/release

name: release
description: Release a new version of Chorus — bump version, update CHANGELOG, commit, tag, and create GitHub release.
license: AGPL-3.0
metadata:
  author: chorus
  version: "0.1.0"
  category: development

Chorus Release Process

Step-by-step guide to cut a new release of Chorus.

Prerequisites

• `gh` CLI is authenticated (`gh auth status`)
• Working tree is clean (`git status`)
• You are on the `develop` branch

Steps

1. Fetch remote and identify the diff since last release

# Fetch remote tags and branches so local refs are up to date
git fetch --tags origin

# Find the previous release tag
git tag -l 'v*' --sort=-version:refname | head -5

# List commits since previous tag on develop
git log --oneline v<PREV>..develop

# Review each commit for CHANGELOG-worthy changes
git show --stat <commit-hash>

2. Draft CHANGELOG and get user approval

Based on the commits identified in Step 1, draft the new CHANGELOG section and **present it to the user for review**. Use this structure:

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

### Added
- **Feature name**: Description of what was added.

### Changed
- **Area**: Description of what changed.

### Fixed
- **Bug name**: Description of what was fixed.

### Plugin
- Plugin version changes if applicable.

---

**Rules:**

• Only include commits **after** the previous release tag
• Group by Added / Changed / Fixed / Deprecated / Removed / Plugin
• Omit empty groups
• Each entry should start with a **bold label** followed by a concise description
• Separate from the previous release section with `---`

**IMPORTANT:** After drafting, show the CHANGELOG content and the proposed version number to the user. **Do NOT proceed** until the user explicitly approves. The user may request edits to wording, version number, or grouping.

3. Write CHANGELOG.md (on develop)

After user approval, write the approved content into `CHANGELOG.md` — add the new section at the top, below the `# Changelog` header and above the previous release section.

4. Bump all four npm package versions (on develop)

# Keep the coordinated release identity in lockstep:
# package.json
# packages/openclaw-plugin/package.json
# packages/chorus-dsh/package.json
# packages/chorus-pi/package.json

# Refresh OpenClaw's standalone lockfile after editing its package version:
cd packages/openclaw-plugin
npm install --package-lock-only --ignore-scripts --no-audit --no-fund
cd ../..

# Hermes plugin manifests are not npm packages but MUST carry the same version
# (pytest packages/chorus-hermes/chorus/tests fails on drift):
# packages/chorus-hermes/chorus/plugin.yaml      -> version: X.Y.Z
# packages/chorus-hermes/chorus-mcp/plugin.json  -> "version": "X.Y.Z"
# packages/chorus-hermes/chorus/skills/*/SKILL.md -> frontmatter metadata.version: X.Y.Z
#   e.g. sed -i 's/^\(  version: \).*/\1X.Y.Z/' packages/chorus-hermes/chorus/skills/*/SKILL.md
# Never commit a commit SHA for Hermes installs; users resolve v<X.Y.Z> to its
# peeled SHA at install time (see packages/chorus-hermes/README.md).

The GitHub Release tag, root Chorus CLI, OpenClaw plugin, dsh plugin, and chorus-pi plugin MUST all use the same `X.Y.Z`. The coordinated publication preflight rejects any name or version drift before an npm registry write.

`packages/chorus-pi` publishes its TypeScript as-is and has **no** standalone lockfile of its own (it rides the workspace `pnpm-lock.yaml`), so — unlike OpenClaw — bumping its `package.json` version needs no lockfile refresh. If you also changed chorus-pi's dependencies, run `pnpm install --lockfile-only` at the repo root so the workspace lockfile stays in sync (the release preflight runs `pnpm install --frozen-lockfile` and fails on drift).

Follow [semver](https://semver.org/):

• **patch** (0.1.0 → 0.1.1): bug fixes, minor additions
• **minor** (0.1.0 → 0.2.0): new features, non-breaking changes
• **major** (0.1.0 → 1.0.0): breaking changes

5. Commit to develop and open PR to main

# Commit the release prep on develop
git add CHANGELOG.md package.json \
  packages/openclaw-plugin/package.json \
  packages/openclaw-plugin/package-lock.json \
  packages/chorus-dsh/package.json \
  packages/chorus-pi/package.json \
  packages/chorus-hermes/chorus/plugin.yaml \
  packages/chorus-hermes/chorus-mcp/plugin.json \
  packages/chorus-hermes/chorus/skills
git commit -m "chore: bump version to vX.Y.Z and update CHANGELOG"
git push origin develop

# Open a PR from develop → main
gh pr create --base main --head develop \
  --title "chore: release vX.Y.Z" \
  --body "Release vX.Y.Z — version bump and CHANGELOG update."

Wait for CI to pass, then merge the PR:

# Merge the PR (use the PR number returned above)
gh pr merge <PR_NUMBER> --merge

6. Create GitHub release with tag (on main)

After the PR is merged into `main`:

# Fetch the latest main so the tag targets the correct commit
git fetch origin main

gh release create vX.Y.Z \
  --target main \
  --title "vX.Y.Z" \
  --notes "$(cat <<'EOF'
<paste only the new version's CHANGELOG section here, without the ## header>
EOF
)"

**Important:** The `--notes` should contain **only** the new version's content, not the entire CHANGELOG file.

Publishing the GitHub Release triggers `.github/workflows/publish-npm.yml`. That workflow prepares and validates all four tarballs before publishing, then publishes Chorus CLI → OpenClaw → dsh → chorus-pi through npm Trusted Publishing/OIDC. Do not run the legacy interactive publish scripts as an additional release step.

6.1 Trusted Publisher contract and recovery

Each npm package's Trusted Publisher settings must match:

• repository owner/name: the GitHub repository that contains this workflow;
• workflow filename: `publish-npm.yml` (exact filename);
• Environment: blank when the workflow has no `environment`, or the exact same

Environment name on both npm and the `publish` job.

The workflow file path