feat(ci): add release-candidate publish pipeline (#825)

* feat(ci): add release-candidate publish pipeline

Auto-publishes gitnexus@rc on every merge to main. Version scheme is
canonical semver X.Y.Z-rc.N where the base is the current npm 'latest'
bumped by the 'bump' input (default patch) and N auto-increments by
querying existing rc versions on the registry. First rc for a new base
is rc.1; the counter resets naturally when the base advances after a
stable release.

- Reuses ci.yml via workflow_call so tests must pass before publish
- SHA-pinned actions, per-job permission scoping, provenance enabled
- Guard job dedupes duplicate dispatches against HEAD via v*-rc.* tags
- Docs-only pushes skipped via paths-ignore
- workflow_dispatch inputs: bump (patch/minor/major), force (override guard)
- Publishes under the 'rc' dist-tag so 'latest' is never moved
- Tags commits as v<rc-version> and creates GitHub prereleases

* fix(ci): address release-candidate review feedback

- Sort rc tags by creatordate (handles out-of-order pushes correctly)
- Fail fast on npm registry errors; only fall back to package.json on E404
- Drop unused pull-requests: write permission on the reused CI job
- Add secrets: inherit so any future CI secrets are available to sub-jobs
- Remove unused reltag step output

* fix(ci): address Copilot review comments

- Correct concurrency comment (runs serialize on same ref, not overlap)
- Apply E404-only fallback to 'npm view versions' query, matching the
  pattern used for the 'npm view version' query
- README: clarify that docs-only merges don't trigger rc publish
- CONTRIBUTING: drop 'from main' claim for publish.yml; the tag-push
  trigger does not enforce branch reachability

* fix(ci): address adversarial review — idempotency, cycle continuity, tag integrity

Codex adversarial review flagged three release-safety issues in the rc
pipeline. Fixes:

1. Cycle continuity (H). Non-patch rc trains no longer collapse back to
   patch on the next push. 'bump' input accepts a new 'auto' value
   (default) that infers the active rc base from the registry: if any
   X.Y.Z-rc.* exists with X.Y.Z > latest, continue that base; otherwise
   patch-bump. Explicit patch/minor/major still forces a cycle reset and
   now also bypasses the dedup guard so an explicit dispatch on a
   tagged HEAD is honored.

2. Idempotency across post-publish failures (H). The guard marker
   ('rc/<HEAD_SHA>' lightweight tag) and the release tag ('v<RC>'
   annotated) are now pushed atomically *before* 'npm publish'. A
   publish failure leaves the marker in place and the guard refuses to
   re-publish. Added a defensive 'npm view <pkg>@<rc> version' check
   before publish to catch registry-level races. Recovery path
   documented in CONTRIBUTING.md.

3. Tag ↔ package integrity (M). 'v<RC>' now points at a detached
   release commit whose tree contains the rewritten package.json, so
   the tag's source archive matches the npm tarball exactly. 'main'
   stays pristine; the release commit is reachable only via the tag.

* fix(ci): surface registry errors on defensive version check; drop actions: read

- npm view <pkg>@<rc> version now distinguishes E404 (safe) from network
  failures (abort) via the same mktemp+grep pattern used for the other
  two npm view calls
- Dropped actions: read on the ci workflow_call — no sub-workflow uses
  the Actions API
This commit is contained in:
Gergő Magyar 2026-04-14 17:32:47 +01:00 • committed by GitHub
parent 5e16b3a6c3
commit 2db8b302a4
3 changed files with 428 additions and 0 deletions

366
.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml vendored Normal file
View file

@ -0,0 +1,366 @@
name: Release Candidate
on:
# Publish a release-candidate build whenever a merge/commit lands on main.
# Docs/README-only changes are filtered out so prose updates don't
# cut a release.
push:
branches: [main]
paths-ignore:
- '**.md'
- 'docs/**'
- 'LICENSE'
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
bump:
description: >-
Cycle policy. 'auto' (default) continues the active rc cycle on
this branch if there is one, otherwise bumps patch from latest.
Choose 'patch' / 'minor' / 'major' to explicitly start or reset
an rc cycle.
required: false
default: 'auto'
type: choice
options:
- auto
- patch
- minor
- major
force:
description: 'Publish even when HEAD already has an rc marker'
required: false
default: 'false'
type: choice
options:
- 'false'
- 'true'
# No workflow-level permissions — scoped per job below.
permissions: {}
concurrency:
# Serialize all runs on the same ref (push + workflow_dispatch) to prevent
# two publishes racing on the rc counter. Do not cancel an in-progress run
# when a newer one is queued — we want the earlier merge to publish first.
group: release-candidate-${{ github.ref }}
cancel-in-progress: false
jobs:
# ── Skip when HEAD already has an rc marker (retry / duplicate dispatch) ──
# The marker is a lightweight tag `rc/<HEAD_SHA>` pushed *before* `npm
# publish`, so a failed publish leaves the marker in place and the guard
# refuses to re-publish. Recovery path after a partial failure:
# git push --delete origin rc/<HEAD_SHA> v<RC_VERSION>
# then redispatch with force=true.
guard:
name: Check if release candidate should run
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
timeout-minutes: 5
permissions:
contents: read
outputs:
should_run: ${{ steps.decide.outputs.should_run }}
head_sha: ${{ steps.decide.outputs.head_sha }}
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
fetch-tags: true
- name: Decide
id: decide
shell: bash
env:
FORCE: ${{ inputs.force }}
BUMP_INPUT: ${{ inputs.bump }}
EVENT_NAME: ${{ github.event_name }}
run: |
set -euo pipefail
HEAD_SHA=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
echo "head_sha=$HEAD_SHA" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
if [ "$FORCE" = "true" ]; then
echo "Force flag set — running regardless of marker tag."
echo "should_run=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
exit 0
fi
# An explicit cycle reset on dispatch (bump != auto) also bypasses
# the dedup guard — the maintainer is deliberately asking for a
# new rc from the same commit.
if [ "$EVENT_NAME" = "workflow_dispatch" ] \
&& [ -n "${BUMP_INPUT:-}" ] \
&& [ "${BUMP_INPUT:-auto}" != "auto" ]; then
echo "Explicit bump=$BUMP_INPUT — bypassing marker dedup."
echo "should_run=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
exit 0
fi
# Dedup: is there already an rc/<HEAD_SHA> marker pointing at HEAD?
MARKER="rc/${HEAD_SHA}"
if git rev-parse "refs/tags/$MARKER" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "HEAD already has marker $MARKER — skipping."
echo "should_run=false" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
else
echo "No marker on HEAD — proceeding."
echo "should_run=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
fi
# ── Reuse the stable CI workflow ─────────────────────────────────────
ci:
needs: guard
if: needs.guard.outputs.should_run == 'true'
uses: ./.github/workflows/ci.yml
permissions:
contents: read
secrets: inherit
# ── Publish the rc build to npm + create GitHub prerelease ───────────
publish:
name: Publish release candidate to npm
needs: [guard, ci]
if: needs.guard.outputs.should_run == 'true'
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
timeout-minutes: 20
permissions:
contents: write # push rc tag + marker
id-token: write # npm provenance
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@34e114876b0b11c390a56381ad16ebd13914f8d5 # v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
fetch-tags: true
- uses: actions/setup-node@49933ea5288caeca8642d1e84afbd3f7d6820020 # v4
with:
node-version: 20
registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org
cache: npm
cache-dependency-path: gitnexus/package-lock.json
- name: Build gitnexus-shared
run: npm install && npm run build
working-directory: gitnexus-shared
- name: Install gitnexus dependencies
run: npm ci
working-directory: gitnexus
- name: Resolve rc version
id: version
shell: bash
working-directory: gitnexus
env:
BUMP_INPUT: ${{ inputs.bump }}
EVENT_NAME: ${{ github.event_name }}
PKG_NAME: gitnexus
run: |
set -euo pipefail
# 1. Current published `latest` — the floor for any new rc base.
# Only E404 ("never published") falls back to package.json; any
# other error (network, auth, malformed response) fails fast.
NPM_STDERR_LATEST="$(mktemp)"
if CURRENT_LATEST="$(npm view "$PKG_NAME" version 2>"$NPM_STDERR_LATEST")"; then
:
else
if grep -q 'E404' "$NPM_STDERR_LATEST"; then
CURRENT_LATEST="$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"
echo "Package not on registry (E404) — seeding from package.json: $CURRENT_LATEST"
else
echo "::error::npm registry unreachable for 'view version':" >&2
cat "$NPM_STDERR_LATEST" >&2
rm -f "$NPM_STDERR_LATEST"
exit 1
fi
fi
rm -f "$NPM_STDERR_LATEST"
CURRENT_LATEST_CLEAN="${CURRENT_LATEST%%-*}"
# 2. Full version list — needed for the counter and for active-cycle
# inference. Same E404-only fallback.
NPM_STDERR_VERSIONS="$(mktemp)"
if VERSIONS_JSON="$(npm view "$PKG_NAME" versions --json 2>"$NPM_STDERR_VERSIONS")"; then
:
else
if grep -q 'E404' "$NPM_STDERR_VERSIONS"; then
VERSIONS_JSON='[]'
echo "No published versions for $PKG_NAME yet (E404)."
else
echo "::error::npm registry unreachable for 'view versions':" >&2
cat "$NPM_STDERR_VERSIONS" >&2
rm -f "$NPM_STDERR_VERSIONS"
exit 1
fi
fi
rm -f "$NPM_STDERR_VERSIONS"
# 3. Base selection.
# - workflow_dispatch + bump ∈ {patch,minor,major} → explicit cycle
# reset from latest.
# - Everything else (push, or dispatch with bump=auto) → continue
# the highest active rc base > latest if one exists; else
# default to patch from latest.
if [ "$EVENT_NAME" = "workflow_dispatch" ] \
&& [ -n "${BUMP_INPUT:-}" ] \
&& [ "${BUMP_INPUT:-auto}" != "auto" ]; then
BASE="$(npx --yes -p semver@7 semver -i "$BUMP_INPUT" "$CURRENT_LATEST_CLEAN")"
echo "Explicit bump=$BUMP_INPUT → BASE=$BASE"
else
cat > /tmp/active_base.mjs <<'NODESCRIPT'
const latest = process.env.LATEST;
let v;
try { v = JSON.parse(process.env.VERSIONS_JSON); } catch { v = []; }
if (!Array.isArray(v)) v = [v];
const parse = s => s.split(".").map(n => parseInt(n, 10));
const gt = (a, b) => {
const [A, B] = [parse(a), parse(b)];
for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) if (A[i] !== B[i]) return A[i] > B[i];
return false;
};
const bases = new Set();
for (const s of v) {
const m = /^(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)-rc\.\d+$/.exec(s);
if (m && gt(m[1], latest)) bases.add(m[1]);
}
if (!bases.size) { process.stdout.write(""); process.exit(0); }
const sorted = [...bases].sort((a, b) => gt(a, b) ? 1 : -1);
process.stdout.write(sorted[sorted.length - 1]);
NODESCRIPT
ACTIVE_BASE="$(LATEST="$CURRENT_LATEST_CLEAN" VERSIONS_JSON="$VERSIONS_JSON" node /tmp/active_base.mjs)"
if [ -n "$ACTIVE_BASE" ]; then
BASE="$ACTIVE_BASE"
echo "Continuing active rc cycle → BASE=$BASE"
else
BASE="$(npx --yes -p semver@7 semver -i patch "$CURRENT_LATEST_CLEAN")"
echo "No active rc cycle → patch bump from latest → BASE=$BASE"
fi
fi
# 4. Counter: 1 + max existing N for `${BASE}-rc.*`, else 1.
cat > /tmp/next_rc.mjs <<'NODESCRIPT'
const base = process.env.BASE;
const prefix = base + "-rc.";
let v;
try { v = JSON.parse(process.env.VERSIONS_JSON); } catch { v = []; }
if (!Array.isArray(v)) v = [v];
const ns = v
.filter(s => typeof s === "string" && s.startsWith(prefix))
.map(s => parseInt(s.slice(prefix.length), 10))
.filter(n => Number.isInteger(n) && n >= 0);
process.stdout.write(String(ns.length ? Math.max(...ns) + 1 : 1));
NODESCRIPT
NEXT_N="$(BASE="$BASE" VERSIONS_JSON="$VERSIONS_JSON" node /tmp/next_rc.mjs)"
RC_VERSION="${BASE}-rc.${NEXT_N}"
echo "Computed rc: $RC_VERSION"
# 5. Defensive: if the exact version already exists on the registry
# (e.g., race with another run), abort before re-publishing.
# Same E404-only pattern used above — a transient network
# failure must fail loudly, not pretend the version is missing.
NPM_STDERR_EXISTS="$(mktemp)"
if npm view "$PKG_NAME@$RC_VERSION" version 2>"$NPM_STDERR_EXISTS" >/dev/null; then
rm -f "$NPM_STDERR_EXISTS"
echo "::error::Version $RC_VERSION already exists on npm — aborting."
exit 1
else
if grep -qiE 'E404|not found' "$NPM_STDERR_EXISTS"; then
rm -f "$NPM_STDERR_EXISTS"
# Version doesn't exist — safe to proceed.
else
echo "::error::npm registry unreachable for existence check:" >&2
cat "$NPM_STDERR_EXISTS" >&2
rm -f "$NPM_STDERR_EXISTS"
exit 1
fi
fi
echo "base=$BASE" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "rc_n=$NEXT_N" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "rc_version=$RC_VERSION" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
- name: Apply rc version in-CI
shell: bash
working-directory: gitnexus
run: |
set -euo pipefail
npm version "${{ steps.version.outputs.rc_version }}" \
--no-git-tag-version --allow-same-version
- name: Build gitnexus
run: npm run build
working-directory: gitnexus
- name: Dry-run publish
run: npm publish --dry-run --tag rc
working-directory: gitnexus
# ── Acquire the "rc lock" BEFORE publishing (fixes idempotency) ─────
# We create two tags and push them atomically:
# v<RC_VERSION> → annotated tag on a detached release commit
# whose tree contains the rewritten package.json
# (so the tag's source matches the npm tarball)
# rc/<HEAD_SHA> → lightweight tag on HEAD; the guard's dedup key
# If this push fails, nothing is published — safe.
# If this push succeeds but npm publish fails, the marker stays on
# the remote and blocks retries until an operator manually cleans up.
- name: Create and push rc tags
id: reltag
shell: bash
working-directory: gitnexus
env:
RC_VERSION: ${{ steps.version.outputs.rc_version }}
HEAD_SHA: ${{ needs.guard.outputs.head_sha }}
run: |
set -euo pipefail
VTAG="v${RC_VERSION}"
MARKER="rc/${HEAD_SHA}"
git config user.name 'github-actions[bot]'
git config user.email '41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com'
# Detached release commit with the version bump — keeps `main`
# pristine but gives the v-tag a tree that matches the published
# package contents exactly (fixes release-integrity gap).
git add package.json package-lock.json 2>/dev/null || git add package.json
git commit -m "release: ${VTAG}" --allow-empty
RELEASE_SHA="$(git rev-parse HEAD)"
echo "Detached release commit: $RELEASE_SHA"
# Annotated release tag on the release commit.
git tag -a "$VTAG" "$RELEASE_SHA" -m "$VTAG"
# Lightweight marker on the user-visible HEAD for the guard.
git tag "$MARKER" "$HEAD_SHA"
# Atomic push of both refs. If either would clobber an existing
# remote ref, the push fails and we stop before npm publish.
git push --atomic origin "refs/tags/$VTAG" "refs/tags/$MARKER"
echo "vtag=$VTAG" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "marker=$MARKER" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
echo "release_sha=$RELEASE_SHA" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
- name: Publish to npm (rc dist-tag)
run: npm publish --provenance --access public --tag rc
working-directory: gitnexus
env:
NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
- name: Create GitHub prerelease
uses: softprops/action-gh-release@a06a81a03ee405af7f2048a818ed3f03bbf83c7b # v2
with:
tag_name: ${{ steps.reltag.outputs.vtag }}
name: Release Candidate ${{ steps.reltag.outputs.vtag }}
prerelease: true
make_latest: 'false'
generate_release_notes: true
body: |
Automated release candidate build from `main`.
**npm:** `npm install gitnexus@rc`
**Version:** `${{ steps.version.outputs.rc_version }}`
**Target base:** `${{ steps.version.outputs.base }}` (rc #${{ steps.version.outputs.rc_n }})
**Source commit (main):** ${{ needs.guard.outputs.head_sha }}
**Release commit (versioned tree):** ${{ steps.reltag.outputs.release_sha }}
Release candidates are pre-stable builds intended for early testing.
Stable releases remain on the `latest` dist-tag.

View file

@ -48,3 +48,42 @@ Maintainers may request changes for correctness, tests, performance, or consiste
## AI-assisted contributions
If you use coding agents, follow project context files (e.g. `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md`) and avoid drive-by refactors unrelated to the issue. Prefer incremental, test-backed changes.
## Releases
Two publish workflows ship `gitnexus` to npm:
- **Stable** (`.github/workflows/publish.yml`) — triggered by pushing any `v*`
tag. Publishes to the `latest` dist-tag with a changelog-backed GitHub
release. Maintainers are expected to tag from `main` as a convention; the
workflow itself does not enforce branch reachability.
- **Release Candidate** (`.github/workflows/release-candidate.yml`) — runs on
every push to `main` (typically a merged PR) plus manual dispatch. Docs-only
changes are skipped via `paths-ignore`. Publishes to the `rc` dist-tag with
version `X.Y.Z-rc.N` and a GitHub prerelease, where:
- `X.Y.Z` is selected automatically. On push (and on dispatch with
`bump: auto`, the default) the workflow **continues the active rc cycle**:
if the registry already has `X.Y.Z-rc.*` versions with `X.Y.Z` > current
`latest`, it reuses the highest such base; otherwise it patch-bumps
from `latest`. Dispatching with `bump: patch|minor|major` **resets**
the cycle from `latest`.
- `N` is auto-incremented against existing `X.Y.Z-rc.*` entries on the
registry. First rc for a given base is `rc.1`.
Idempotency: the workflow pushes an `rc/<HEAD_SHA>` marker tag and a
`v<RC>` release tag **atomically, before** calling `npm publish`. The guard
refuses to re-run once the marker exists, so a post-publish failure will
not mint a duplicate rc for the same commit. The `v<RC>` tag points at a
detached release commit whose `package.json` matches the npm tarball
exactly (traceable releases). Recovery after a partial failure:
```bash
git push --delete origin rc/<HEAD_SHA> v<RC>
# then redispatch the workflow with force: true
```
The rc workflow never moves `latest`. To verify after a change, inspect dist-tags:
```bash
npm view gitnexus dist-tags
```

View file

@ -234,6 +234,29 @@ Installed automatically by both `gitnexus analyze` (per-repo) and `gitnexus setu
- Node.js >= 18
- Git repository (uses git for commit tracking)
## Release candidates
Stable releases publish to the default `latest` dist-tag. When a pull request
with non-documentation changes merges into `main`, an automated workflow also
publishes a prerelease build under the `rc` dist-tag, so early adopters can
try in-flight fixes without waiting for the next stable cut. (Docs-only
merges are skipped.)
```bash
# Try the latest release candidate (pre-stable — may change at any time)
npm install -g gitnexus@rc
# — or —
npx gitnexus@rc analyze
```
Release-candidate versions follow the standard semver prerelease format
`X.Y.Z-rc.N`, where `X.Y.Z` is the next stable target (bumped from the
current `latest` by patch by default; `minor` or `major` when kicking off a
bigger cycle) and `N` increments per published rc. Example sequence:
`1.6.2-rc.1`, `1.6.2-rc.2`, …, then once `1.6.2` ships stable,
`1.6.3-rc.1`. See the [Releases page](https://github.com/abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus/releases)
for the full list; stable `latest` is unaffected.
## Troubleshooting
### `Cannot destructure property 'package' of 'node.target' as it is null`