release

name	release
description	Guide for preparing a release of the PowerShell VS Code extension. Use when asked to prepare a release, update the version, or create a release PR.

Release Process

Read docs/development.md "Creating a Release" and "Versioning" first — this skill only adds the agent-specific deltas.

Memory entries this skill depends on (load before starting):

• release infrastructure — ADO org, project, and pipeline IDs.
• release maintainers — the GitHub PR reviewer and the ADO release approver (two different people).

PSES leads the extension at every step: its module is embedded in the signed extension build, so its release must land before the corresponding vscode-powershell action.

Phase 1 — Prep

1. Sync main in both ../PowerShellEditorServices and vscode-powershell: git checkout main && git pull --ff-only origin main.
2. Propose version + summary. In each repo run git log --oneline $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD, summarize user-visible changes, apply the rules from docs/development.md "Versioning", and confirm both versions and one-line summaries with the user before continuing.

Phase 2 — GitHub release PRs

3. Run updateVersion.ps1 in PSES first, then vscode-powershell:

   git checkout -B release
   pwsh -NoProfile -c '$env:GIT_EDITOR="true"; ./tools/updateVersion.ps1 -Version "<version>" -Changes "<summary>"'
   

4. Push and open PRs. git push origin release, then open a PR to main via the GitHub MCP create_pull_request tool. Title is the commit subject (v<version>: <summary>). DM the GitHub PR reviewer on Teams with both PR links.

5. Enable auto-squash-merge on both PRs: gh pr merge --repo <owner>/<repo> <number> --squash --auto.

6. Wait for both PRs to merge (gh pr view ... --json state,statusCheckRollup). Don't busy-loop — check, report, pause if it'll be a while.

Phase 3 — Mirror to ADO

7. Sync main and push to ADO upstream in both repos (PSES first). The verify step must print the release commit subject (v<version>: <summary>); if it doesn't, the PR hasn't merged yet — stop and wait.

   git checkout main && git pull --ff-only origin main
   git log -1 --format=%s
   git push ado HEAD:upstream
   

8. Open upstream → main PRs in ADO with auto-complete enabled. The current ado MCP server doesn't reach our org, so use az (org/project from memory). Title is always Integrate upstream changes. Use merge commit (preserves GitHub history) and keep the upstream branch (re-pushed every release):

   az repos pr create --org <org> --project <project> --repository <repo> \
     --source-branch upstream --target-branch main \
     --title "Integrate upstream changes" --description "Integrate v<version> from GitHub upstream."
   az repos pr update --org <org> --id <pr-id> \
     --auto-complete true --squash false --delete-source-branch false
   

   DM the ADO release approver on Teams with both ADO PR links.

9. Wait for both ADO PRs to complete (az repos pr show --org <org> --id <pr-id> --query status returns completed). Auto-complete merges them once policy checks pass; phase 4 builds against refs/heads/main and will produce the wrong version if main hasn't been updated yet.

Phase 4 — Signed pipelines

Each pipeline pauses at a manual approval stage before publishing. Notify the user when each one reaches it. Use a detached watcher (az pipelines runs show --id <run-id>) so polling survives across turns.

10. Queue the PSES pipeline on refs/heads/main with template parameters Release=True OfficialBuild=True. Notify the user when it reaches the approval stage, then wait for result == succeeded. On success the pipeline creates a draft GitHub Release in PSES.
11. Queue the vscode-powershell pipeline the same way. Notify the user at its approval stage. On success the pipeline creates a draft GitHub Release in vscode-powershell and publishes the extension to the VS Code marketplace.

Phase 5 — Publish GitHub releases (manual)

12. For each draft GitHub Release (PSES and vscode-powershell), populate the body via gh release edit v<version> --repo <owner>/<repo> --generate-notes. Send the user links to both drafts for review; they publish them manually. The marketplace push already happened in step 11.