gaia-release

name	gaia-release
description	Cut a GAIA release end-to-end: draft notes, open release PR, run pre-tag verification, push the tag, monitor the publish pipeline, and produce the Discord announcement. Use when the user asks to 'cut a release', 'release vX.Y.Z', 'tag a release', or 'publish v...'. Pauses at every irreversible step for user approval.

GAIA Release

Run a GAIA release end-to-end against the amd/gaia repo. The skill is a phased checklist with hard gates — each phase produces a concrete artifact, then stops and asks for confirmation before doing anything irreversible (opening a PR, pushing a tag, rerunning a CI job, posting an announcement).

The pre-tag verification phase exists because the v0.17.4 release uncovered two release-blocking bugs that merged-PR CI did not catch (squash-merge silently reverting version.py, and the AppImage smoke test's circular pip install amd-gaia==<unpublished> dependency). Do not skip it.

Argument parsing

Accept one argument in any of these shapes:

• 0.17.5 — bare semver
• v0.17.5 — with the v prefix (the actual tag form)
• 0.17.5.1 — hotfix-style four-part version (rare; e.g. v0.15.4.1)
• (no argument) — read __version__ from src/gaia/version.py, then suggest the next-patch bump (e.g. 0.17.4 → propose 0.17.5) and ask the user to confirm or override before continuing.

Normalise to the bare form internally (0.17.5) and the tag form externally (v0.17.5). If the user gives a version that is older than or equal to the current __version__, stop and ask — never silently roll backwards.

Resume detection (run before any phase)

The skill is reinvocation-safe — releases span days, and the user will return mid-flow. Before doing anything else, detect where in the flow we are and skip phases that already landed:

git fetch origin --tags
git checkout main && git pull
NOTES_ON_MAIN=$(git ls-tree -r origin/main --name-only | grep -c "^docs/releases/v<version>\.mdx$" || true)
PR_OPEN=$(gh pr list --repo amd/gaia --search "Release v<version> in:title" --state open --json number --jq '.[0].number' || true)
PR_MERGED=$(gh pr list --repo amd/gaia --search "Release v<version> in:title" --state merged --json number --jq '.[0].number' || true)
TAG_EXISTS=$(git tag --list "v<version>")
RELEASE_EXISTS=$(gh release view "v<version>" --repo amd/gaia --json tagName --jq '.tagName' 2>/dev/null || true)

Resume table:

State	Action
RELEASE_EXISTS matches	Release already shipped. Skip to Phase 6 (smoke test + announcement) only.
TAG_EXISTS, no release	Tag pushed, publish workflow in progress or failed. Resume at Phase 5 (monitor).
PR_MERGED, no tag	Notes on main. Resume at Phase 3 (pre-tag verification). Do not re-run Phase 1 — never overwrite merged notes.
PR_OPEN	PR still open. Tell user "PR #N already open at — waiting for merge." Exit.
NOTES_ON_MAIN ≥ 1 but no PR	Half-finished prior attempt landed notes without a PR (rare). Stop and ask the user before continuing.
Nothing matches	Fresh release. Start at Phase 1.

Always announce the resume decision before continuing: "Detected v<version> state: PR #831 merged, no tag yet. Resuming at Phase 3 (pre-tag verification)."

Hard rules (do not violate)

These map to CLAUDE.md. Re-read them whenever this skill runs.

• No Claude attribution anywhere — not in PR titles, PR bodies, commit messages (no Co-Authored-By: Claude ... trailer), release notes, code comments, or the Discord announcement.
• No silent fallbacks — if a validator fails, a step times out, or a workflow run isn't found, stop with an actionable error. Do not retry blindly. Do not "proceed anyway."
• Match house style for release notes — factual, not opinionated. No "finally", "silently", "no more crashes", "we're excited to announce". Read the last 2–3 release notes before drafting. Patch releases do not include a pip install block. Use the Why upgrade: framing with a short bullet list, then ## What's New, then ## Bug Fixes, then ## Full Changelog.
• Match the previous release PR body shape exactly — read the most recent merged Release vX.Y.Z PR (e.g. gh pr list --repo amd/gaia --state merged --search "Release v in:title" --limit 3). Open with # GAIA vX.Y.Z Release Notes (no MDX frontmatter in the PR body), end with a Release checklist section. Style drift here costs review cycles.
• Bulletproof commits only — every change made by this skill must satisfy the four criteria in CLAUDE.md (validated, critiqued, scope-clean, no half-finished work) before being committed.
• Pushing tags is irreversible. Always confirm the SHA the tag will point to and the green status of the pre-tag verification run before git push origin v<version>.
• Manual approval gate at the publish step is human-only — Claude cannot click the GitHub environment "approve" button. Surface the run URL and stop.

---

Phase 1 — Draft release notes (PR-ready)

Goal: produce docs/releases/v<version>.mdx matching house style; update navigation and the UI package.json.

Steps

1. Survey commits since previous tag, then sanity-check the version request against scope.

   PREV=$(git tag --sort=-v:refname | grep -E '^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -1)
   echo "Previous tag: $PREV"
   git log "$PREV..HEAD" --pretty=format:'%h  %s'
   echo
   echo "Total: $(git log $PREV..HEAD --oneline | wc -l) commits"
   echo "Feat:  $(git log $PREV..HEAD --oneline | grep -cE '^[a-f0-9]+ feat') feat commits"
   echo "Fix:   $(git log $PREV..HEAD --oneline | grep -cE '^[a-f0-9]+ fix')  fix commits"
   

   Group commits by theme (features, fixes, infra, docs). Extract the PR number from each subject ((#NNN)). For each non-trivial entry, open the linked PR or commit body to get the why — release notes need motivation, not just titles.

   Scope-vs-version sanity check (do not skip): apply this rubric against the requested target version:

   Commit shape	Suggested release shape
   Only fix/docs/chore/ci, no feat	Patch (vX.Y.Z+1) ✓
   1–2 feat commits, small scope	Patch acceptable, mention them as "What's New"
   3+ feat commits, or any commit titled ... vX.Y.Z milestone, default-model swap, breaking change, package layout change	Minor (vX.Y+1.0) — push back
   Removal of a public API, CLI flag deletion, config schema break, version-pin floor raised in a non-additive way	Major (vX+1.0.0) — push back

   If the requested version doesn't match the rubric, stop and surface the mismatch: "You asked for v<requested> (patch). I see N feat commits since <prev> including <one or two examples> — this looks minor-shaped. Continue as patch, or bump to v<suggested>?" Do not silently proceed.

2. Read the last 2–3 release notes to match style and length.

   • docs/releases/v0.17.4.mdx
   • docs/releases/v0.17.3.mdx
   • docs/releases/v0.17.2.mdx

   Cross-check: same frontmatter shape, same section headings, same tone, same level of detail per entry. Patch releases are short; minor/major releases include pip install and may have a "Highlights" block.

3. Create docs/releases/v.mdx with this skeleton (adapt to whether it's patch / minor / major):

   ---
   title: "v<version>"
   description: "<one-line elevator pitch — what shipped, who benefits>"
   ---
   
   # GAIA v<version> Release Notes
   
   <One-paragraph overview: what kind of release this is and what it covers.>
   
   **Why upgrade:**
   - **<short title>** — <one-line value-and-mechanism>.
   - **<short title>** — <one-line value-and-mechanism>.
   
   ---
   
   ## What's New
   
   ### <Feature title>
   
   <Two short paragraphs: what changed, why it matters, link the PR(s) inline.>
   
   ---
   
   ## Bug Fixes
   
   - **<title>** (PR [#NNN](https://github.com/amd/gaia/pull/NNN)) — <one-line description of fix and impact>.
   
   ---
   
   ## Full Changelog
   
   **N commits** since v<previous>:
   
   - `<sha>` — <subject>
   - ...
   
   Full Changelog: [v<previous>...v<version>](https://github.com/amd/gaia/compare/v<previous>...v<version>)
   

4. Update docs/docs.json:

   • Add releases/v<version> to the Releases tab.
   • Bump the navbar label (e.g. v<previous-version> · Lemonade <previous-lemonade> → v<version> · Lemonade <current-lemonade>). Read src/gaia/version.py for the LEMONADE_VERSION constant — it is the source of truth, and the navbar may be drifted from it (Lemonade bumps land outside release PRs).

5. Sync the UI package version.

   node installer/version/bump-ui-version.mjs
   

   Confirm src/gaia/apps/webui/package.json now reads the new version.

6. Confirm __version__ is correct.

   grep -E '^__version__' src/gaia/version.py
   

   The post-prior-release bump usually handles this, but a squash-merge can revert it silently. If it's wrong, edit it. If it's right but reverted later (see Phase 3), the validator will catch it.

7. Validate. Run from the repo's activated venv (source .venv/bin/activate on Linux/macOS, .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows; the bare-python Microsoft Store stub will fail). If you're working from a git worktree without its own venv, run from the parent checkout's venv.

   python util/validate_release_notes.py
   

   Must exit 0 — this is the gate the publish workflow runs on tag push. Fix any errors before continuing. If it fails for reasons unrelated to your changes (missing dep, broken import), stop and surface that — do not silently bypass. Re-running the validator with --verbose (if supported) helps localise the failure.

Gate 1 — show the user the draft

Show the diff (git diff --stat plus the new .mdx file inline). Ask: "Approve these release notes and continue to Phase 2 (open PR)?" Wait for explicit yes. Iterate on tone/wording before continuing — much cheaper than fixing on main.

---

Phase 2 — Open the release PR

Goal: branch, commit, push, open PR, request review.

Steps

1. Branch and commit.

   git checkout -b v<version>-release
   git add docs/releases/v<version>.mdx docs/docs.json src/gaia/version.py src/gaia/apps/webui/package.json
   git status              # confirm scope-clean — no drive-by edits
   git diff --cached --stat
   git commit -m "Release v<version>"
   git push -u origin v<version>-release
   

   If git status shows anything outside the four expected files, stop and ask. The release PR must be scope-clean.

2. Read the most recent release PR body to match shape.

   gh pr list --repo amd/gaia --state merged --search "Release v in:title" --limit 3 \
     --json number,title,body | jq -r '.[0]'
   

   Use that as the structural template for this PR body — same opening, same checklist, same section order. Do not invent a new shape.

3. Prepare the PR body file. Build it by stripping the MDX frontmatter from the release notes and appending the Release checklist section copied from the previous release PR.

   # Strip the YAML frontmatter (everything between the first two '---' lines)
   awk '/^---$/{c++; next} c>=2' docs/releases/v<version>.mdx > /tmp/release-body.md
   
   # Append the Release checklist section from the previous release PR
   PREV_PR=$(gh pr list --repo amd/gaia --state merged --search "Release v in:title" --limit 1 --json number --jq '.[0].number')
   gh pr view "$PREV_PR" --repo amd/gaia --json body --jq '.body' \
     | awk '/^## Release checklist/{found=1} found' \
     >> /tmp/release-body.md
   
   # Sanity-check the body before opening the PR
   head -3 /tmp/release-body.md   # should start with "# GAIA v<version> Release Notes"
   tail -10 /tmp/release-body.md  # should end with the checklist
   

   If the awk pipeline produces an empty file, the previous PR didn't have a ## Release checklist heading — fall back to copying the entire body and editing it manually before continuing.

4. Open the PR. Title: Release v<version>. Body: the file you just built.

   gh pr create --repo amd/gaia \
     --title "Release v<version>" \
     --body-file /tmp/release-body.md \
     --reviewer kovtcharov-amd
   

   Surface the resulting PR URL.

Gate 2 — wait for merge

Stop. Tell the user: "PR opened at . Waiting for review/merge before pre-tag verification. Re-invoke this skill (or /loop) to continue once merged."

Do not poll, do not auto-merge. Do not push the tag from the un-merged branch.

---

Phase 3 — Pre-tag verification (the hard-won gate)

Goal: prove the merged commit on main actually builds clean before the tag locks it in. Do not skip this. Two release-blocking bugs in v0.17.4 would have shipped without this step.

Steps

1. Sync local main to the merged commit, and capture the SHA from the release PR (not just the local HEAD).

   git checkout main && git pull
   # Re-derive from the release PR — survives gate pauses across sessions/shells.
   RELEASE_PR=$(gh pr list --repo amd/gaia --state merged --search "Release v<version> in:title" --json number --jq '.[0].number')
   MERGED_SHA=$(gh pr view "$RELEASE_PR" --repo amd/gaia --json mergeCommitOid -q .mergeCommitOid)
   echo "Will tag: $MERGED_SHA (from PR #$RELEASE_PR)"
   test "$(git rev-parse HEAD)" = "$MERGED_SHA" || { echo "Local main ($( git rev-parse HEAD)) does not match merged release PR SHA ($MERGED_SHA) — pull, or main has moved past the release commit"; exit 1; }
   

   When you reach Gate 3 below, carry both $RELEASE_PR and $MERGED_SHA into the gate question text so Phase 4 can re-derive them from the answer rather than depending on shell variables that don't survive the pause.

2. Re-verify __version__ post-merge. Squash-merges have silently reverted this. If it doesn't match the target version, stop — open a follow-up PR to fix it before tagging. Never tag a wrong version.

   grep -E '^__version__' src/gaia/version.py
   

3. Re-run the release notes validator on the merged tree.

   python util/validate_release_notes.py
   

4. Trigger Build Installers via workflow_dispatch against the merged SHA. This builds the same artifacts the tag push will build, on the same code, before the tag exists.

   gh workflow run "Build Installers" --repo amd/gaia --ref main
   sleep 5
   RUN_ID=$(gh run list --repo amd/gaia --workflow "Build Installers" --limit 1 --json databaseId -q '.[0].databaseId')
   echo "Watching run $RUN_ID"
   gh run watch "$RUN_ID" --repo amd/gaia
   

   AppImage smoke jobs (distro-matrix, userns-restricted) are the most flaky — userns-restricted has a 90s state: ready poll that can race a model download. On real failure, stop and fix root cause; on transient flake (timeout-only, no logic error), gh run rerun $RUN_ID --failed is acceptable.

Gate 3 — green run on the merged commit

Required before continuing:

• __version__ matches the target.
• validate_release_notes.py passes.
• Build Installers run on the merged commit is green (not yellow, not "mostly green except smoke tests").

Show the user the run URL, the release PR number (#$RELEASE_PR), and the merged SHA ($MERGED_SHA). Ask: "Pre-tag verification green on <sha> (release PR #N). Push tag v<version>?" — the SHA and PR number being in the question text means Phase 4 can re-derive them even if the user resumes in a fresh shell.

---

Phase 4 — Tag and trigger the publish pipeline

Goal: push the annotated tag; do nothing else.

Steps

1. Confirm you are on main at the verified SHA. Re-derive $MERGED_SHA from the release PR (the SHA from Gate 3) — do not trust shell state across the gate pause.

   git checkout main
   git pull
   # Re-derive from the release PR — the PR number was in the Gate 3 question.
   MERGED_SHA=$(gh pr view <release-pr-number> --repo amd/gaia --json mergeCommitOid -q .mergeCommitOid)
   test "$(git rev-parse HEAD)" = "$MERGED_SHA" || { echo "main moved past verified SHA $MERGED_SHA — re-verify (Phase 3) before tagging"; exit 1; }
   

2. Tag and push.

   git tag v<version>
   git push origin v<version>
   

3. Confirm the publish workflow picked it up.

   sleep 10
   gh run list --repo amd/gaia --workflow publish.yml --limit 3
   

   The flow is: validate → build (pypi + npm + electron) → approve (manual gate) → publish (PyPI + npm) → github-release. Surface the run URL.

---

Phase 5 — Monitor and approve

Goal: watch the run, distinguish flake from real failure, surface the manual approval gate to the human.

Steps

1. Watch the run.

   gh run watch <run-id> --repo amd/gaia
   

2. On flake (timeout-only, no logic error in the failing step's logs): gh run rerun <run-id> --failed is non-destructive — re-runs only failed jobs and their downstream. Do not rerun the whole workflow; that wastes the publish budget.

3. On real failure (logic error, missing artifact, validator failure that wasn't there before): stop. Do not push past a red build. Do not delete and re-tag — that path is messy. Surface the failing step + log to the user.

4. Manual approval gate — when the run reaches the approve step in the publish GitHub environment, surface the URL to the user. Tell them: "Manual approval required at . Claude cannot click this — please approve in browser when ready." Then wait.

5. After approval, PyPI + npm + GitHub Release jobs run in parallel. Watch to completion.

6. refresh-context7 is the terminal job and may legitimately fail — that is not a release failure. This job runs after PyPI, npm, GitHub Release, and the desktop installers are already published. Context7's API rejects refresh requests inside a short cooldown window (observed: ~3–6 days between releases), and the response is HTTP 400. If the job is red, the release is still live. Open the job log, read the Response body: block between the ::stop-commands:: markers, and either accept the cooldown reason or file a follow-up about a new rejection cause. Do not delete or re-tag — see the recovery guidance in the Notes section below.

7. Never add set -x or curl -v to the refresh-context7 step to "debug" a failure. GHA only masks the verbatim secret value; curl -v prints the Authorization: Bearer <token> header, which is a transformed form that GHA's masking does not catch. Read the captured response body instead — it carries the same diagnostic signal without the leak risk.

---

Phase 6 — Post-release verification + announcement

Goal: confirm artifacts are live, draft the Discord announcement.

Steps

1. Smoke test the published wheel.

   pip install --upgrade amd-gaia==<version>
   gaia -v
   

   Must report <version>. If it reports the previous version, the squash-merge version.py regression slipped through — escalate immediately.

2. Verify the GitHub release page.

   gh release view v<version> --repo amd/gaia
   

   Required artifacts: .whl, .tar.gz, .deb, .AppImage, .dmg, .exe, and the latest*.yml files for the Electron auto-updater. If any are missing, the corresponding build job didn't run or didn't upload — investigate.

3. Draft the Discord announcement using the template below. Read the just-shipped release notes (docs/releases/v<version>.mdx) to populate the highlight list — one bullet per "What's New" entry plus any Bug Fix worth surfacing, written in the same voice as the notes (factual, no marketing).

   Template (copy verbatim, fill the bracketed fields):

   GAIA v<version> Release
   
   Hi all, v<version> is <one-clause framing — examples: "a patch release with X and Y", "out — focused on X, Y, and Z", "a hotfix for X">. Upgrade in one command:
   npm install -g @amd-gaia/agent-ui
   gaia-ui
   
   Currently tested on Strix Halo w/ 32GB+ or Radeon GPU w/ 24GB+ on Windows and Ubuntu.
   
   What's new in v<version>:
   
   <Highlight title> — <One-sentence what + why, plain English. 1–2 sentences max per bullet.>
   <Highlight title> — <...>
   <Highlight title> — <...>
   
   The agent can search files, run commands, and use MCP tools — but only after you approve each action.
   
   Agent UI guide: https://amd-gaia.ai/docs/guides/agent-ui
   v<version> release notes: https://amd-gaia.ai/docs/releases/v<version>
   
   Note this is a beta release of the UI, if you notice any bugs or issues please report them here or create an issue!
   

   Format rules (these match the v0.17.3 / v0.17.4 announcements):

   • The npm install line and gaia-ui line are not in a fenced code block in the announcement — they're plain lines after the colon. Discord renders them as code due to the channel formatting; do not wrap them in backticks.
   • Highlight bullets have no leading bullet marker — each is its own paragraph with **Title** — Description style. The bold formatting carries the visual hierarchy.
   • 3–5 highlights for a patch, 5–7 for a minor. Anything more becomes a wall of text.
   • The "agent can search files…" sentence and the "Note this is a beta release…" sentence are fixed boilerplate — copy them verbatim every release.
   • First-line framing reflects the release character: patches = "a patch release with X and Y"; minor/major = "out — focused on X, Y, and Z"; hotfixes = "a hotfix for X". Match the actual scope, don't oversell.

Gate 6 — present, do not auto-post

Show the user the smoke-test output, the artifact list, and the drafted Discord announcement in a fenced markdown block. Ask: "Post the announcement to Discord?" Wait for explicit yes — Discord posting is human-only (Claude does not have Discord access here, and announcements are visible to all users).

---

Output between phases

After every phase, output:

1. Phase N complete.
2. What changed / what was verified (1–3 bullets).
3. Concrete artifact (URL, SHA, file path, or fenced draft).
4. Gate question (always ends with ?, names the next destructive action).

Do not bundle two phases into one user prompt. The gates exist for review.

Notes

• The argument-passing convention is the target tag, not the previous tag. If the user says "release v0.17.5", that is what gets created — the previous tag is derived via git tag --sort=-v:refname | head -1.
• Hotfix releases (v0.15.4.1) follow the same flow; the validate_release_notes.py check accepts the four-part form.
• Minor/major releases (v0.18.0, v1.0.0) need a richer notes structure — a "Highlights" block, the pip install instructions, and migration notes if breaking. The skeleton above is patch-shaped; expand for non-patch releases by mirroring the prior minor/major release notes.
• If the publish run fails partway through (e.g. PyPI publishes but npm doesn't), do not delete the tag and start over. Resolve the failing job, rerun only that job (gh run rerun <run-id> --failed), and let the rest of the pipeline complete idempotently. The tag is the source of truth — preserve it.