rc-release

name	rc-release
description	Describes how the RC release pipeline works for the AppsFlyer Capacitor plugin and maps each stage to its workflow file. Use when inspecting, triggering, or debugging the RC-release, npm OIDC publish, rc-smoke, promote-release, or production-release workflows; not for day-to-day plugin development.
globs	.github/workflows/rc-release.yml,.github/workflows/rc-smoke.yml,.github/workflows/promote-release.yml,.github/workflows/production-release.yml,.github/workflows/npm-publish-oidc.yml,.github/workflows/lint-test-build.yml,.github/workflows/ios-e2e.yml,.github/workflows/android-e2e.yml,.af-e2e/**,.af-smoke/**,scripts/af-scenario-runner.sh,scripts/synthesize-rc-smoke-app.sh

RC release pipeline — Capacitor plugin

Use this skill when:

• You're editing any of the release workflows (rc-release.yml, rc-smoke.yml, promote-release.yml, production-release.yml, npm-publish-oidc.yml).
• You're debugging a red RC gate or a missing rc-smoke/npm check-run.
• You're about to trigger an RC and want to confirm the inputs.
• A PR asks why a stage ran (or didn't).

This skill is a thin pointer. Contract content is owned by the tooling repo.

Sources of truth

• Contract: tooling/contracts/rc-release-contract.md
• E2E scenarios: tooling/contracts/e2e-test-contract.md
• Smoke scenarios: tooling/contracts/smoke-test-contract.md
• Operator manual: docs/RELEASE_USER_MANUAL.md

Stage → workflow map

Stage	Workflow	Job or trigger
RC-PREP	rc-release.yml	prepare-branch
RC-CI	lint-test-build.yml	workflow_call from rc-release
RC-E2E iOS	ios-e2e.yml	workflow_call from rc-release
RC-E2E Android	android-e2e.yml	workflow_call from rc-release
RC-PUBLISH	rc-release.yml	publish-rc dispatches npm-publish-oidc.yml (honours dry_run)
RC-SMOKE	rc-smoke.yml	workflow_run on rc-release success or workflow_dispatch
RC-PROMOTE	promote-release.yml	pull_request: labeled with pass QA ready for deploy
RC-RELEASE	production-release.yml	pull_request: closed (merged) on main; npm publish via npm-publish-oidc.yml

Expected PR checks

A healthy RC PR has all of these green before promotion:

• Lint, Test & Build
• iOS E2E
• Android E2E
• rc-smoke/npm (posted by rc-smoke.yml after the RC is live on npm)

promote-release.yml verifies rc-smoke/npm specifically before stripping -rcN.

When smoke runs vs when it doesn't

• Runs automatically after the RC-release workflow succeeds with dry_run=false.
• Runs manually via workflow_dispatch on rc-smoke.yml with rc_version + release_branch inputs (use for reruns).
• Skipped when the parent RC-release run was dry_run=true or failed; rc-smoke.yml posts a skipped check-run in that case.

Secrets consumed

Names only:

Secret	Stage	Purpose
ENV_FILE	RC-E2E, RC-SMOKE	QA app .env (DEV_KEY, APP_ID)
CI_DEV_GITHUB_TOKEN	RC-PREP, RC-PUBLISH (dispatch npm-publish-oidc.yml), RC-PROMOTE, RC-SMOKE, RC-RELEASE	branch push, PR ops, workflow_dispatch of npm publish, check_run posting
CI_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL	RC-PUBLISH, RC-SMOKE (failure), RC-PROMOTE (failure), RC-RELEASE	Slack webhook for slackapi/slack-github-action@v1
CI_JIRA_EMAIL, CI_JIRA_TOKEN	RC-PUBLISH, RC-RELEASE	Jira REST API basic auth for fixVersion=Capacitor SDK v<base_version> lookup
CI_JIRA_DOMAIN (optional)	RC-PUBLISH, RC-RELEASE	Jira tenant override; defaults to appsflyer.atlassian.net

Both RC-PUBLISH and RC-RELEASE publish by dispatching npm-publish-oidc.yml (workflow_dispatch), which runs npm publish --provenance with id-token: write. npm allows one trusted publisher workflow name per package; configure npmjs.com for npm-publish-oidc.yml only (not rc-release.yml / production-release.yml). CI_DEV_GITHUB_TOKEN must be able to trigger workflow runs (e.g. actions: write on a classic PAT, or equivalent on a fine-grained token).

CI commits in RC-PREP and RC-PROMOTE are authored as github-actions[bot] <github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com> via inline git config. No per-person secrets are used.

Do not

• Do not add new release stages to CI that are not documented in the tooling rc-release-contract.md.
• Do not bypass promote-release.yml by pushing a version-strip commit directly to the release branch.
• Do not republish the same RC version; bump to rcN+1 and rerun.
• Do not duplicate contract text in this skill; link to the tooling repo.