Release Skill | Agent Skills

Release

Release workflow for publishing a new version to PyPI via GitHub Actions.

When to Use

After feature work is complete and committed
When asked to release, publish, or ship a new version
When bumping to a new version number

Prerequisites

Before releasing:

All work committed (clean working tree)
On main branch
/code-review passed
/commit-work completed (CHANGELOG updated)

Workflow

┌─────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Ask for version      │
│    Patch/Minor/Major?   │
└───────────┬─────────────┘
            │
            ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ 2. Verify clean state   │
│    git status           │
└───────────┬─────────────┘
            │
            ▼
      ┌───────────┐
      │ Clean?    │───No──→ STOP. Commit or stash first.
      └─────┬─────┘
            │Yes
            ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ 3. Run quality checks   │
│    ruff → pytest        │
└───────────┬─────────────┘
            │
            ▼
      ┌───────────┐
      │ All pass? │───No──→ STOP. Fix issues first.
      └─────┬─────┘
            │Yes
            ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ 4. Bump version         │
│    __init__.py +        │
│    pyproject.toml       │
└───────────┬─────────────┘
            │
            ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ 5. Update CHANGELOG     │
│    [Unreleased] → [X.Y.Z]
└───────────┬─────────────┘
            │
            ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ 6. Commit + Tag + Push  │
│    (triggers workflow)  │
└───────────┬─────────────┘
            │
            ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ 7. Verify release       │
│    PyPI + GitHub release│
└─────────────────────────┘

Step 1: Ask for Version Number

Before doing anything else, ask the user which version number to release:

Use AskUserQuestion with options:

Patch (X.Y.Z+1): Bug fixes only
Minor (X.Y+1.0): New features, backward compatible
Major (X+1.0.0): Breaking changes

Or let them specify a custom version.

Step 2: Verify Clean State

scripts/verify_release_state.sh

Requirements:

Working tree must be clean (no uncommitted changes)
Must be on main branch

If not clean: Run /commit first or stash changes.

Step 3: Run Quality Checks

scripts/run_release_checks.sh

All must pass. No exceptions - releases with failing tests are forbidden.

Step 4: Bump Version

Update version in both files:

uv run python scripts/bump_version.py X.Y.Z

Important: Both files must have the same version number.

Version format: Follow SemVer

MAJOR: Breaking changes
MINOR: New features (backward compatible)
PATCH: Bug fixes

Step 5: Update CHANGELOG

In CHANGELOG.md, convert the Unreleased section to a versioned release:

Before:

## [Unreleased]

### Added
- New feature

After:

## [Unreleased]

## [X.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Added
- New feature

Keep an empty [Unreleased] section at the top for future changes.

Use the deterministic script to promote the changelog:

uv run python scripts/promote_changelog.py X.Y.Z

Step 6: Commit, Tag, and Push

git add agr/__init__.py pyproject.toml CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
Release vX.Y.Z

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EOF
)"
scripts/tag_and_push.sh X.Y.Z

Order matters: Push commit first, then tag. This ensures the commit exists on remote before the tag references it.

Important: The tag push triggers the publish workflow which:

Runs quality checks
Builds and publishes to PyPI
Extracts release notes from CHANGELOG.md
Creates GitHub release

Step 7: Verify Release

Watch the Workflow

The tag push triggers .github/workflows/publish.yml which:

Quality checks: Runs ruff + pytest
Build: Creates wheel and sdist
Publish: Uploads to PyPI via trusted publishing (OIDC)
Release: Creates GitHub release from CHANGELOG.md

# Watch the workflow run to completion
gh run watch --workflow=publish.yml

Verify Everything Succeeded

# Verify GitHub release was created
gh release view vX.Y.Z

# Verify PyPI publication (may take a few minutes)
pip index versions agr

If Workflow Fails

| Failure Point | Result | Action | |---------------|--------|--------| | Quality checks | No PyPI, no release | Delete tag (git push --delete origin vX.Y.Z && git tag -d vX.Y.Z), fix issue, re-release | | PyPI publish | No release created | Fix PyPI config, delete tag (git push --delete origin vX.Y.Z && git tag -d vX.Y.Z), re-release | | Release creation | PyPI has package, no release | Create release manually (see below) |

Manual release creation (if only the release step failed):

VERSION="X.Y.Z"
gh release create "v$VERSION" --title "v$VERSION" --notes-file <(
  echo "## What's New in v$VERSION"
  echo ""
  awk -v ver="$VERSION" '/^## \[/ { if (found) exit; if ($0 ~ "\\[" ver "\\]") found=1; next } found { print }' CHANGELOG.md
  echo ""
  echo "---"
  echo ""
  echo "**Full changelog**: https://github.com/kasperjunge/agent-resources/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md"
)

## Red Flags - STOP

- Uncommitted changes → Commit first
- Tests failing → Fix before release
- Not on main branch → Switch to main
- CHANGELOG not updated → Update it
- Skipping quality checks → Never skip

## Common Mistakes

| Mistake | Fix |
|---------|-----|
| Releasing with dirty working tree | Commit or stash first |
| Skipping tests "we tested earlier" | Run tests immediately before release |
| Forgetting to push the tag | Push tag separately after commit |
| Not watching the workflow | Use `gh run watch` to verify full pipeline |
| CHANGELOG not updated for version | Add version section before tagging |
| Only updating `__init__.py` version | Update both `__init__.py` and `pyproject.toml` |

## No Exceptions

- "We already tested it" → Run tests again now
- "It's just a patch" → Full quality checks required
- "Nobody reads release notes" → CHANGELOG is documentation. Use it.
- "We're in a hurry" → Rushed releases cause incidents

Agent Skills: Release

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