rc-release

name	rc-release
description	Run or review an RC release for the AppsFlyer Flutter plugin. Follows the six-stage RC pipeline (RC-PREP, RC-E2E, RC-PUBLISH, RC-SMOKE, RC-PROMOTE, RC-RELEASE) defined in appsflyer-mobile-plugin-tooling. Use when cutting a new RC, debugging a failed rc-release / rc-smoke / promote-release run, or reviewing a promote PR.

RC release - Flutter plugin

Thin pointer to the normative contract in the tooling repo. Do not duplicate contract content here; link to it.

Sources of truth

• RC stage definitions: ../../../../appsflyer-mobile-plugin-tooling/contracts/rc-release-contract.md
• Pre-publish E2E scenarios: ../../../../appsflyer-mobile-plugin-tooling/contracts/e2e-test-contract.md
• Post-publish smoke scenarios: ../../../../appsflyer-mobile-plugin-tooling/contracts/smoke-test-contract.md
• Test-app behavior: ../../../../appsflyer-mobile-plugin-tooling/contracts/test-app-contract.md
• Operator manual for humans: ../../../docs/RELEASE_USER_MANUAL.md

Always follow the operator manual for step-by-step actions. This skill tells you which file owns which piece of the pipeline.

Stage map for this plugin

Stage	Workflow file	Notes
RC-PREP	.github/workflows/rc-release.yml	prepare-branch job; cuts releases/<major>.x.x/<minor>.x/<version>
RC-E2E	.github/workflows/ios-e2e.yml, .github/workflows/android-e2e.yml	Called via workflow_call from RC-release
RC-PUBLISH	.github/workflows/rc-release.yml	publish-rc job; honors dry_run
RC-SMOKE	.github/workflows/rc-smoke.yml	workflow_run on RC-release success; manual workflow_dispatch for reruns
RC-PROMOTE	.github/workflows/promote-release.yml	Triggered by pass QA ready for deploy label
RC-RELEASE	.github/workflows/production-release.yml	Triggered by PR merge to master

Test plans

• E2E (pre-publish, against plugin source): .af-e2e/test-plan.json
• Smoke (post-publish, against pub.dev RC): .af-smoke/rc-test-plan.json
• Runner: scripts/af-scenario-runner.sh
• Local simulator: scripts/simulate-rc-pipeline.sh

How to run an RC

Follow docs/RELEASE_USER_MANUAL.md steps 1-6. In short: dispatch rc-release.yml with dry_run=false, watch four checks go green on the PR, apply pass QA ready for deploy, merge.

How to debug a red stage

1. Identify which stage failed from the PR's check status (names map 1:1 to the workflows above).
2. For E2E: open the workflow run's e2e-report artifact; find first "status": "FAIL"; read evidence.
3. For RC-PUBLISH: check version collision (bump rcN+1) and PUB_DEV_CREDENTIALS secret.
4. For RC-SMOKE: rc-smoke-ios-<n> / rc-smoke-android-<n> artifacts contain the smoke JSON reports.
5. For RC-PROMOTE: the bot leaves a PR comment pointing at the exact reason (missing / wrong conclusion on rc-smoke/pub.dev).

Rules

• Never strip -rcN manually and push; RC-PROMOTE is the only sanctioned path.
• Never republish the same RC version to pub.dev; bump to rcN+1.
• Never merge the promote PR before RC-PROMOTE has succeeded (it updates the PR body when it does).
• Never duplicate contract text in this skill; link to the tooling repo.