New releases should be created from release branches originating from the dev
branch. When you are ready to begin the release process:
- Make sure you've pulled all the changes from GitHub for both
dev
andmain
branches. - Check out the
dev
branch. - Create a new release branch with the
release-
prefix (eg,git checkout -b release-next
).- IMPORTANT: The
release-
prefix is important, as this is what triggers our GitHub CI workflow that will ultimately publish the release. - Branches named
release-experimental
will not trigger our release workflow, as experimental releases handled differently (outlined below).
- IMPORTANT: The
- Merge
main
into the release branch.
Changesets will do most of the heavy lifting for our releases. When changes are made to the codebase, an accompanying changeset file should be included to document the change. Those files will dictate how Changesets will version our packages and what shows up in the changelogs.
- Ensure you are on the new
release-*
branch. - Enter Changesets pre-release mode using the
pre
tag:pnpm changeset pre enter pre
. - Commit the change and push the
release-*
branch to GitHub. - Wait for the release workflow to finish. The Changesets action in the workflow will open a PR that will increment all versions and generate the changelogs.
- Review the updated
CHANGELOG
files and make any adjustments necessary, then merge the PR into therelease-*
branch.find packages -name 'CHANGELOG.md' -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -exec code {} \;
- Once the PR is merged, the release workflow will publish the updated packages to npm.
- At this point, you can begin crafting the release notes for the eventual stable release in the root
CHANGELOG.md
file in the repo- Copy the template for a new release and update the version numbers and links accordingly
- Copy the relevant changelog entries from all packages into the release notes and adjust accordingly
- Commit these changes directly to the
release-*
branch - they will not trigger a new prerelease since they do not include a changeset
You may need to make changes to a pre-release prior to publishing a final stable release. To do so:
- Make whatever changes you need.
- Create a new changeset:
pnpm changeset
.- IMPORTANT: This is required even if you ultimately don't want to include these changes in the logs. Remember, changelogs can be edited prior to publishing, but the Changeset version script needs to see new changesets in order to create a new version.
- Commit the changesets and push the
release-*
branch to GitHub. - Wait for the release workflow to finish and the Changesets action to open its PR that will increment all versions.
- Review the PR, make any adjustments necessary, and merge it into the
release-*
branch. - Once the PR is merged, the release workflow will publish the updated packages to npm.
- Make sure you copy over the new changeset contents into stable release notes in the root
CHANGELOG.md
file in the repo
- Exit Changesets pre-release mode:
pnpm changeset pre exit
. - Commit the edited pre-release file along with any unpublished changesets, and push the
release-*
branch to GitHub. - Wait for the release workflow to finish. The Changesets action in the workflow will open a PR that will increment all versions and generate the changelogs for the stable release.
- Review the updated
CHANGELOG
files and make any adjustments necessary.find packages -name 'CHANGELOG.md' -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -exec code {} \;
- Our automated release process should have removed prerelease entries
- Finalize the release notes
- This should already be in pretty good shape in the root
CHANGELOG.md
file in the repo - Do a quick double check that all iterated prerelease changesets got copied over
- This should already be in pretty good shape in the root
- Merge the PR into the
release-*
branch. - Once the PR is merged, the release workflow will publish the updated packages to npm.
- Once the release is published:
- Pull the latest
release-*
branch containing the PR you just merged - Merge the
release-*
branch intomain
using a non-fast-forward merge and push it up to GitHubgit checkout main; git merge --no-ff release-next
- Merge the
release-*
branch intodev
using a non-fast-forward merge and push it up to GitHubgit checkout dev; git merge --no-ff release-next
- Convert the
react-router@6.x.y
tag to a Release on GitHub with the namev6.x.y
and add a deep-link to the release heading inCHANGELOG.md
- Pull the latest
Hotfix releases follow the same process as standard releases above, but the release-*
branch should be branched off latest main
instead of dev
. Once the stable hotfix is published, the release-*
branch should be merged back into both main
and dev
just like a normal release.
Experimental releases and hot-fixes do not need to be branched off of dev
. Experimental releases can be branched from anywhere as they are not intended for general use.
- Create a new branch for the release:
git checkout -b release-experimental
- Make whatever changes you need and commit them:
git add . && git commit "experimental changes!"
- Update version numbers and create a release tag:
pnpm run version:experimental
- Push to GitHub:
git push origin --follow-tags
- The CI workflow should automatically trigger from the experimental tag to publish the release to npm