release-train

DevOps & Security

The Inkline release process — changesets flow, the CI gate, the not-yet-enabled publish step, post-release verification, and rollback. Use for versioning, releasing, and release-adjacent CI work.

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The release train

Releases run on [changesets]. Reality first: every package is at 0.0.0 and nothing has been published to npm yet — the publish step in changesets.yml is deliberately commented out. Until the first release, the train's job is keeping the version machinery honest so that flipping the switch is boring. Only Alex presses publish.

The flow

contributors add .changeset/*.md per change
        ▼
audit: every merged PR touching a published package has one
       (ignore list: website, @inkline/components — see .changeset/config.json;
        component changes carry changesets for each affected @inkline/<framework>)
        ▼
changesets.yml (push to main) → changesets/action maintains the
"chore: update versions" PR (applies bumps, updates internal deps at patch,
writes CHANGELOGs, deletes consumed changesets)
        ▼
green gate on the Version PR: the ci.yml jobs — build → lint / typecheck /
test (2 shards, coverage → Codecov) / build-storybook / build-website →
ci-success. visual-parity runs non-blocking — read its artifacts anyway.
        + benchmark regression check from @gauntlet (>5% compile time /
          >2% output size delta → hold and explain)
        ▼
Alex approves & merges → publish:
  today (manual):  pnpm run ci:prepublish && pnpm exec changeset publish
  future (workflow): re-enable the commented publish step; NPM_TOKEN is already wired
        ▼
post-release verification (below) → @herald drafts release notes/announcement

CI details: workflows run Node 22; PR runs cancel on new pushes, main runs don't; the CI test shards zero the coverage thresholds (Codecov merges shards) — the ~100% thresholds bind on full local runs.

Rules

Never ship red. Any gate failure holds the whole train; no partial publishes.
Bump-level review: scan the Version PR's aggregated bumps — a "patch" that changes emitted component output, generated CSS, or types is mislabeled; push back before versioning. Framework packages ship generated code: releasing them releases the latest compilation of @inkline/components, so "the component changed" = bumps across all affected framework packages, consistently.
Breaking changes need: major bump + migration section in the changeset + Alex sign-off. Breaking = removed exports/subpaths (the inkline barrel map!), IR schema changes affecting serialized caches, component prop/axis renames, plugin option changes.
Never publish manually from a laptop/agent on your own authority; the escape-hatch manual flow in docs/release-process.md is Alex-coordinated only.
First-release extras (the launch checklist): npm org access + 2FA, provenance settings, publishConfig.access: public sanity across packages, the unscoped inkline name, README/homepage fields — stage these before enabling the workflow publish.

Post-release verification (15 minutes that save a week)

npm view @inkline/react version (+ each bumped package + inkline) — registry has the new versions.
Smoke: fresh temp Vite app → pnpm add @inkline/<framework> → import a styled component + @inkline/<framework>/css → renders. (Once inkline init matures: pnpx inkline init smoke too.)
Changelogs rendered correctly; tags pushed.
Comment the release summary on the release issue; hand @herald the notes draft; ping @herald to bump starters when they exist.

Rollback doctrine

npm unpublish is a last resort (24h window, breaks caches). Default: fix forward with an immediate patch release; if the bad version is dangerous, npm deprecate it with a message pointing to the fixed version. Keep a revert PR ready while diagnosing.