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Agent skill

Release Sidecar

by marcus in marcus/sidecar

Release new versions of sidecar. An agent skill from marcus/sidecar.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Release Sidecar

skills CLI
$ npx skills add marcus/sidecar --skill release-sidecar -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install marcus/sidecar release-sidecar --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/marcus/sidecar.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/release-sidecar .claude/skills/release-sidecar && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
release-sidecar
GitHub stars
1.1k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
514 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
19
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Release new versions of sidecar. An agent skill from marcus/sidecar.

  • Works in 3 steps: Version → Sibling dependencies (td, tasks) → CHANGELOG
  • Executing a release
  • SKILL.md covers Prerequisites, Prepare (sidecar-specific), Publish and Verify, plus 3 more sections
  • Calls make, gh and go; needs HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN

What it does

Release Sidecar is an agent skill from marcus/sidecar. Release new versions of sidecar. Covers version tagging with semver, td dependency updates, go.mod validation, CHANGELOG updates, GoReleaser automation, Homebrew tap updates, and verification steps. Use when preparing or executing a release.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development, covering Changelog and release notes and Dependency management. It works with Homebrew and Go. The repository describes itself as: Use sidecar next to CLI agents for diffs, file trees, conversation history, and task management with td. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Executing a release
  • Tasks that involve Changelog and release notes
  • Tasks that involve Dependency management

Example prompts

  • “/release-sidecar”

Requirements

  • A credential in HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Version
  2. Sibling dependencies (td, tasks)
  3. CHANGELOG

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 3792a4e. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • make
    • gh
    • go
    • git

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use gh and git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

    • HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Release Sidecar loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 64 tokens; SKILL.md has 514 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~64
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from marcus/sidecar at commit 3792a4e, republished under its MIT licence (© marcus). 514 words, ~1,384 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/release-sidecar/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
release-sidecar
description
Release new versions of sidecar. Covers version tagging with semver, td dependency updates, go.mod validation, CHANGELOG updates, GoReleaser automation, Homebrew tap updates, and verification steps. Use when preparing or executing a release.
disable-model-invocation
true

Releasing a New Version

Operator contract: docs/guides/active/releasing.md. Enforcement lives in scripts/ and BUMP=minor make release (or RELEASE_VERSION=vX.Y.Z make release for an explicit version). Prefer the one-shot command over replaying this checklist by hand.

Prerequisites

  • Go matching go.mod
  • Clean working tree; main identical to live origin/main
  • Tests and Go CI green on the commit you will tag (tests and lint) — check-release-state.sh now checks this itself via gh run list --workflow=go-ci.yml and fails closed if it's red/running/missing, so you don't have to remember to look
  • GitHub CLI authenticated with push access to marcus/homebrew-tap
  • No replace directives in go.mod
  • HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN secret present in the GitHub repo (CI tap job)

Beware of go.work: always use GOWORK=off when updating dependencies and when validating install paths.

Local lint must match CI's golangci-lint v2.12.2, or trust CI:

bash
gh run list --workflow=go-ci.yml --limit=1

Prepare (sidecar-specific)

1. Version
bash
git tag -l 'v*' | sort -V | tail -1

SemVer: major / minor / patch as usual.

2. Sibling dependencies (td, tasks)
bash
make sync-deps   # pins every github.com/marcus/* requirement to its latest tag

check-release-state.sh enforces this and refuses to tag when one is behind. go.work resolves those imports to the local checkouts, so drift is invisible locally — both the gate and sync-deps use GOWORK=off. If a sibling jumped several minors, decide deliberately (pin for a focused release vs take latest and note it under Dependencies) and smoke its tab in the app.

3. CHANGELOG
markdown
## [Unreleased]

### Features
- …

### Bug Fixes
- …

### Dependencies
- …

Commit the changelog (and any dependency bump) on main, then push so HEAD == origin/main. Leave the heading as ## [Unreleased] — make release stamps it to ## [vX.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD for you.

Publish

bash
# Dry-run (optional but recommended for tooling changes)
make release-snapshot
./scripts/verify-release-archives.sh dist
./scripts/test-release-guards.sh dist
./scripts/test-release-publication.sh
make release-dry-run BUMP=minor   # prints the derived version + plan, no mutation

# Cut the release: derive the version, stamp the changelog, commit, push,
# then the fail-closed preflight → tag → CI → formula verify/publish
BUMP=minor make release

The version is stated exactly once — via BUMP derived from the latest tag, or by setting RELEASE_VERSION=vX.Y.Z yourself (also works if you stamped the CHANGELOG heading by hand). scripts/release.sh refuses an empty [Unreleased] section, a tree dirty beyond CHANGELOG.md, a tag that already exists, and a RELEASE_VERSION that contradicts an already-stamped heading, before handing off to scripts/publish-release.sh. What it enforces and does end to end is documented in docs/guides/active/releasing.md.

Resume only the tap step if the tag/release already exists:

bash
RELEASE_VERSION=vX.Y.Z make release-tap
Show full SKILL.md (200 more words)Show less
CI jobs (on tag push)
  1. verify — tag points at live main, tests, snapshot archives, release guards
  2. release — GoReleaser publishes GitHub release + binaries
  3. update-homebrew-tap — renders packaging/homebrew/sidecar.rb.tmpl and pushes Formula/sidecar.rb with downgrade/idempotency/race guards

td/nightshift formulas are not auto-bumped; edit them by hand when co-releasing.

Verify

bash
gh run list --workflow=release.yml --limit=1
gh release view vX.Y.Z --json assets -q '.assets[].name'

GOBIN=$(mktemp -d) GOWORK=off go install github.com/marcus/sidecar/cmd/sidecar@vX.Y.Z
"$GOBIN/sidecar" --version

go install @vX.Y.Z can 500 from the checksum DB for a minute or two after the tag — wait and retry. Prefer a throwaway GOBIN so verification does not clobber a dev machine's sidecar.

Dev machine after release

bash
# Return to the canonical main development build:
make install-local

# Or keep the released Homebrew build active:
make use-homebrew

# In either case, prove the managed link and both login-shell modes:
make install-status

Recovery

Prefer a new patch release. Keep tags. Resume tap with make release-tap. See docs/guides/active/releasing.md.

Checklist

  • Go CI green (tests + lint) on the commit to tag — enforced automatically by check-release-state.sh
  • Working tree clean; main == origin/main
  • td bump considered; td tab smoke if td moved
  • No replace in go.mod; GOWORK=off build works
  • Agent integration assets: if any bundled asset's bytes changed, its version constant, internal/agentlifecycle/capabilities.json, and the golden in internal/agentintegration/asset_golden_test.go all moved with it (the golden test fails if they did not)
  • CHANGELOG bullets under ## [Unreleased]
  • BUMP=minor make release (or RELEASE_VERSION=vX.Y.Z make release) succeeded
  • Release assets present; formula URL/sha match (automatic)
  • go install verified into throwaway GOBIN
  • make install-status proves the dev machine is on the intended binary

© marcus, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .claude/skills/release-sidecar of marcus/sidecar.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 3792a4e

Compare with similar skills

Release Sidecar next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Release Sidecar compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Release Sidecar this skillmarcus/sidecar1.1k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Mole CLI Release Flowtw93/Mole70k—~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Go-Redis Release Preparationredis/go-redis22k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassBSD-2-Clause
Golang Documentationunxed/f42413 repos~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Claude Code Version Checkykdojo/claude-code-tips10k—~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Releaseeugene1g/agent-safehouse2.1k—~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Release Sidecar

What does Release Sidecar do?

Release new versions of sidecar. An agent skill from marcus/sidecar. Release Sidecar is an agent skill from marcus/sidecar. Release new versions of sidecar.

When should I use Release Sidecar?

Release Sidecar fits situations like: executing a release; tasks that involve Changelog and release notes; tasks that involve Dependency management.

How do I install Release Sidecar in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add marcus/sidecar --skill release-sidecar -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/release-sidecar in marcus/sidecar) into .claude/skills/release-sidecar in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Release Sidecar in Codex?

Run `npx skills add marcus/sidecar --skill release-sidecar -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/release-sidecar in marcus/sidecar) into .agents/skills/release-sidecar in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Release Sidecar in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add marcus/sidecar --skill release-sidecar -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/release-sidecar, .gemini/skills/release-sidecar, .github/skills/release-sidecar and .opencode/skills/release-sidecar in your project.

What does Release Sidecar need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Release Sidecar needs the command-line tools its instructions call (make, gh, go and git) and credentials named HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN. Our summary lists: A credential in HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN.

Does Release Sidecar access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use gh and git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Release Sidecar safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Release Sidecar use?

Release Sidecar is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Release Sidecar use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Release Sidecar?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Release Sidecar: Mole CLI Release Flow (tw93/Mole, 70k stars), Go-Redis Release Preparation (redis/go-redis, 22k stars), Golang Documentation (unxed/f4, 241 stars) and Claude Code Version Check (ykdojo/claude-code-tips, 10k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Release Sidecar?

marcus (a GitHub user) maintains it in marcus/sidecar, which has 1,085 GitHub stars. The repository holds 19 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

Source: marcus/sidecar on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.