Release process

This page documents the release workflow for maintainers. The user-facing version history lives on GitHub Releases.

Overview

Each shippable artefact has two workflows: a prepare-* and a publish-*. The split exists so the prepare workflow can create a GitHub Release without the publish workflow accidentally re-triggering itself in a loop. Splitting into separate files also keeps each workflow short and single-purpose.

• prepare-* — manual (workflow_dispatch). Bumps the version, runs the sanity checks, commits the bump, pushes the tag, and creates a GitHub Release. Does not publish anything.
• publish-* — fires on release: published. Builds the artefact, attaches it to the existing release, and pushes it to the relevant registry (Marketplace / npm / GitHub Release assets). Also runnable manually with dry-run: true to produce an artefact without uploading.

Both workflows accept a dry-run input for safe local validation.

Pipeline flow

Releases per artefact

VS Code extension

Published to the VS Code Marketplace.

File	Trigger	Tag prefix
prepare-release-vscode-modeler.yml	manual	—
publish-vscode-modeler.yml	release: published, workflow_dispatch	v* (e.g. v0.9.3)

prepare bumps apps/modeler-plugin/package.json, runs lint + test + build, then commits, tags vX.Y.Z, and creates a GitHub Release. publish packages the .vsix, attaches it to the release, and runs vsce publish against the VS Code Marketplace.

create-append-c7-element-templates (npm lib)

Published to npm.

File	Trigger	Tag prefix
prepare-release-create-append-c7.yml	manual	—
publish-create-append-c7.yml	release: published, workflow_dispatch	create-append-c7-element-templates/v*

prepare bumps libs/create-append-c7-element-templates/package.json and builds the library; publish runs npm publish --access public.

Standalone macOS app

Published as DMG assets on GitHub Releases.

File	Trigger	Tag prefix
prepare-release-standalone.yml	manual	—
publish-standalone.yml	release: published, workflow_dispatch	standalone-v*

prepare bumps apps/standalone/package.json. publish runs on macos-latest, signs and notarizes the DMG with the Apple Developer ID cert, and attaches the DMG + latest-mac.yml manifest to the release (consumed by electron-updater for in-app auto-update).

How to release

The flow is identical for all three artefacts. Example: VS Code extension.

1. Go to the Actions tab → Prepare Release VS Code Modeler → Run workflow.
2. Pick the release type (patch / minor / major) and decide whether to enable Dry run.
3. Click Run workflow.
4. The prepare workflow:
   • Bumps apps/modeler-plugin/package.json.
   • Runs lint, test, build.
   • Commits the bump, pushes the vX.Y.Z tag, creates the GitHub Release.
5. The new release fires a release: published event, which automatically triggers Publish VS Code Modeler:
   • Builds the extension at the tagged commit.
   • Verifies package.json version matches the release tag.
   • Packages the .vsix, attaches it to the release, publishes to the VS Code Marketplace.

Both workflows only run on the main branch (prepare) or against a matching tag prefix (publish). Dry-run on prepare skips commit/tag/release. Dry-run on publish builds the artefact and uploads it as a workflow artifact instead of publishing it.

Tag/version drift safeguard

Each publish-* workflow checks that the tagged release matches the version in package.json before doing anything publishable. If the prepare workflow created the release, the versions match by construction. If a maintainer creates a release manually with a tag that doesn't match package.json, the publish workflow aborts with a clear error.