/deploy

name: deploy
description: Use when shipping a release of Agent Sessions — bumping version, updating CHANGELOG, building, signing, notarizing, publishing appcast, and creating a GitHub release.

Deployment Skill (Agent Sessions)

This skill is an agent-facing entrypoint that avoids duplicating the deployment runbook.

Canonical Sources (Single Source of Truth)

• Runbook: `docs/deployment.md`
• Unified tool: `tools/release/deploy` (see `tools/release/deploy --help`)
• Recommended pre-release QA checklist: `docs/release/pre-release-qa.md`

If anything here disagrees with the runbook, follow `docs/deployment.md`.

Workspace Policy (Hard Rule)

• Always run deployment from the user's current local repository checkout.
• Do not clone to temporary directories and do not switch to alternate worktrees as a deployment workaround.
• If the local worktree is dirty, stop and tell the user to clean the tree first (commit, stash, or discard), then continue in the same local repo.

QA Gate (Mandatory — Run Automatically Before Deploy)

• **Always run QA automatically** before any bump/release/verify step, unless the user explicitly says to skip it (e.g. "skip QA", "no QA").
• Do not ask whether to run QA — just run it.
• QA execution order:

1. **Scope** — `git log --oneline --decorate -n 30` and `git diff --name-only <LAST_TAG>..HEAD`; identify high-risk areas. 2. **Build** — `xcodebuild -project AgentSessions.xcodeproj -scheme AgentSessions -configuration Debug build` 3. **Full test suite** — `./scripts/xcode_test_stable.sh` 4. **Targeted tests** — run suites for touched high-risk areas (session parsing, usage tracking, onboarding, etc.) 5. **Warnings sweep** — flag any new actionable warnings in build output. 6. **Manual smoke reminder** — list the manual steps from `docs/release/pre-release-qa.md` §3–4 and ask the user to confirm GO/NO-GO after completing them.

• If automated gates fail → stop, report failure, do not proceed to bump/release.
• If user says "skip QA" or "no QA" → proceed without running, note it was skipped.

Before Starting (Ask the User)

1. Target version (`X.Y` for major/minor releases, `X.Y.Z` only for patch releases; never ship `X.Y.0`) 2. Any headline changes (new agents, major features) that must be reflected in `docs/CHANGELOG.md` 3. Whether this is a major release that requires onboarding updates 4. Public copy updates needed for README/GitHub Pages (major changes to highlight, renamed features, or outdated wording to fix)

**Do NOT ask about QA status** — QA always runs automatically as part of pre-deploy (see QA Gate above).

Public Copy Update (Required for All Releases)

Always update (every release)

• `README.md` download link: `v{VERSION}/AgentSessions-{VERSION}.dmg` and label `Download Agent Sessions {VERSION} (DMG)`
• `README.md` Option A download link (second occurrence under Install section)
• `docs/index.html` download button URL and label
• `docs/index.html` `<meta name="description">` content (mention current version + key change)
• `docs/index.html` `<meta property="og:description">` content
• `docs/index.html` `<meta name="twitter:description">` content

Update for minor/major or user-visible feature releases

• `README.md` "What's New in X.Y" section: update heading to new version, rewrite TL;DR and Highlights to reflect this release's key changes (do not keep old version's copy)
• `docs/index.html` hero/feature copy if features were renamed or new agents added

Never add

• Versioned "What's New in X.Y" section to `docs/index.html`
• Detailed release notes to README or website (those live in `docs/CHANGELOG.md`)

After pushing

• Verify GitHub Pages reflects updated `docs/index.html` (check meta description and download button)

Pre-Deploy Checklist (Run Before Bump)

• [ ] `docs/CHANGELOG.md` `[Unreleased]` section has full, accurate content for this release (this is the only changelog — root `CHANGELOG.md` is a pointer to it, not a copy to sync)
• [ ] README.md download links updated to new version (both occurrences)
• [ ] README.md "What's New" section updated to new version heading + rewritten highlights
• [ ] `docs/index.html` download button URL and label updated
• [ ] `docs/index.html` meta description, og:description, twitter:description updated with version + key change
• [ ] All above files committed before running `deploy bump` (or bump will overwrite)

Sparkle Release Notes (Approval Gate)

• The release pipeline generates **structured Sparkle notes** from `docs/CHANGELOG.md`:
• Highlights or grouped current-release changes
• Other changes (summary)
• Reminder from the baseline release (for patch releases: `A.B`)
• During `tools/release/deploy release <VERSION>`, the deploy script prints a **Sparkle release notes preview** after build/sign/notarization and appcast validation.
• Treat the preview as user-facing product copy, not raw commit history:
• Lead with the headline change the user should care about.
• Do not include internal cleanup, validation fixes, or pre-release stabilization as “Bug Fixes” if users never received that broken behavior.
• If the preview is misleading, stop and edit `docs/CHANGELOG.md` before publishing.
• If `SKIP_CONFIRM` is not `1`, it will pause and ask for approval before publishing (pushing appcast, updating Homebrew, updating the GitHub release).
• `SKIP_CONFIRM=1` requires `RELEASE_NOTES_REVIEWED=1` at the appcast publish gate; set it only after manually inspecting the Sparkle preview or for a rerun whose notes were already reviewed.
• The notes generator fails before publishing if notes contain obvious internal/process wording or put Bug Fixes ahead of a headline section.
• GitHub Release notes must use the same curated/linted notes as Sparkle, not raw commit history or raw changelog extraction.
• If the current release has no structured bullets, the generator adds a fallback highlight: `Small bug fixes and stability improvements.`

Standard