Files
effectcraft/docs/releasing.md
bflatasticandClaude Opus 5.5 fd533fdb6d Docs: releasing.md, the release procedure release.yml points to (#136)
How a release is cut (version bump, the gate, pushing main to release,
the draft, publishing), test runs, what gets built where, the Linux
glibc baseline behind the ubuntu-22.04 runners, and the optional signing
secrets. release.yml's two pointers now resolve.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
2026-10-07 11:53:50 +07:00

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Releasing EffectCraft

Every push to the release branch runs .github/workflows/release.yml. It builds signed installers for macOS, Windows, Linux and the web, then creates or updates a draft GitHub Release named EffectCraft v<version>. Nobody sees a draft until a maintainer publishes it.

User-facing names say EffectCraft. Files, binaries and ids stay lowercase (effectcraft-<version>-<platform>-<arch>.<ext>).

Cutting a release

  1. Bump the version on main. It lives in one place, [workspace.package] version in the root Cargo.toml:

    cargo xtask version                 # prints the current version, e.g. 0.3.1
    cargo xtask version set 0.4.0       # or 0.4.0-rc.1; updates Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock
    

    Open a PR titled Release: EffectCraft v0.4.0 with that change (Cargo.toml and our crates in Cargo.lock only) and merge it.

  2. Check the gate. Run cargo xtask ci on main (it runs clippy and the tests in release mode, as CI does), and check that main's CI is green on every platform.

  3. Push main to release (a fast-forward): git push origin main:release. The release branch is protected; only maintainers can push to it. The workflow starts by itself.

  4. Wait for the draft. When every job is green (macOS notarization is the slow part), the Releases page has a draft EffectCraft v0.4.0, tagged v0.4.0 on the pushed commit, with every artifact and SHA256SUMS.txt. Its notes are generated from the merged PRs.

  5. Check it. Download an installer or two, check them against SHA256SUMS.txt, and run effectcraft --version / effectcraft-cli --version. Read the job summaries: a ::warning:: means a signing secret was missing and that artifact is unsigned.

  6. Publish the draft in the GitHub UI (or gh release edit v0.4.0 --draft=false --latest), with a short Highlights section above the generated notes. Publishing creates the v0.4.0 tag. Versions with a pre-release suffix (-rc.1) are marked as pre-releases.

Pushing to release again before you publish rebuilds the same draft and replaces its assets. Once the draft is published, the workflow refuses to touch that version again (Release v<version> is already published. Bump the version (cargo xtask version set) before pushing to release.), so bump it first.

Test runs: Actions › Release › Run workflow runs the whole pipeline by hand. The optional version input (such as 0.4.0-rc.1) overrides Cargo.toml for that run only: the jobs apply it with cargo xtask version set before building, so the binaries report it too. The run still needs the release environment, which only the release branch can use, so pick that branch in the dialog.

What gets built

Platform Artifacts Built on
macOS 11+ (universal: Apple silicon and Intel) effectcraft-<v>-macos-universal.dmg, effectcraft-cli-<v>-macos-universal.zip macos-15
Windows 10+ x64 effectcraft-<v>-windows-x64.msi, effectcraft-<v>-windows-x64-portable.zip windows-latest
Windows 10+ x86 (32-bit) effectcraft-<v>-windows-x86.msi, effectcraft-<v>-windows-x86-portable.zip windows-latest
Windows 11 ARM64 effectcraft-<v>-windows-arm64.msi, effectcraft-<v>-windows-arm64-portable.zip cross-compiled on windows-latest
Linux x86_64 effectcraft-<v>-linux-x86_64.{AppImage,deb,rpm,tar.gz} ubuntu-22.04
Linux aarch64 effectcraft-<v>-linux-aarch64.{AppImage,deb,rpm,tar.gz} ubuntu-22.04-arm
Web effectcraft-web-<v>.zip (a static site; see web.md) ubuntu-latest

The ARM64 MSI is installed and run on ARM64 hardware by windows-arm64.yml.

Every binary reports its version: effectcraft --version, effectcraft-cli --version and Help › About EffectCraft.

Linux: the glibc baseline

Linux binaries link against the glibc of the machine that builds them and need at least that version wherever they run. The release builds on the oldest GitHub-hosted image, Ubuntu 22.04 (glibc 2.35), so the packages run on Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora 36+ and RHEL 10. Building on a newer image would silently raise that floor. packaging/linux/package.sh builds the AppImage, .deb, .rpm and tarball; the workflow then runs the AppImage's --version as a smoke test.

Signing

Every job runs in the release environment, which only the release branch can use and which holds the signing secrets. Every secret is optional: a missing one produces an unsigned artifact and a warning in the job summary, never a failed build.

Platform Secrets
macOS (Developer ID signing and notarization) APPLE_CERTIFICATE, APPLE_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD, KEYCHAIN_PASSWORD, APPLE_ID, APPLE_PASSWORD, APPLE_TEAM_ID
Windows (a certificate, or Azure Trusted Signing) WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE, WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD, or AZURE_TENANT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET, AZURE_SIGNING_ENDPOINT, AZURE_SIGNING_ACCOUNT, AZURE_CERT_PROFILE