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Official agent skill

Post Release Activities

by microsoft in microsoft/testfx

Systematic activities that need to be performed after a release is done.

OfficialMITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Post Release Activities

skills CLI
$ npx skills add microsoft/testfx --skill post-release-activities -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install microsoft/testfx post-release-activities --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/microsoft/testfx.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/post-release-activities .claude/skills/post-release-activities && 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
post-release-activities
GitHub stars
1k
Token cost
~890 tokens
SKILL.md length
508 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
44
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Systematic activities that need to be performed after a release is done.

  • Works in 8 steps: Find the release version → Tagging the branch → Create a GitHub draft release → …
  • Tasks that involve Changelog and release notes
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use This Skill and Steps to Follow
  • Calls gh

What it does

Post Release Activities is an agent skill from microsoft/testfx, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Systematic activities that need to be performed after a release is done.

Its SKILL.md is about 890 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. It works with GitHub. The repository describes itself as: This repository holds the source code of Microsoft.Testing.Platform (MTP), a lightweight alternative to VSTest, as well as MSTest adapter and framework. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Changelog and release notes

Example prompts

  • “/post-release-activities”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Find the release version
  2. Tagging the branch
  3. Create a GitHub draft release
  4. Open a PR to main updating the change log files
  5. Create a PR to release branch to update patch version
  6. Create a PR to main to update minor version
  7. Update public samples
  8. Mark APIs and analyzers as shipped

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 44b9dcc. 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:

    • gh

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use gh, 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 no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

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

Context cost

Post Release Activities loads about 890 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 24 tokens; SKILL.md has 508 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~24
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~890

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 microsoft/testfx at commit 44b9dcc, republished under its MIT licence (© microsoft). 508 words, ~890 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/post-release-activities/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
post-release-activities
description
Systematic activities that need to be performed after a release is done.

Post-release Activities Skill

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when assigned an issue asking you to do the post-release activities. You will be given the branch name for the release. If that information is missing, ask for it and don't proceed with doing anything.

Steps to Follow

Step 1: Find the release version

The branch name only contains the major and minor parts of the version, but not the patch part. To find the full version:

  1. Look for eng/Versions.props file in the given branch.
  2. Find the value of VersionPrefix.
Step 2: Tagging the branch

Create a tag for the branch using the version you found in Step 1. The tag name should be v{version} (replace {version} with the version you found in Step 1). After creating the tag, push it to the remote repository.

Step 3: Create a GitHub draft release
  1. Create a file release-notes.md and add the following content to it: See the release notes [here](https://github.com/microsoft/testfx/blob/main/docs/Changelog.md#{version}) (replace {version} with the version you found in Step 1).
  2. Run gh release create v{version} --draft --title v{version} --notes-file release-notes.md.
Step 4: Open a PR to main updating the change log files
  1. Run the following command to get markdown of the changelog: gh api --method POST -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" /repos/microsoft/testfx/releases/generate-notes -f 'tag_name=v{version}' (replace {version} with the version you found in Step 1).
  2. Classify each entry as either an MSTest change or a Microsoft.Testing.Platform change.
  3. MSTest changes go to docs/Changelog.md and Microsoft.Testing.Platform changes go to docs/Changelog-Platform.md.
  4. Classify further the changes of each product into categories like "Added", "Changed", "Fixed", etc.
  5. Update the changelog markdown files using the above instructions and following the existing format of those files.
  6. When not confident about the classification of a specific change, indicate in the PR description that it requires attention and manual review. This PR must target the main branch, not the release branch.
Show full SKILL.md (187 more words)Show less
Step 5: Create a PR to release branch to update patch version

Open a PR to the release branch to update the patch version in eng/Versions.props file. The new patch version should be one more than the patch version you found in Step 1.

Note that in this step, both TestingPlatformVersionPrefix and VersionPrefix must be updated.

Step 6: Create a PR to main to update minor version

Open a PR to the main branch to update the minor version in eng/Versions.props file. The new minor version should be one more than the minor version you found in Step 1, and the patch version should be reset to 0.

Note that in this step, both TestingPlatformVersionPrefix and VersionPrefix must be updated.

Step 7: Update public samples

Open a PR to the main branch to update the product versions of public samples to latest. Public samples are present in samples/public directory.

Step 8: Mark APIs and analyzers as shipped
  1. Run eng/mark-shipped.ps1 (requires PowerShell 7.0).
  2. Move the contents of src/Analyzers/MSTest.Analyzers/AnalyzerReleases.Unshipped.md (except the first two lines that start with ;) to src/Analyzers/MSTest.Analyzers/AnalyzerReleases.Shipped.md.

Create a PR to main with these changes.

© microsoft, 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 .github/skills/post-release-activities of microsoft/testfx.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 44b9dcc

Compare with similar skills

Post Release Activities 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.

Post Release Activities compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Post Release Activities this skillmicrosoft/testfx1k—~890Automated safety check: PassMIT
Cutting A ReleaseTriliumNext/Trilium38k—~3.2kAutomated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Mole CLI Release Flowtw93/Mole69k—~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Draft Release Notesjamiepine/voicebox57k—~941Automated safety check: PassMIT
Mole Release Notes Publishertw93/Mole69k—~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Release Bumpjamiepine/voicebox57k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Post Release Activities

What does Post Release Activities do?

Systematic activities that need to be performed after a release is done. Post Release Activities is an agent skill from microsoft/testfx, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Systematic activities that need to be performed after a release is done.

When should I use Post Release Activities?

Post Release Activities fits situations like: tasks that involve Changelog and release notes.

How do I install Post Release Activities in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Post Release Activities in Codex?

Run `npx skills add microsoft/testfx --skill post-release-activities -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/skills/post-release-activities in microsoft/testfx) into .agents/skills/post-release-activities in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Post Release Activities 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 microsoft/testfx --skill post-release-activities -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/post-release-activities, .gemini/skills/post-release-activities, .github/skills/post-release-activities and .opencode/skills/post-release-activities in your project.

What does Post Release Activities need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Post Release Activities needs the command-line tools its instructions call (gh).

Does Post Release Activities access the network?

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

Is Post Release Activities 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 Post Release Activities use?

Post Release Activities 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 Post Release Activities use?

About 890 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.6k 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 Post Release Activities?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Post Release Activities: Cutting A Release (TriliumNext/Trilium, 38k stars), Mole CLI Release Flow (tw93/Mole, 69k stars), Draft Release Notes (jamiepine/voicebox, 57k stars) and Mole Release Notes Publisher (tw93/Mole, 69k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Post Release Activities?

microsoft (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in microsoft/testfx, which has 1,047 GitHub stars. The repository holds 44 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

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