RELEASE.md

Making a Release

You'll generally create one of two release types: a regular feature release (minor version bump like 1.20) or a bug-fixing patch release (patch version bump like 1.20.1).

goose uses GitHub actions to automate the release process. The actual releases are triggered by tags.

Minor version releases

These are typically done once per week. The process has two automated phases:

1. Version bump PR — An action runs every Tuesday (or can be triggered manually) that creates a PR to bump the version on main. Review and merge this PR.

2. Release branch + PR — When the version bump PR merges, automation creates a release/<version> branch from main and opens a release PR with a QA checklist.

From there:

• Test locally if you can (just run-ui)
• Cherry-pick any last-minute fixes into the release branch if needed
• Download and test the .zip from the release PR
• When ready, follow the instructions on the release PR to tag and release

To trigger the release, find the corresponding PR and follow the instructions in the PR description.

Patch version releases

When a minor release is tagged, automation immediately creates the next patch release branch (e.g. release/1.25.1 from release/1.25.0) with the version already bumped and a release PR open. Cherry-pick fixes into this branch, then tag when ready.

To trigger the release, find the corresponding PR and follow the instructions in the PR description.

High level release flow:

minor-release (cron/manual)
  │
  ▼
version-bump PR → main (merge this)
  │
  ▼ (on merge)
release/<V> branch created from main
release PR opened (for QA, cherry-picks, testing)
  │
  ▼ (when ready)
git tag v<V> origin/release/<V> && git push origin v<V>
  │
  ├─► release PR auto-closed (no merge needed)
  ├─► release.yml builds & publishes
  └─► patch release/<V+1> branch + PR auto-created
        │
        ▼ (cherry-pick fixes, then when ready)
        git tag v<V+1> origin/release/<V+1> && git push origin v<V+1>