production-release

name: production-release description: >- Preparing a production release, pushing a vX.Y.Z release tag, running scripts/release.sh, or updating CHANGELOG.md with the changes that are about to be deployed to production.

Production release

Use this skill when preparing a production deployment. If the skill is invoked without additional context or constraints, assume the user wants the default patch production release flow: update CHANGELOG.md, bump the Helm chart version, commit both as release: vX.Y.Z, push it to origin/development, and run the production tag script for the next patch version. Production deploys are triggered by pushing a vX.Y.Z tag; the changelog is updated at release time as a human-readable diff of the code being pushed to production since the previous production deploy, focused on the major aspects rather than every commit.

Release invariants

• development is trunk and deploys to staging by default.
• Production is triggered only by pushing a vX.Y.Z tag that points at the latest origin/development commit.
• Do not promote by merging development into main.
• Do not tag unreleased local-only commits. The release commit, including any changelog update, must be pushed to origin/development before tagging.
• The changelog release commit message must always have the exact shape release: vX.Y.Z, for example release: v1.2.3.
• Update CHANGELOG.md during release preparation, before running the command that pushes the production tag.
• The Helm chart (charts/latitude/Chart.yaml) tracks the Latitude release: set both version and appVersion to X.Y.Z (no leading v) in the same release: vX.Y.Z commit as the changelog. scripts/release.sh refuses to tag a release whose chart version does not match.

Default behavior when no extra context is given

When the user only invokes this skill (or says something like "production release") without specifying a version, dry run, changelog-only update, or other constraint:

1. Treat it as approval to perform the full patch release workflow.
2. Determine the next patch version from the latest vX.Y.Z tag.
3. Update CHANGELOG.md for that next patch version using the production diff.
4. Set version and appVersion in charts/latitude/Chart.yaml to the new X.Y.Z.
5. Commit both with the exact message release: vX.Y.Z and push to origin/development.
6. Run scripts/release.sh --yes (without an explicit version) so it tags the latest origin/development commit with the next patch version. The --yes flag is required when running non-interactively (agent or CI): the script's confirmation prompt cannot be answered without a terminal, and without --yes it exits with an error rather than tagging.

Still obey all release invariants: never tag local-only commits, never promote via main, and stop to ask if the working tree or branch state makes the release unsafe or ambiguous.

Workflow

1. Push the commit intended for production to origin/development; the release script always tags the latest origin/development commit after fetching.
2. Fetch tags and identify the previous production release tag:

   git fetch origin development --tags
   git tag -l 'v*' --sort=-v:refname | grep -E '^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$' | head -n 1
   

3. Inspect the release range (<latest-tag>..origin/development, or the initial release range if no tag exists) as the production diff. Read the commits and changed files enough to understand the main shipped behavior, not just the commit titles.
4. Update CHANGELOG.md before deploying:
   • keep ## Unreleased at the top;
   • add a section for the release version and date, for example ## v1.2.3 - 2026-05-27;
   • summarize the major aspects of the production diff in language humans can scan quickly;
   • combine small related commits into one meaningful entry;
   • list only changes included in the release range;
   • group entries by area when helpful;
   • include references such as PR numbers or short commit SHAs when they help readers trace the change;
   • skip internal-only noise that does not matter to operators or users.
5. Commit the changelog update with message release: vX.Y.Z (matching the release version exactly) and push it to origin/development.
6. Run scripts/release.sh [version]. Use --dry first when you want to preview the release summary without tagging. Pass --yes to skip the confirmation prompt — always required when running without a terminal (agent or CI), otherwise the script errors out instead of tagging.

Changelog style

Use concise, past-tense entries that describe the major shipped behavior. The changelog is not an exhaustive commit log; it is a readable summary of what will change in production compared with the previous deploy:

## v1.2.3 - 2026-05-27

### Traces

- Added hover popovers for histogram incidents (ref: #3252).
- Fixed native OAuth redirect URI handling (ref: #3254).

Prefer release accuracy over exhaustive commit transcription. If a PR was merged but is not part of the tagged range, it does not belong in that release section. If many commits contribute to one capability, write one entry for the capability instead of one entry per commit.