* ci: batch stable releases into one daily version (stable)
The stable release PR was auto-merged the instant it went green, so a
day with N bugfixes produced N patch releases (3.45.8 AND 3.45.9 on
2026-07-29 alone) — N upgrade notifications for stable users and N
full Docker build cycles.
Fixes now accumulate in release-please's rolling release PR and are
cut as ONE version per day by release-stable-daily.yml (18:00 UTC).
Approval/merge mechanics are unchanged from the inline step (#719):
approve as github-actions[bot], auto-merge as the PAT so the merge
triggers the tag-cutting run.
- Urgent fix? workflow_dispatch the daily job or merge the release PR
by hand — the schedule is a default, not a gate.
- Beta is untouched: instant beta releases are load-bearing for
same-day reporter verification.
- schedule only fires from the default branch; the stable copy of the
new workflow is inert and exists to keep branches in sync.
* ci: harden the daily stable-release cut (review round) (stable)
Mirror of the #919 hardening — fork-PR head-name spoof (require
--base stable + same-repo head) and no longer swallowing the
auto-merge-enable failure on the sole automatic stable cut.
* ci: accept an immediately-merged release PR as success (review round 2) (stable)
Mirror of #919: MERGED state = success (the normal 18:00 case where
checks were already green and --auto merges immediately), pending
auto-merge = success, still-open-no-auto-merge = real failure.
* ci: read release-PR state + auto-merge in one snapshot (review round 3) (stable)
Mirror of #919 — collapse the two racing gh pr view calls into one.
---------
Co-authored-by: Paul Nothaft <paul@MacStudio-von-Paul.local>
Triggers the correct stable release from the stable branch (manifest
3.44.0 -> 3.45.0). Same fix as #774 (which fixes it on main for future
promotes); merging this to stable is what re-runs release-please
correctly for the promote that mis-fired as v2.7.0.
Auto-merge enabled via GITHUB_TOKEN attributes the eventual merge commit to
github-actions[bot], so recursion prevention suppresses the resulting push to
main — the follow-up release-please run that cuts the tag/release never fires.
Net: the version PR merges but no release/tag/images are ever produced (#719).
Enable auto-merge with RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN instead (a real identity) so the
merge triggers the tag-cutting run. Approval stays on GITHUB_TOKEN because it
must be a different identity than the PR author (the PAT) to count as a review.
Observed on #723: merged 3.77.3-beta.0 but no run followed and no tag was cut.
The auto-merge step runs in a job with no actions/checkout, so gh could not
infer the repository from a git remote and failed with 'not a git repository'
(#719 follow-up). Set GH_REPO=${{ github.repository }} so gh pr list/review/
merge work without a checkout — same fix as the whatsnew workflow (2a5f0a8).
Confirmed working otherwise: with RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN set, release PR #721 is
now PAT-authored and its required checks run automatically (no manual approval).
The release PR (authored by github-actions[bot] via GITHUB_TOKEN) sat open
forever: its workflows were held behind 'awaiting approval' and the required
review could not be satisfied by the bot. Both release-please workflows now:
- Use a dedicated ${{ secrets.RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN }} (fine-grained PAT) with a
GITHUB_TOKEN fallback. A PAT-authored PR runs CI automatically (no 'awaiting
approval') and can be merged without a human.
- Auto-approve (as github-actions[bot], a different identity than the PR
author) and enable auto-merge on the open release PR, so it publishes once
checks pass. Skipped when no PAT is configured — falls back to today's manual
flow, nothing breaks.
A PAT also un-suppresses the tag-push and release-published triggers on
docker-build (GITHUB_TOKEN suppressed them), so add a concurrency group there
to collapse the duplicate same-version builds into one.
Requires (repo/org settings, one-time):
- Create fine-grained PAT RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN (contents:write, pull-requests:write).
- Enable 'Allow auto-merge' on the repo (currently off).
- 'Allow GitHub Actions to approve pull requests' — already enabled.
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.
After the org move + branch rename (#669):
beta → main (active development)
main → stable (curated release channel)
This PR rewires the workflows that referenced the old branch names so
release-please and the Docker build target the right channels.
## Workflow changes
### `.github/workflows/docker-build.yml`
- **Push triggers**: `[main, beta]` → `[main, stable]` (both `push.branches`
and `pull_request.branches`). `beta` no longer exists; `stable` is the
curated channel that should also produce builds.
- **`is_prerelease` detection**: pre-release context was decided by
`refs/heads/beta`; now decided by `refs/heads/main` (active dev →
prerelease, `-beta.N` version suffix unchanged).
- **`:latest` + `:stable` tagging**: were gated on `{{is_default_branch}}`
(which used to be `main` = stable channel). Default branch is now `main`
= active dev, so the implicit gate would have aliased `:latest` to dev.
Both tags now explicitly gate on `refs/heads/stable` OR a non-prerelease
release tag.
- **`:beta` tag**: REMOVED. Active-dev pulls are `:main` (auto-generated
by `type=ref,event=branch`). The pre-rename `:beta` tag remains frozen
at its last build under Option B / #669 — operators are expected to
update to `:main` or pin to a versioned tag.
### `.github/workflows/release-please.yml`
- `branches: [main]` → `branches: [stable]`. This is the **stable**
release-please workflow (uses `release-please-config.json`); after the
rename, the stable channel lives on the `stable` branch.
### `.github/workflows/release-please-beta.yml`
- `branches: [beta]` → `branches: [main]`.
- `target-branch: beta` → `target-branch: main`.
- This is the **pre-release** release-please workflow (uses
`release-please-config-beta.json`, `prerelease: true`); after the rename,
pre-releases are cut from the new `main` (active dev). The version-suffix
scheme stays `-beta.N` so existing operator pins keep working.
## RELEASING.md
Rewrote the TL;DR, "How a stable release is cut", and hotfix path to
reference the new branch names. Added a one-line "branch model background"
note pointing at #669 so future maintainers know why `main` means active
dev (the opposite of what some projects use). Filename conventions:
`release/X.Y.Z-merge-from-main` (was `…-from-beta`); promotion PR title
`promote main → stable as vX.Y.Z` (was `promote beta → main`).
## Why combined with PR A's content as a single PR
Originally planned as two PRs (B = workflow triggers, C = release-please
reconfigure). Splitting wasn't worth it: the configs are branch-agnostic
(`release-please-config.json` and `release-please-config-beta.json` don't
mention branch names internally), and not bundling them meant a window
where the stable release-please workflow would fire on pushes to the new
`main` (active dev) — exactly the wrong place. Single PR closes that gap.
## Versioning scheme — kept
No version-scheme decision needed. The `-beta.N` suffix on pre-release
versions is preserved (existing operator pins like `v3.71.3-beta.0` keep
working). If a `v4.0.0-pre.N`-style reset is desired later, that's a
separate PR with explicit operator-comms attached.
Remove sync-versions job that fails on protected branches.
Instead, use Release Please's extra-files feature to update
package.json versions as part of the release PR.
Paul Nothaft