github-health-releases

name

github-health-releases

description

Audit tags, releases, changelog alignment, versioning consistency, release notes quality, artifacts, and release-history hygiene. Triggers on `/github-health releases <repo>` and requests like "is our release process clean", "review release history", or "is the changelog aligned with tags". For a full release-readiness check today (a composite of full + releases + security context), use `/github-health release-readiness <repo>` instead. Read-only; never creates, edits, or deletes releases or tags.

github-health-releases

When to trigger

• /github-health releases <repo>
• Questions about release history, versioning, changelog alignment, or release notes.

Required inputs

• GitHub repository URL.

Reference files

• github-health/references/github-health-checklist.md — Section 13.
• github-health/references/scoring-model.md
• github-health/references/severity-model.md
• github-health/references/output-contract.md
• github-health/references/safety-rules.md
• github-health/references/collection-guide.md

Procedure

1. List the most recent tags and releases.
2. For each recent release, capture: version, date, draft/prerelease state, asset count, release notes length and quality.
3. Cross-check tag → release alignment (every tag has a release? every release has a tag?).
4. Inspect versioning consistency (SemVer adherence; major/minor/patch logic).
5. Cross-check CHANGELOG.md against the most recent release.
6. Detect stale draft releases.
7. If applicable, cross-reference release notes with merged PRs since the previous release — flag PRs not mentioned.
8. Score the Releases / governance area (weight 5) per scoring-model.md.
9. Render a report focused on Releases.

Evidence to collect

gh release list --limit 30
gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/tags --jq '.[].name' | head -50
gh release view <latest> --json tagName,publishedAt,isDraft,isPrerelease,assets,body
git log --oneline <previous-tag>..<latest-tag>

Red flags

• [HIGH] Latest tag has no associated release.
• [HIGH] Recent release notes are empty or only auto-generated noise.
• [HIGH] Versioning is inconsistent (major bump for a patch, minor without features, etc.).
• [MEDIUM] CHANGELOG.md has not been updated since two releases ago.
• [MEDIUM] Stale draft releases > 30 days old.
• [MEDIUM] Releases lack expected artifacts (binaries, source archives, signatures).
• [LOW] Release titles inconsistent across history.
• [INFO] No release in > 6 months on an active repository.

Output format

Use the standard contract. Populate Detailed Findings → Releases in depth. Provide a release timeline mini-table: version, date, notes-quality (Good / Sparse / Empty), CHANGELOG aligned (Y/N).

Safety rules

• Never create, edit, publish, or delete a release or tag.
• Recommendations to publish or unpublish a release go under Approval Required Before Destructive Actions.
• Recommendations to delete stale draft releases go under Approval Required Before Destructive Actions with a recovery note.
• Never propose force-tagging.

When to escalate

• For broader release readiness (CI, security, docs), use github-health-full release-readiness instead.
• If versioning suggests breaking changes in patch releases, escalate to github-health-docs to fix the changelog.

What not to do

• Do not invent release notes from PR titles. Recommend the user write them; do not pre-write them in the report.
• Do not classify a release as "ready" without evidence from CI and docs.