release

name	release
description	Prepare and publish an AgentLane release with lockstep versioning, generated Keep a Changelog release notes, verification, a release commit, an annotated tag, and a GitHub release.

Release

Use this skill when the user wants to cut an AgentLane release.

This skill is the release entrypoint. It owns the full workflow: inspect the repository state, choose the target version, update version files, generate the CHANGELOG.md entry from commits, verify the change, create the release commit, create the annotated tag, and publish through the skill-local helper.

Versioning Policy

AgentLane uses lockstep versioning.

Rules:

1. The root package and all discovered workspace packages must share the same release version.
2. While the project is pre-1.0, use 0.MINOR.0 for meaningful public changes.
3. Use PATCH for safe fixes, docs, and internal improvements that do not intentionally change documented public behavior.
4. Use MINOR for new public capabilities or public behavior changes users should notice.

Workflow

1. Guardrails

Before editing:

1. confirm the current branch is exactly main
2. confirm git status --short is empty
3. fetch tags from origin
4. confirm local main matches origin/main
5. stop immediately if any guardrail fails

Useful commands:

git branch --show-current
git status --short
git fetch --tags origin
git rev-parse HEAD
git rev-parse origin/main

2. Release Context

Base the release review on the latest remote semver tag.

Find the latest remote tag with:

git ls-remote --tags --refs origin 'refs/tags/v*'

Review the range:

git log --reverse --no-merges --oneline <last-tag>..HEAD
git diff --name-only <last-tag>..HEAD

If there are no remote semver tags, review the initial history:

git log --reverse --no-merges --oneline HEAD
git log --name-only --pretty=format: --diff-filter=AM HEAD

3. Version Files

Read versions from:

1. pyproject.toml
2. any workspace package pyproject.toml files discovered under packages/
3. packages/process_bridge_ts/package.json
4. app-facing example package manifests that pin @agentlanejs/process-bridge by version

All discovered versions must match before release preparation.

Apply the target version to every discovered version file. Do not change inter-package dependency bounds as part of release preparation.

4. Changelog

Generate the release entry from:

1. non-merge commits in the review range
2. changed files in the review range
3. user-facing API and behavior changes
4. examples and documentation changes that affect users

Edit CHANGELOG.md directly.

Format rules:

1. insert or replace ## [<version>] - <YYYY-MM-DD> near the top
2. start with one short summary paragraph
3. use Keep a Changelog sections: Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed, and Security
4. include only sections that have content
5. attach commit links or short commit references for each bullet
6. omit low-signal internal churn unless it materially affects users
7. update the compare link at the bottom
8. keep each summary paragraph on one physical line
9. keep each bullet on one physical line

Use references/release_notes_template.md as the body template.

5. Verify

Run:

/usr/bin/make format
/usr/bin/make lint
/usr/bin/make typecheck
/usr/bin/make tests
cd packages/process_bridge_ts && bun run check && npm pack --dry-run

Do not commit or tag until all verification commands pass.

6. Commit And Tag

Commit only the files changed for the release:

git add pyproject.toml packages/process_bridge_ts/package.json examples/harness/process_bridge_stdio/package.json CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "release: v<version>"

If workspace package version files exist, add those exact paths before committing.

Create an annotated tag using the new CHANGELOG.md entry as the tag message:

git tag -a v<version> -F <temporary-release-notes-file>

7. Publish

Publish only after the release commit and annotated tag exist locally:

bash .agents/skills/release/scripts/run.sh --tag v<version>

The helper:

1. requires an explicit --tag v<version>
2. verifies the local tag exists
3. reads the GitHub release body from the matching CHANGELOG.md entry
4. verifies a GitHub release does not already exist for the tag
5. asks for explicit confirmation
6. pushes HEAD:main to origin
7. pushes the tag to origin
8. creates the GitHub release with gh release create

The GitHub release triggers the package publishing workflows:

1. Publish Python Packages builds and publishes Python distributions to PyPI.
2. Publish NPM Packages builds and publishes @agentlanejs/process-bridge to npm with provenance.

The npm package must have trusted publishing configured for .github/workflows/npm-publish.yml and the npm GitHub environment before the first release that should publish to npm.

If confirmation is declined, publishing is skipped and no remote changes are made.

Completion Report

Report:

1. target version and tag
2. release range reviewed
3. files changed
4. verification results
5. release commit
6. whether publishing was confirmed or skipped
7. PyPI and npm workflow status when publishing was confirmed