/release-rc

description: Manage Release Candidate (RC) lifecycle including creation, testing, validation, and promotion to production. Handles RC iteration (rc.1, rc.2, rc.3), tracks testing status, coordinates RC across multiple repositories, manages canary deployments, and promotes RC to final release when validation passes.

sw-release:rc - Manage Release Candidates

Manage the complete Release Candidate (RC) lifecycle from creation to production promotion.

What This Command Does

**RC Creation**:

• Creates pre-release tags (v1.0.0-rc.1)
• Deploys to staging environment
• Initializes RC testing checklist

**RC Testing**:

• Tracks validation status
• Runs automated tests
• Manages manual testing
• Documents issues found

**RC Iteration**:

• Fixes bugs → creates rc.2, rc.3, ...
• Never modifies existing RC tags (immutable)
• Maintains iteration history

**RC Promotion**:

• Validates all checks passed
• Promotes to production release (v1.0.0)
• Gradual rollout (canary → 100%)
• Updates living docs

Usage

# Create new RC
sw-release:rc create <version>
sw-release:rc create 1.0.0

# Create RC iteration (bug fixes)
sw-release:rc iterate <rc-version>
sw-release:rc iterate 1.0.0-rc.2

# Show RC status
sw-release:rc status <rc-version>
sw-release:rc status 1.0.0-rc.3

# Run RC validation tests
sw-release:rc test <rc-version>
sw-release:rc test 1.0.0-rc.3

# Promote RC to production
sw-release:rc promote <rc-version>
sw-release:rc promote 1.0.0-rc.3

# Rollback failed RC
sw-release:rc rollback <rc-version>
sw-release:rc rollback 1.0.0-rc.2

# Multi-repo RC (creates RC for all repos)
sw-release:rc create-multi <product-version>
sw-release:rc create-multi product-v3.0.0

Workflow: Single-Repo RC

Step 1: Create Initial RC

sw-release:rc create 1.0.0

Creating Release Candidate for v1.0.0...

Step 1: Analyzing changes since v0.9.0
  - Commits: 45
  - Breaking changes: 2
  - Features: 8
  - Bug fixes: 12
  → Major version bump confirmed ✓

Step 2: Creating RC tag
  ✓ Tagged: v1.0.0-rc.1
  ✓ Pushed to origin

Step 3: Triggering CI/CD
  ✓ GitHub Actions workflow started
  ✓ Build: #542 (running)
  ✓ Estimated time: 15 minutes

Step 4: Creating RC tracking document
  ✓ Created: .specweave/increments/0090-v1-release/reports/RC-STATUS-v1.0.0-rc.1.md

RC created successfully! ✓

Next steps:
  1. Wait for CI/CD to complete
  2. Deploy to staging: (automated via CI/CD)
  3. Run validation: sw-release:rc test 1.0.0-rc.1
  4. Review status: sw-release:rc status 1.0.0-rc.1
  5. If issues: Fix and iterate to rc.2
  6. If pass: Promote to v1.0.0

Monitor build: https://github.com/myorg/myapp/actions/runs/542

Step 2: Monitor RC Testing

sw-release:rc status 1.0.0-rc.1

# RC Status: v1.0.0-rc.1

## Timeline
- Created: 2025-01-15 10:00 UTC
- Deployed to staging: 2025-01-15 10:15 UTC
- Testing phase: In progress (Day 2 of 7)

## Build Status
- CI/CD: ✓ Passed (Build #542)
- Build time: 14m 23s
- Artifacts: Published

## Deployment Status
- Staging: ✓ Deployed (10:15 UTC)
- Pods: 3/3 healthy
- Health check: ✓ Passing

## Testing Progress

### Automated Tests
- [x] Unit tests: 2,345 tests passed
- [x] Integration tests: 456 tests passed
- [x] E2E tests: 123 tests passed
- [x] Performance tests: p95 latency 185ms ✓ (<200ms target)
- [x] Load tests: 12K req/s sustained ✓ (10K target)
- [x] Security scan: No critical/high vulnerabilities ✓

### Manual Testing
- [x] Smoke tests: All critical paths working
- [ ] Exploratory testing: In progress (QA team)
- [x] Cross-browser testing: Chrome ✓, Firefox ✓, Safari ✓
- [ ] Mobile testing: iOS (pending), Android (pending)

### Performance Benchmarks
- API latency p50: 45ms (baseline: 42ms) ✓
- API latency p95: 185ms (baseline: 180ms) ✓
- API latency p99: 320ms (baseline: 310ms) ✓
- Database queries: 1.2ms avg (baseline: 1.1ms) ✓
- Memory usage: 512MB (baseline: 500MB) ✓

## Issues Found
None yet ✓

## Next Actions
- [ ] Complete mobile testing (iOS, Android)
- [ ] Exploratory testing (2 days remaining)
- [ ] Stakeholder approval
- [ ] Promote to canary (5% traffic)

## Decision
Status: NOT READY (testing in progress)
Blocking: Mobile testing, exploratory testing incomplete

Step 3: Found Bug → Iterate to rc.2

sw-release:rc iterate 1.0.0-rc.1

Iterating Release Candidate v1.0.0-rc.1...

Issues found in rc.1:
  1. Authentication fails for SSO users
     - Impact: Critical (blocks SSO users from logging in)
     - Fix: Add SSO provider check in auth flow
     - Commit: abc123

Please fix the issue and commit changes.

? Ready to create rc.2? [Yes / No]

[User fixes bug and confirms]

Creating rc.2...

Step 1: Creating new RC tag
  ✓ Tagged: v1.0.0-rc.2
  ✓ Pushed to origin

Step 2: Triggering CI/CD
  ✓ GitHub Actions workflow started (Build #548)

Step 3: Updating RC tracking
  ✓ Updated: RC-STATUS-v1.0.0.md
  ✓ Added iteration history: rc.1 → rc.2

RC iteration complete! ✓

The testing process restarts for rc.2.
Monitor: https://github.com/myorg/myapp/actions/runs/548

Step 4: All Tests Pass → Promote to Production

sw-release:rc promote 1.0.0-rc.3

Promoting Release Candidate v1.0.0-rc.3 to production...

Step 1: Pre-promotion validation
  ✓ All automated tests passing
  ✓ Manual testing complete
  ✓ No blocking issues
  ✓ Stakeholder approval received
  ✓ Release notes drafted

Step 2: Creating production tag
  ✓ Tagged: v1.0.0
  ✓ Pushed to origin

Step 3: Deployment strategy
  Plan: Gradual rollout
  - Canary: 5% traffic (1 hour)
  - Wave 1: 10% traffic (1 hour)
  - Wave 2: 25% traffic (2 hours)
  - Wave 3: 50% traffic (4 hours)
  - Wave 4: 100% traffic (8 hours)

  Total duration: ~16 hours

Step 4: Starting canary deployment
  ✓ Deployed v1.0.0 to canary namespace
  ✓ Traffic: 5% routed to canary
  ✓ Monitoring: Active

  Metrics to watch:
  - Error rate (target: <1%)
  - Latency p95 (target: <200ms)
  - Throughput (target: >10K r