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name hookdeck-cli-release
description Guides maintainers through Hookdeck CLI releases (stable GA, beta from main, beta from feature branches) and user-centric GitHub release notes. Validates proposed versions against SemVer from the actual change set (e.g. breaking changes require a major bump). Use when cutting a release, publishing a tag, drafting release notes, choosing vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, GoReleaser, npm publish, pre-releases, following the release checklist, or `gh release create`.

Hookdeck CLI — release workflow

Canonical documentation

Follow README.md § Releasing for human-oriented steps (GitHub UI alternative, install commands for beta/stable).

Agents: perform the publish step with the GitHub CLI (gh) — see Publish with GitHub CLI (gh) below (temp notes file → gh release create → remove temp file).

This skill adds how automation works, release note expectations, and a research loop for drafting notes.

Agent checklist (end-to-end)

Follow in order. Treat items with gate as blocking unless the maintainer explicitly overrides.

  • Release shape: GA from main vs beta from main vs beta from feature branch — matches README § Releasing and maintainer intent.
  • PREV_TAG / NEW_TAG: Confirmed (or proposed and agreed); baseline tag is correct for the line of development (e.g. last GA vs beta series).
  • Change set: Reviewed git log PREV_TAG..HEAD (and diff if needed); changes grouped for user-facing release notes (see Research loop).
  • SemVer gate: Proposed NEW_TAG matches minimum MAJOR/MINOR/PATCH for the delta (see SemVer: validate the proposed version). Stop and realign if under-bumped.
  • Release notes: Draft complete (see Drafting release notes and references/release-notes-template.md); includes Full Changelog compare link; contributor shout-outs only when warranted (see that section).
  • CI gate: Latest commit on the target branch has green GitHub checks (mandatory for GA on main; required for betas on the branch being tagged).
  • Approval: Maintainer signed off on tag name, notes, and branch — no unilateral surprise tags.
  • Publish: Write notes to a temporary file, run gh release create (see Publish with GitHub CLI (gh)), then rm the temp file. Use --prerelease for betas. (Humans may still use the GitHub UI per README.)
  • Post-publish (optional): Confirm the release workflow in Actions completed successfully for the new tag.

For commit-level detail while working through the checklist, use the Research loop below.

What triggers a release?

  • .github/workflows/release.yml runs on push of tags matching v* (not on ordinary branch pushes).
  • Publishing a release in the GitHub UI (with a new tag) or git push origin vX.Y.Z both create that tag push and start the workflow.

What the workflow does (high level)

  1. GoReleaser (macOS, Linux, Windows jobs): builds binaries/archives, updates distribution channels per .goreleaser/*.yml (Homebrew, Scoop, Docker, GitHub release artifacts). Config uses release.mode: append and changelog.disable: true — GoReleaser does not write the release note body from git; maintainers supply or edit the GitHub release description.
  2. publish-npm job: Determines which branch contains the tag (prefers main / master, else first matching remote branch), checks out that branch, sets package.json version from the tag, builds npm binaries via GoReleaser, runs npm publish with latest for stable semver or a derived tag (e.g. beta) for pre-releases (see workflow npm_tag step).

Stable (GA) release

  • Humans (README): GitHub Releases → Draft → new tag vM.m.p → target main → notes → Publish.

  • Agents: After gates pass, use gh release create with --target main and --notes-file (see Publish with GitHub CLI (gh)).

  • Do not publish a GA release until CI is green for main: the latest commit on main must show successful checks in GitHub (same bar as README: ensure tests pass on main). Verify on the Actions tab (filter branch main, confirm the run for the tip of main succeeded) or via the commit’s status on github.com.

  • CLI check (optional): after git fetch origin main, confirm combined status is success for origin/main (replace owner/repo if forked):

    SHA=$(git rev-parse origin/main)
gh api "repos/hookdeck/hookdeck-cli/commits/${SHA}/status" --jq .state

    Do not tag or publish GA if this is failure or still pending for required work.

  • Stable tags drive latest on npm, stable Homebrew/Scoop formulas, Docker latest.

Pre-release (beta)

  • From main: Tag like v1.3.0-beta.1, target main, mark pre-release (gh release create ... --prerelease). Good for broad beta testing. Still verify main is green (same CI check as GA) before tagging.
  • From a feature branch: Same tag pattern; --target <feature-branch> so the workflow builds that tip. Verify CI is green for that branch’s latest commit before tagging. Add notes on what to test (betas often ship with minimal notes; still document intent).
  • Install paths for beta: see README (npm @beta, hookdeck-beta brew/scoop, Docker image tag — not latest for beta).

Publish with GitHub CLI (gh)

Agents should create the release with gh, not only push a bare tag. That creates the GitHub Release (with notes) and the tag together, which matches how maintainers expect the release workflow to run.

  1. Create a temp file for notes (never commit it). Register cleanup so the file is removed even if gh fails:

    NOTES_FILE="$(mktemp "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/hookdeck-cli-release-notes.XXXXXX.md")"
trap 'rm -f "$NOTES_FILE"' EXIT

  2. Write the final markdown body to "$NOTES_FILE" (same content you would paste in the GitHub UI).

  3. Create the release (run from a clone of hookdeck/hookdeck-cli, or use --repo as below):

    Stable GA from main:

    gh release create "vM.m.p" \
  --repo hookdeck/hookdeck-cli \
  --target main \
  --title "vM.m.p" \
  --notes-file "$NOTES_FILE"

    Pre-release (beta): add --prerelease. Feature branch: set --target <branch> instead of main.

  4. Cleanup: With trap above, the temp file is deleted on shell exit. If you did not use trap, run rm -f "$NOTES_FILE" after gh succeeds.

Requirements: gh installed and authenticated (gh auth login). Do not put secrets in the notes file.

Fallback: tag without gh

If gh is unavailable, a maintainer may use README flow (UI) or:

git checkout <branch>
git tag vX.Y.Z[-beta.N]
git push origin vX.Y.Z[-beta.N]

Then edit the GitHub release to add notes, or create the release in the UI so assets and changelog align with team practice.

SemVer: validate the proposed version

The user may suggest a tag (e.g. v2.0.1). Always sanity-check it against what actually changed since PREV_TAG (usually the last GA tag on that line of development—confirm with the maintainer for long beta series).

Interpret SemVer for this CLI (user-facing contract):

Change since PREV_TAG Bump Examples
Breaking — requires users to change scripts, configs, or habits MAJOR Removed or renamed commands/flags; different defaults that break automation; dropped or incompatible config file fields; incompatible change to documented machine-readable output
New capability, backward compatible MINOR New commands or flags; new subcommands; additive behavior; deprecations announced but old path still works
Fixes / internal / docs-only (no new user-facing capability, no break) PATCH Bug fixes; telemetry/CI; dependency bumps with no CLI contract change; help text clarifications

Signals (hints only): Conventional commits with BREAKING CHANGE: / feat!: / fix!: suggest severity—still read the diff and release notes; commits can be mis-tagged.

Pre-releases (v2.1.0-beta.1): the base version (2.1.0) must still follow the table above relative to the last GA. A beta for a major rewrite should be v3.0.0-beta.1, not v2.5.0-beta.1, if the delta includes breaking changes vs v2.x GA.

Agent behavior:

  1. After categorizing changes for release notes, state the minimum SemVer bump required.
  2. Compare to the user’s proposed NEW_TAG. If they conflict (e.g. patch tag but breaking changes), do not treat the user’s version as authoritative—explain the mismatch and recommend the correct vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (and pre-release suffix if applicable).
  3. If ambiguous (unclear whether a change breaks callers), ask the maintainer before tagging.

Drafting release notes (user-centric)

Use references/release-notes-template.md as a starting skeleton.

Sections: Include only headings that have real content — omit empty sections (e.g. do not add “Breaking changes” with “None”).

Patterns observed in this repo:

  • Large GA (e.g. v2.0.0): Summary, then as needed: Breaking changes / migration, New features (subsections per area), Improvements / behavior changes, Internal — skip any block with nothing to say.
  • Feature release (e.g. v1.9.0): ## Features with detailed bullets + Full Changelog compare link.
  • Patch (e.g. v1.9.1): ## Fixes, ## Updates, PR links with authors + Full Changelog — omit unused sections.

Always include a Full Changelog line:

https://github.com/hookdeck/hookdeck-cli/compare/<prev_tag>...<new_tag>

Contributors / shout-outs: Do not add a generic “thanks to all contributors” block every release. Regular maintainers and repeat contributors do not need a call-out. Only include a contributor section when:

  • There are new contributors first shipping in this release (welcome them by name/GitHub handle), and/or
  • Someone made an exceptionally large contribution worth highlighting for this specific release.

Otherwise omit the Contributors section entirely.

Research loop (agent or maintainer)

  1. Tags: Confirm PREV_TAG and NEW_TAG with the user (or git describe --tags --abbrev=0 on the release branch). For beta series, baseline may be last GA tag.
  2. Commits: git log PREV_TAG..HEAD --oneline and read full messages. Treat Conventional Commits (feat:, fix:, BREAKING CHANGE:) as hints only — rewrite for user impact (commands, flags, migrations).
  3. Group: Merge related commits; call out breaking changes and required user actions explicitly.
  4. SemVer check: Using SemVer: validate the proposed version, classify the delta since PREV_TAG and verify the proposed NEW_TAG matches the required MAJOR / MINOR / PATCH bump. Flag mismatches before any tag or release.
  5. PRs / links: Map commits to PRs (gh pr list, GitHub compare UI) for PR links in the notes. Use Contributors shout-outs only per Drafting release notes (new contributors or exceptional contribution—not every author every time).
  6. Sanity: Skim diff or REFERENCE.md / user-facing help if commits are unclear.
  7. CI on GitHub (gate): Before tagging, confirm the branch you will release (main for typical GA, or the feature branch for a branch beta) has green checks on the latest commit in GitHub Actions / commit status. For GA from main, treat this as mandatory; do not proceed on red or unknown pending required checks.

Safety and governance

  • CI: Do not cut a stable GA release unless main’s latest run of checks in GitHub is green (see Stable (GA) release and research step 7). For betas, require green CI for the target branch you are tagging.
  • SemVer: Do not publish a tag that under-bumps the version for the change set (e.g. patch release that includes breaking CLI changes); resolve with the maintainer first.
  • Do not push surprise tags; respect branch protection and team process.
  • Never put secrets or tokens in release notes or skill content.

Related files

Topic Location
Maintainer steps, install commands README.md § Releasing
CI entrypoint .github/workflows/release.yml
Artifacts / brew / scoop / docker .goreleaser/