release-prep

Release Prep

Goal: produce a release-readiness report and a proposed version bump for the user to approve. Never tag, push, or invoke goreleaser release (non-snapshot) yourself — those actions affect remotes and are out of scope.

Procedure

1. Confirm clean state

git status --porcelain
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD

Abort with a clear message if there are uncommitted changes or the branch is not main. Releases should cut from a clean main.

2. Identify the current and previous tag

git describe --tags --abbrev=0    # latest tag, e.g. v0.4.2
git tag --sort=-v:refname | head -5

3. Summarize commits since the last tag

git log <last-tag>..HEAD --pretty=format:'%h %s'

Group the output by the changelog regex groups in .goreleaser.yaml (Features = ^.*feat[(\w)]*:+.*$, Bug fixes = ^.*fix[(\w)]*:+.*$, Refactors = ^.*refactor[(\w)]*:+.*$, Other = everything not excluded by ^docs:, ^chore:, ^test:, ^ci:, ^style:).

4. Propose the next version

Apply conventional-commit semver inference:

• Any feat!: / BREAKING CHANGE: → bump major.
• Any feat: (and no breaking) → bump minor.
• Only fix: / refactor: / chore: → bump patch.
• No commits since last tag → no release; report and stop.

State the proposed version and the rule that produced it.

5. Validate the goreleaser config

make release-check        # runs `goreleaser check`

Surface any errors verbatim.

6. Build a snapshot

make release-snapshot     # goreleaser release --snapshot --clean --skip=publish

This validates that the build pipeline (builds, archives, homebrew_casks rendering) succeeds locally without publishing. Then list dist/ and confirm the expected per-OS/per-arch archives are present:

ls dist/

7. Report

# Release prep: <proposed-version>

## Branch: main (clean)
## Last tag: <vX.Y.Z>
## Commits since: N

### Features
- <hash> <subject>

### Bug fixes
- <hash> <subject>

### Refactors
- <hash> <subject>

### Other
- <hash> <subject>

## Proposed version: <vX.Y.Z+1>
## Bump rule: <major | minor | patch> — <one-line justification>

## goreleaser check: <pass/fail>
## snapshot build: <pass/fail>
## dist artifacts: <count> archives

End with the exact commands the user can run to actually cut the release — do not run them:

git tag <vX.Y.Z+1>
git push origin <vX.Y.Z+1>

The Homebrew tap publish path requires the HOMEBREW_TAP_KEY env var (see .goreleaser.yaml and a7e56d3); flag this if the env var is unset locally so the user knows the publish step will need it in CI.