release-flow

name	release-flow
description	Mole CLI release runbook: distribution channels, pre-flight checklist, capital-V tag publish, curated notes handoff, and release-only pitfalls. Read before any release-flavored task in this repo.

Mole CLI Release Flow

Tag-driven flow. The release.yml workflow watches 'V*' tag pushes (capital V), builds amd64 and arm64 binaries on macOS, generates SHA256SUMS, attaches build provenance, creates the GitHub Release without notes, then bumps the personal Homebrew tap and opens a Homebrew core PR.

Distribution channels

Channel	What ships	Trigger	Automation
Nightly (mo update --nightly)	main HEAD via install.sh	Any commit pushed to main	Automatic; no tag or release involved
GitHub stable release	amd64/arm64 binaries + SHA256SUMS	Push a capital-V tag	release.yml builds and creates the release; curated notes are a manual follow-up
Homebrew personal tap (tw93/homebrew-tap)	Formula bump	Same V* tag workflow	Automatic; do not re-run manually unless the workflow log shows a failure
Homebrew core	Version-bump PR to Homebrew/homebrew-core	Same V* tag workflow	Automatic PR; merge timing is upstream's

At the start of any release-flavored task, restate which channels this run will touch and which it will not, and confirm with the maintainer before acting. Channel scope is specified by the maintainer, never inferred.

Pre-flight checklist

1. grep '^VERSION=' mole matches the new version.
2. SECURITY_AUDIT.md opening line reflects the new version and date.
3. git status -s is empty or only contains intentionally staged release work.
4. git log origin/main..HEAD --oneline shows only commits you intend to ship.
5. ./scripts/check.sh --format and MOLE_TEST_NO_AUTH=1 MOLE_TEST_JOBS=2 BATS_FORMATTER=tap ./scripts/test.sh both exit 0.
6. go test ./cmd/... and make build both pass.

Tag and publish

git push origin main
git tag V<version>          # capital V; release workflow ignores lowercase v
git push origin V<version>

Wait for the workflow to finish (typically 2 minutes for V1.38.0). The workflow creates the release with assets but generate_release_notes: false, so notes must be added in a follow-up step.

Apply curated release notes

The curated-notes flow (bilingual format, gh release edit instead of create, thanks block, and the six-reaction set) is owned by .claude/skills/release-notes/SKILL.md. .agents/skills/release-notes is a symlink to that canonical directory for Codex discovery, and its Codex-only invocation policy lives in agents/openai.yaml; do not replace the symlink with a copied mirror. Follow that skill; do not duplicate its format details here. Version, codename, and emoji go only in the release title; the body h1 is just Mole.

Ritual anchors: before drafting, read the latest stable release body as the hard format template (gh release view <latest-tag> --json body); the title takes a codename plus emoji per repo convention (for example V1.45.0 Quiet 🤫). After publishing, add all six positive reactions (+1, laugh, heart, hooray, rocket, eyes) with .claude/skills/release-notes/scripts/post-reactions.sh V<version> (the script lives inside the skill, not in the top-level scripts/), then re-read the release reactions to confirm all six landed.

Release-notes craft

Format rules (impact ordering, command existence checks, icon semantics, no em dash, no inline PR refs) live in .claude/skills/release-notes/SKILL.md under "Format rules". Keep that skill as the single source of truth for notes formatting.

Release-only pitfalls

• gh release create conflicts with the workflow-created release: the workflow already creates the release on tag push, so post-tag note publishing must use gh release edit, never create.
• Tag prefix is case-sensitive: release.yml filters on 'V*'. A lowercase v1.38.0 tag will not trigger the workflow.

Shell and bats pitfalls (bash 3.2 arrays, heredoc read -n1, mock bypasses, CI runner quirks) stay in AGENTS.md under "Shell and Test Pitfalls"; re-read that section when release work touches shell code or tests.