Release Please Beta on v3.76.1-beta.0 hard-failed at the very first
`gh release view "$TAG"` call:
failed to run git: fatal: not a git repository
(or any of the parent directories): .git
The reusable `whatsnew-highlights.yml` (PR #703) doesn't run
actions/checkout — so when `gh` tried to infer the target repo from
the runner's empty workspace it errored out. The first time it ran
against an actual release (#709 → 3.76.1-beta.0), the whole job died
before the deterministic-fallback path could save it.
Two changes, both single-line:
1. `env.GH_REPO: ${{ github.repository }}` at job scope. `gh` honours
this and won't fall back to parsing `.git/config`, so no checkout
is needed (the workflow only calls the GitHub API, never reads
repo files).
2. `continue-on-error: true` on the "Extract Features" step. The
file's comments say "never let highlights break a release", but
the original wiring only soft-failed the AI + inject steps. A
transient API hiccup at extract still hard-failed the whole job —
defeating the design intent. Match the comment.
Why not just add actions/checkout? It would work, but pulls the whole
repo over the wire on every release just for `gh` to read its own
config. GH_REPO is the lighter idiom.
Net impact today: v3.76.1-beta.0 shipped without the `<!-- whatsnew -->`
block; the app's parseWhatsNew() already falls back to the raw Features
list so the admin "What's New" banner still works. The next beta release
will pick up the polished version.
If GitHub Models is disabled for the org the ai-inference step errors;
without continue-on-error the job would go red and skip the inject+fallback.
Mark it continue-on-error so an unavailable Models cleanly degrades to the
deterministic bullets — the feature now works with Models off, not just on.
Activate the What's New highlights step that condenses each release's
Features into <=8 short bullets and injects a <!-- whatsnew --> block the
app reads (utils/whatsNew.parseWhatsNew), with a deterministic fallback.
Runs as a needs: job inside the release-please workflows rather than on a
standalone release: published trigger, because release-please creates the
release with GITHUB_TOKEN and GitHub never starts new workflow runs from
token-generated events -- a standalone trigger would never fire. Shared as
a reusable workflow_call so the stable and beta channels stay in sync.
Best-effort: continue-on-error + fallback mean it can never break a release.
Requires GitHub Models enabled for the org; until then the fallback is used.
Paul Nothaft