first m4l release), use the project root as the lower bound.

Categorize commits by their type: prefix into sections:

• Features — feat:
• Fixes — fix:
• Docs / housekeeping — docs: / chore: / style: / refactor:
• CI / build — ci:

Drop the Co-Authored-By lines and trailing housekeeping noise. Keep the section short — release notes are for users, not contributors; detailed history is in git log.

For the very first m4l release, use a project-intro template ("What it does" / "Install" / "Requirements") instead of a changelog.

Write the draft to /tmp/oedipa-m4l-vX.Y.Z-notes.md and show it to the user. Wait for explicit "ok" or edit instructions before continuing. The file is fed to gh release create --notes-file in Step 3.

Step 3 — Tag, push, create release (m4l only)

For vst, skip this step entirely — see the paid-pivot block at the top. vst's flow already ended at Step 1.6 with both artifacts in dist/ and (when bumping) the CMakeLists bump committed; paid- platform upload happens out of band.

TAG=m4l-vX.Y.Z
ASSET=dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd
TITLE="Oedipa m4l vX.Y.Z"

git tag "$TAG"
git push origin "$TAG"
gh release create "$TAG" "$ASSET" \
  --title "$TITLE" \
  --notes-file "/tmp/oedipa-$TAG-notes.md"

Step 4 — Verify (m4l only)

gh release view "$TAG" --json name,tagName,assets,url

Confirm:

• assets[0].name is Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd.
• assets[0].size > 0 and matches the local file's size.
• The release URL is reachable.

Show the release URL to the user.

Step 5 — Cleanup (m4l only)

rm "/tmp/oedipa-m4l-vX.Y.Z-notes.md"

Rules

• Asset is target-specific. m4l → dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd (frozen); vst → both dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.pkg (signed/notarized/stapled installer) and dist/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.dmg (signed/notarized/stapled drag-to-install). Never mix.
• Filenames embed the version. vst build scripts read the version from vst/CMakeLists.txt (single source of truth). m4l's make release-m4l takes VERSION=X.Y.Z from the skill (m4l version metadata isn't in-tree) and copies the baked .amxd to m4l/Oedipa-vX.Y.Z.amxd (un-frozen, gitignored). The user opens that in Max, Freezes, and Save-As's into dist/ — the Save As dialog pre-fills the versioned filename, so they just confirm.
• dist/ is for frozen / shipped artefacts only. Un-frozen staging files live in m4l/ (gitignored) for m4l, and signed + notarized bundles + dmg + pkg land directly in dist/ for vst. Never write un-frozen .amxd into dist/.
• m4l publishes to GitHub; vst does not. m4l tags m4l-vX.Y.Z, creates a GH release, attaches the .amxd. vst skips Step 3/4 entirely — no tag, no GH release, no asset upload. vst's dmg is handed off to the paid platform out of band.
• vst version source of record = CMakeLists. Since vst has no tags going forward, project(Oedipa VERSION X.Y.Z) in vst/CMakeLists.txt is the single authoritative version. Bump at Step 1.5 (skipped on none) and commit + push before Step 1.6 builds the artifacts.
• Manual Freeze required for m4l. Max has no CLI freeze; this skill does not automate it.
• make release-vst runs inside the skill (Step 1.6). Both the dmg and the pkg are built + signed + notarized + stapled by the script chain (codesign.sh → notarize.sh → build-dmg.sh → build-pkg.sh). The skill invokes it after Step 1.5 — the user doesn't run it manually. Requires DEVELOPER_TEAM_ID + im9-notary keychain profile + signing certs in the login keychain (see ADR 009).
• none bump is vst-only. A vst regen at the same version is for doc-only fixes (bundled README / INSTALL.txt) where the plug-in binary doesn't need a version change. Step 1.5 is skipped; Step 1.6 still rebuilds artifacts so the new bundled files land in dmg + pkg.