Release Coordinator

Multi-repo release orchestration, RC lifecycle management, and release strategy.

Release Dependency Management

# Build-time dependencies
shared-lib: v2.0.0
  └─ service-a: v3.1.0 (depends on shared-lib)
  └─ service-b: v2.5.0 (depends on shared-lib)

# Runtime dependencies
auth-service: v1.8.0
  └─ api-gateway: v2.0.0 (calls auth-service)
     └─ frontend: v3.2.0 (calls api-gateway)

Release Order Calculation:

1. Build dependency graph
2. Topological sort for correct order
3. Identify circular dependencies (error)
4. Generate release waves

Release Waves

### Wave 1 (Foundations)
- [ ] shared-lib: v2.0.0 → v3.0.0
- [ ] database-migrations: v9 → v10

### Wave 2 (Backend Services)
- [ ] auth-service: v1.8.0 → v2.0.0 (depends: shared-lib v3.0.0)
- [ ] user-service: v1.5.0 → v2.0.0 (depends: schema v10)

### Wave 3 (API Layer)
- [ ] api-gateway: v2.0.0 → v3.0.0 (depends: auth-service v2.0.0)

### Wave 4 (Frontend)
- [ ] web-app: v3.2.0 → v4.0.0 (depends: api-gateway v3.0.0)

Release Candidate (RC) Lifecycle

Pre-Release Tags

Alpha: 1.0.0-alpha.1  # Early development (unstable)
Beta:  1.0.0-beta.1   # Feature complete (testing)
RC:    1.0.0-rc.1     # Release candidate (near production)
Final: 1.0.0          # Production release

RC Workflow

# 1. Create RC
git tag -a v2.0.0-rc.1 -m "Release candidate 1"
npm version 2.0.0-rc.1

# 2. Deploy to staging
gh release create v2.0.0-rc.1 --prerelease

# 3. Testing phase (1-2 weeks)
# Bug found → create v2.0.0-rc.2

# 4. Promote to final
git tag -a v2.0.0 -m "Production release"
npm version 2.0.0
gh release create v2.0.0  # NOT prerelease

RC State Machine

DRAFT → TESTING → VALIDATED → PROMOTED
          ↓           ↓
       FAILED     HOTFIX → back to TESTING

Tag Cleanup

# List RC tags
git tag -l "*-rc.*" | sort -V

# Delete old RC after promotion
git tag -d v2.0.0-rc.1 v2.0.0-rc.2
git push origin --delete v2.0.0-rc.1 v2.0.0-rc.2

Coordinated Release Strategies

Strategy	When to Use
Lockstep	Tight coupling, small team, shared breaking changes
Independent	Loose coupling, autonomous teams, frequent releases
Umbrella	Product milestones, services evolve at different rates

Lockstep (all repos share version)

Product: v3.0.0
Repositories:
  - frontend: v3.0.0
  - backend: v3.0.0
  - api: v3.0.0

Independent (each repo own version)

Repositories:
  - frontend: v4.2.0
  - backend: v2.8.0
  - api: v3.1.0

Umbrella (product + service versions)

Product: v5.0.0 (umbrella)
├─ frontend: v4.2.0
├─ backend: v2.8.0
└─ api: v3.1.0

Brownfield Strategy Detection

Analyzes existing projects to detect release patterns:

• Git: Version tags, release branches
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins
• Package Managers: NPM, Python, Go
• Monorepo Tools: Lerna, Nx, Turborepo
• Release Automation: semantic-release, standard-version

Pre-Release Validation

# 1. Version Compatibility
✓ shared-lib v2.0.0 compatible with service-a v3.0.0
✗ Database schema v10 required but only v9 deployed

# 2. CI/CD Status
✓ All tests passing
✗ Staging deployment failed

# 3. Documentation
✓ CHANGELOG.md updated
✗ Migration guide missing

Rollback Coordination

## Rollback: v3.0.0 → v2.5.0 (Reverse wave order)

### Wave 1 (Rollback Frontend First)
- [ ] web-app: v4.0.0 → v3.2.0
- [ ] mobile-app: v3.0.0 → v2.5.0

### Wave 2 (Rollback API Layer)
- [ ] api-gateway: v3.0.0 → v2.8.0

### Wave 3 (Backend - Optional)
- [ ] Keep backend if backward compatible

Living Documentation

Creates release-strategy.md:

# Release Strategy: {Product Name}

## Current Strategy
- Type: Multi-repo / Monorepo / Microservices
- Versioning: Semantic / Date-based
- Alignment: Lockstep / Independent / Umbrella
- RC Process: Pre-release tags / Channels

## Release Checklist
- [ ] All tests passing
- [ ] Changelog updated
- [ ] Version bumped
- [ ] Git tag created
- [ ] GitHub release published
- [ ] Package published
- [ ] Documentation updated

Integration with SpecWeave

# 1. Plan release increment
/sw:increment "0025-product-v3-release"

# 2. Execute wave-by-wave
/sw:do

# 3. Complete release
/sw:done 0025

Best Practices

1. Understand dependencies before releasing
2. Execute wave-by-wave (never "big bang")
3. Always use RC for major versions
4. Have rollback plan ready
5. Monitor 1+ hour post-release
6. Clean up RC tags after promotion

Related Skills

• version-aligner - Semver constraints, version conflict detection