Mole CLI Release Flow

Mole CLI Release Flow

Tag-driven flow. The release.yml workflow watches 'V*' tag pushes (capital V), builds amd64 and arm64 binaries on macOS, generates SHA256SUMS, attaches build provenance, creates the GitHub Release without notes, then opens a Homebrew core PR.

Distribution channels

At the start of any release-flavored task, restate which channels this run will touch and which it will not, and confirm with the maintainer before acting. Channel scope is specified by the maintainer, never inferred.

Pre-flight checklist

Resolve the latest published stable tag from GitHub before choosing the version or review range. Reconcile handoff claims against the current branch, worktree, and remote SHA; an earlier report of uncommitted work may describe commits that have already landed. Review all changes since that stable tag, not just the final fix batch.

1. grep '^VERSION=' mole matches the new version.
2. SECURITY_AUDIT.md opening line reflects the new version and date, and its CI coverage list matches the matrix in .github/workflows/test.yml.
3. git status -s is empty or only contains intentionally staged release work.
4. git log origin/main..HEAD --oneline shows only commits you intend to ship.
5. ./scripts/check.sh --format and TERM=xterm-256color MOLE_TEST_NO_AUTH=1 MOLE_TEST_JOBS=2 BATS_FORMATTER=tap ./scripts/test.sh both exit 0.
6. go test ./... and make build both pass.

Use the Go version declared in go.mod for local release builds, matching actions/setup-go in CI, then run scripts/check_release_minos.sh on both architectures. A newer local Go can raise the minimum macOS version even with CGO_ENABLED=0; during V1.54.0 verification, Go 1.27 produced macOS 13 binaries while the declared Go 1.25 toolchain preserved macOS 12. Rebuild with the declared toolchain instead of relaxing the minimum-OS gate. Check the make release-amd64 release-arm64 outputs, not make build: the local build links status with cgo against the host SDK, so its status-go reports the host macOS as its minimum and says nothing about the release binaries.

Capture the test runner's exit status and structured summary, with skipped tests reported separately. After pushing the candidate commit, wait for its required Check, Validation, and CodeQL workflows to finish successfully before tagging that exact SHA. A cancelled run or a green check on another commit is not release evidence.

Tag and publish

git push origin main
git tag V<version>          # capital V; release workflow ignores lowercase v
git push origin V<version>

Wait for the workflow to finish. The workflow creates the release with assets but generate_release_notes: false, so notes must be added in a follow-up step.

After the workflow finishes, verify the release assets before announcing anything: gh release view V<version> --json assets --jq '.assets[].name' must list all four analyze-/status-darwin-{amd64,arm64} binaries, both binaries-darwin-*.tar.gz Homebrew tarballs, AND SHA256SUMS. Install verification is fail-closed, so a release without a readable SHA256SUMS asset makes every install and mo update abort by design; a missing checksums file is a release blocker, not a cosmetic gap.

Download all seven assets. Verify the six payload checksums, attestations for all seven tied to the release tag, exact source commit, and .github/workflows/release.yml, and each archive's two expected binary members against the raw binary assets. Check Mach-O architecture and minimum macOS version on the downloaded binaries, then run the native architecture's Analyze and Status smoke probes. Successful local builds do not prove the public package contains those bytes.

Then run a script self-update smoke before publishing notes or announcing: install the previous stable release through the script channel, run mo update, and confirm mo --version prints the candidate version. Script-installed clients execute the new tag's install.sh, so this is the only gate that exercises their real upgrade path; the pre-flight suite cannot cover it before the release exists. Homebrew is a separate downstream gate: verify it only after the core formula has updated, and never treat a script-channel smoke as proof that Homebrew is ready. If the script smoke fails, pull the release (see the pulling-and-re-releasing pitfall) before anyone is told to update.

Use a fresh archive of the previous tag so ignored local bin/* builds cannot contaminate the old installation. Place the isolated prefix and config under a physical user-owned directory; /tmp or /var aliases and writable ancestors can correctly fail installer path checks. Isolate HOME, config/cache paths, and PATH, block host brew and sudo, and set MOLE_TEST_NO_AUTH=1. Verify config/install_channel retains CHANNEL=stable, config/bin/{analyze,status}-go match the verified release assets, changed installed shell sources match the tag, and a second update reports the current version. Keep the user's existing installation unchanged.

Apply curated release notes

The curated-notes flow (bilingual format, gh release edit instead of create, thanks block, and the six-reaction set) is owned by .claude/skills/release-notes/SKILL.md. .agents/skills/release-notes is a symlink to that canonical directory for Codex discovery, and its Codex-only invocation policy lives in agents/openai.yaml; do not replace the symlink with a copied mirror. Follow that skill; do not duplicate its format details here. Version, codename, and emoji go only in the release title; the body h1 is just Mole.

After applying notes and the standard reactions through that skill, read back the published title, full body, and all six reactions. Report GitHub Stable and Homebrew availability separately; a successfully opened core PR still needs upstream tests and merge.