| name | release |
| description | Prepare a Traefik release (patch, minor RC1, minor RC2+, major RC) — generates changelog, bumps versions, commits, pushes, opens PR |
| user-invocable | true |
Release skill
Invocation: /release <new-tag>
Examples:
/release v2.11.51 — patch release/release v3.8.0-rc.1 — minor RC1 (from master)/release v3.8.0-rc.2 — minor RC2+ (from v3.8 branch)/release v4.0.0-rc.1 — major RC1 (from master)
Step 1 — Parse tag and detect release type
From NEW_TAG, extract:
MAJOR, MINOR, PATCH, RC_NUM (0 if not an RC)IS_RC: true if tag contains -rc.IS_RC1: true if RC_NUM == 1
Release types and their properties:
| Type | Example | Branch | Prev tag detection |
|---|
| Patch | v2.11.51 | v{major}.{minor} | last v{major}.{minor}.* tag |
| RC1 | v3.8.0-rc.1 | master | last v{major}.{minor-1}.0-rc.* or ea.* tag |
| RC2+ | v3.8.0-rc.2 | v{major}.{minor} | v{major}.{minor}.0-rc.{RC_NUM-1} |
Set BRANCH and RELEASE_BRANCH=prepare-release-${NEW_TAG}.
Detect PREV_TAG:
- Patch:
git tag --sort=-version:refname | grep "^v${MAJOR}\.${MINOR}\." | grep -v "^${NEW_TAG}$" | grep -v "\-rc\." | head -1
- RC1:
git tag --sort=-version:refname | grep -E "^v${MAJOR}\.$(( MINOR - 1 ))\.0-(rc|ea)\." | head -1
- RC2+: construct directly as
v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.0-rc.$(( RC_NUM - 1 ))
If PREV_TAG is empty: ask the user "Could not auto-detect previous tag. What is the previous tag?"
Step 2 — Pre-flight checks (fail fast, clear messages)
Run these checks in order:
- Current branch:
git branch --show-current must equal BRANCH. If not: Error: must be on branch ${BRANCH}, currently on <current>.
- Branch does not exist:
git branch --list ${RELEASE_BRANCH} must be empty. If not: Error: branch ${RELEASE_BRANCH} already exists.
- Up to date: run
git fetch upstream then git rev-list HEAD..upstream/${BRANCH} --count. If count > 0: Error: branch is N commits behind upstream/${BRANCH}. Run: git pull upstream ${BRANCH}
- CODENAME: read
.github/workflows/release.yaml, extract value after CODENAME:. If missing: ask "What is the current release codename? (check .github/workflows/release.yaml)"
- GITHUB_TOKEN: use
$GITHUB_TOKEN if set, else run gh auth token. Export for use in git-cliff.
- Fork remote: run
git remote -v and gh api user --jq .login to find the remote whose push URL contains the GitHub username. If ambiguous: ask "Which remote is your fork?"
Show summary and ask "Proceed? (y to continue)":
Release type: <Patch | Minor RC1 | Minor RC2+ | Major RC1>
New tag: ${NEW_TAG}
Prev tag: ${PREV_TAG}
Branch: ${BRANCH} → ${RELEASE_BRANCH}
Codename: ${CODENAME}
Step 3 — Create release branch
git checkout -b ${RELEASE_BRANCH}
Step 4 — [RC1 only] Bump version in documentation
Detect old minor version: OLD_MINOR=v${MAJOR}.$(( MINOR - 1 )), NEW_MINOR=v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.
Replace all occurrences of ${OLD_MINOR} with ${NEW_MINOR} in all git-tracked files under docs/, excluding docs/dist/:
git ls-files docs/ | grep -v '^docs/dist/' | xargs sed -i '' "s/${OLD_MINOR}/${NEW_MINOR}/g"
Also update cmd/traefik/traefik.go (contains a doc URL with the version).
Show the list of changed files. Pause 1a — ask: "Review the version bump changes in your editor. (y to commit)"
Commit:
git add $(git ls-files docs/ | grep -v '^docs/dist/') cmd/traefik/traefik.go
git commit -m "Bump documentation references from ${OLD_MINOR} to ${NEW_MINOR}"
Step 5 — [RC1 only] Update CODENAME
Ask the user: "What is the new codename for ${NEW_MINOR}?"
Update the CODENAME: line in .github/workflows/release.yaml:
- Find the line matching
CODENAME: and replace its value with the new codename.
Pause 1b — ask: "CODENAME updated to <new_codename> in release.yaml. (y to commit)"
git add .github/workflows/release.yaml
git commit -m "Update release codename to <new_codename>"
Step 6 — Generate changelog
GITHUB_TOKEN=${GITHUB_TOKEN} git cliff --config script/release/cliff.toml --tag ${NEW_TAG} ${PREV_TAG}..${BRANCH}
Step 7 — Process changelog output
Apply to the raw git-cliff output:
- Sort entries within each section alphabetically:
- Entries with
**[area]** tag: sort by the tag text inside **[...]**
- Entries without a tag: sort by full line text, place after tagged entries
- Remove blank lines between entries within a section (blank lines between sections are preserved)
Prepend the processed result to the top of CHANGELOG.md.
Show the added lines (first ~30 lines of the new block).
Pause 2 — ask: "CHANGELOG.md updated. Review in your editor, adjust if needed. (y to commit)"
git add CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "Prepare release ${NEW_TAG}"
Step 8 — Push
Pause 3 — ask: "Ready to push branch ${RELEASE_BRANCH} to ${FORK_REMOTE}. (y to push)"
git push ${FORK_REMOTE} ${RELEASE_BRANCH}
Step 9 — Open pull request
Pause 4 — ask: "Ready to open PR against traefik/traefik:${BRANCH}. (y to open PR)"
gh pr create \
--repo traefik/traefik \
--base ${BRANCH} \
--head ${GITHUB_USER}:${RELEASE_BRANCH} \
--title "Prepare release ${NEW_TAG}" \
--label "area/documentation" \
--label "size/S" \
--body "$(cat <<'PRBODY'
### What does this PR do?
Prepare release ${NEW_TAG}.
aka `${CODENAME}`
### Motivation
To create a new release.
### More
- [ ] Added/updated tests
- [x] Added/updated documentation
PRBODY
)"
Print the PR URL.
Reference: script/release/README.md
For manual procedure when this skill is unavailable, see script/release/README.md.
