Release Process

Release Overview

Releases follow structured branch workflow:

Development work in feature branches
Feature branches merged to staging via PRs
master branch serves as release branch
Releases merge accumulated changes from staging to master

Prerequisites

Direct repository access (core maintainers only)
Local development environment configured
All target changes merged into staging branch

Pre-Release Verification

Confirm CI Status: Ensure GitHub Actions pass on staging
Run Local Validation: make check
Review Recent Changes: Check commits and merged PRs

Release Steps

1. Prepare Staging Branch

git checkout staging
git pull origin staging

2. Update Version Number and CHANGELOG.ms

# Edit HI_VERSION file with new version
# Add line to CHANGELOG.md file with short description
git add HI_VERSION  CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "Bump version number to vX.X.X"
git push origin staging

3. Merge to Master

git checkout master
git pull origin master
git merge staging
git push origin master

4. Create GitHub Release

Using GitHub CLI (preferred for automation):

gh release create vX.X.X --title "vX.X.X" --generate-notes --latest

Or via GitHub web interface:

Navigate to repository releases page
Click "Create a new release"
Tag: vX.X.X (create new)
Target: master branch
Title: Use tag name
Description: Use "Generate release notes"
Settings: Check "Set as latest release"
Click "Publish Release"

5. Cleanup

For safety, move back to staging branch.

git checkout staging

Version Bumping Criteria

TBD - Establish guidelines for:

Major version: Breaking changes
Minor version: New features (backward compatible)
Patch version: Bug fixes (backward compatible)

Rollback Procedures

TBD - Document rollback procedures:

Revert problematic releases
Communication protocols
Post-rollback testing

Notes

Changelog Management: Generated from GitHub's automatic changelog
Deployment: Releases distributed as downloadable packages
Quality Assurance: Branch protection enforces tests and code quality

Workflow guidelines: Workflow Guidelines

2.3 KiB Raw Blame History