publish-library

name

publish-library

description

Publish the react-native-livechart library to npm from this monorepo. Use this whenever the user wants to publish, ship, or release the package to npm — including the first-ever publish — or asks how publishing works here. Covers the workspace-scoping gotcha (a bare `npm publish` targets the Expo example app, not the library), the `private: false` gate, the source-shipping/prepack model, dry-run verification, and the required post-publish steps (push, tag, and a GitHub Release). Trigger even if the user just says "push it to npm", "can we publish now", or "ship the package" without naming the skill. For deciding a version bump + CHANGELOG first, see the update-library skill.

Publish react-native-livechart to npm

This repo is an npm-workspaces monorepo. The publishable library lives at packages/react-native-livechart/; the repo root is the Expo example app (react-native-livechart-expo-example, kept "private": true).

The one rule that breaks everything: scope to the workspace

Every npm command that touches the library must be scoped with -w react-native-livechart. A bare npm publish / npm pack run from the root operates on the example app, not the library — it'll sweep the whole repo (demo screens, assets, tests) into a tarball named react-native-livechart-expo-example.

The root's "private": true is the safety net that stops an accidental root publish, but don't rely on it — always pass -w.

npm pack    --dry-run -w react-native-livechart   # inspect what would ship
npm publish           -w react-native-livechart   # publish

Mental model (why the steps below look the way they do)

• The library ships TypeScript source. main/module/react-native and every exports condition except types point at src/index.ts. The consumer's Metro + Babel compiles it — so worklets get processed by the consumer's react-native-worklets/plugin. dist/ contains only .d.ts.
• prepack builds for you. npm publish runs prepare → prepack automatically, which does tsc -p tsconfig.build.json (emits dist/*.d.ts) and copies the repo-root README.md into the package. Do not hand-build or hand-copy the README — let the lifecycle do it.
• react, react-native, Skia, Reanimated, Worklets, and Gesture Handler are peer dependencies. They must never appear in dependencies.

Preflight checklist

1. Branch & tree. Be on the branch you intend to release from with a clean working tree (git status). Releases normally go from main.
2. Green build. npm run verify (typecheck + lint + test) passes. The husky pre-commit hook also runs tests, but verify explicitly here.
3. private gate. Open packages/react-native-livechart/package.json and confirm "private": false. On the first-ever publish it is true — flip it to false and commit that change. (Leave the root package.json private.)
4. Version sanity. Check the version field is the one you intend and isn't already on the registry: npm view react-native-livechart version. An E404 means it's never been published (expected for the first release). If you need to bump the version, stop and use the update-library skill first.
5. Auth. npm whoami (run npm login if it errors). Have your 2FA code ready if the account enforces OTP.

Inspect what will ship — always dry-run first

npm pack --dry-run -w react-native-livechart

Verify in the output:

• name: react-native-livechart (NOT ...-expo-example — if you see that, you forgot -w).
• Contents are src/** + dist/**/*.d.ts + README.md + LICENSE only.
• No tests/, tsconfig*.json, babel.lib.config.cjs, or other configs.

The files allowlist (dist, src, LICENSE) plus the package .npmignore control this; README and LICENSE are always included by npm regardless.

Publish

npm publish -w react-native-livechart

• react-native-livechart is unscoped and public, so you do not need --access public (that flag is only for @scope/... packages).
• If 2FA is on: append --otp=<6-digit-code>.
• npm publish --dry-run -w react-native-livechart does a full rehearsal (including the registry handshake) without uploading — use it if you want one more confirmation beyond npm pack --dry-run.

Post-publish — ALL FOUR steps are required, do not stop early

A release is not done until the GitHub Release exists. Shipping to npm + a git tag without the GitHub Release has bitten us before — the releases page silently fell behind. Run all four:

1. Confirm it's live. ⚠️ npm view react-native-livechart version and ... dist-tags can lag the registry CDN by minutes and show the previous version even when the publish succeeded — do not treat that as a failure. Confirm the specific version instead, which is not cached the same way:

   npm view react-native-livechart@<X.Y.Z> version   # echoes <X.Y.Z> when live
   

2. Push the release commit. The chore(release): vX.Y.Z commit is usually still local — push it before tagging so the tag has a pushed commit to point at:

   git push origin main
   

3. Tag the release (convention: vX.Y.Z, established across the repo):

   git tag v$(node -p "require('./packages/react-native-livechart/package.json').version")
   git push origin "v$(node -p "require('./packages/react-native-livechart/package.json').version")"
   

4. Cut the GitHub Release — REQUIRED, not optional. Every version has one and the root CHANGELOG.md links to /releases/tag/vX.Y.Z, so a missing release = a dead link. Title convention is vX.Y.Z — <short feature name> (e.g. "v3.6.0 — Custom markers", "v3.5.1 — Crisp markers", "v3.5.0 — Threshold split"); body is that version's CHANGELOG.md section. Mark the newest the latest:

   # Put the version's CHANGELOG section in /tmp/relnotes.md first, then:
   gh release create v<X.Y.Z> --repo brandtnewlabs/react-native-livechart \
     --title "v<X.Y.Z> — <feature>" --notes-file /tmp/relnotes.md --verify-tag --latest
   

   Then verify: gh release list --repo brandtnewlabs/react-native-livechart shows the new version as Latest.

If you publish to npm but get blocked (e.g. a safety prompt) before finishing 2–4, the release is incomplete — come back and finish every remaining step.

If something's wrong after publishing

You generally cannot silently overwrite a published version — npm forbids re-publishing the same version number. Within 72 hours you can npm unpublish react-native-livechart@<version> (use sparingly; it breaks consumers). Otherwise bump a new patch via the update-library skill, or npm deprecate react-native-livechart@<version> "<reason>" to warn installers.