Release Creation Command

Create GitHub releases using release-please automation or manual release workflows for containerized applications.

When to Use

Scenario	Use this skill	Alternative
Cutting a new release from main	Yes	-
Setting up release-please automation	Yes	-
Creating a manual GitHub release	Yes	-
Publishing a pre-release or draft	Yes	-
Deploying to Kubernetes	No	deploy-handoff for handoff docs
Building container images	No	container-development for Dockerfiles
Tagging without a GitHub release	No	Use git tag directly

Context

• Git remotes: !git remote -v
• Branch: !git branch --show-current
• Recent tags: !git tag --sort=-v:refname -l 'v*' --format='%(refname:short)' -n5
• Last release commit: !git log --oneline --max-count=5
• Release config: !find . -maxdepth 1 -name 'release-please-config.json'
• Manifest: !find . -maxdepth 1 -name '.release-please-manifest.json'
• Changelog: !find . -maxdepth 1 -name 'CHANGELOG.md'

Parameters

Parse from $ARGUMENTS:

• $1 (VERSION): Semantic version string (e.g., 1.2.0, v2.0.0-rc.1)
• --draft: Create release as draft (not published)
• --prerelease: Mark as pre-release

Execution

Execute this release workflow:

Step 1: Determine release strategy

Check whether the project uses release-please or manual releases:

1. If release-please-config.json exists, use the release-please workflow
2. If no release-please config exists, use the manual release workflow

Step 2a: Release-please workflow

If release-please is configured:

1. Verify conventional commits exist since last release tag
2. Check for an open release PR: gh pr list --label "autorelease: pending" --json number,title,url
3. If a release PR exists, report its status and URL
4. If no release PR exists, explain that release-please creates PRs automatically from conventional commits
5. Provide guidance on merging the release PR to trigger the release

Step 2b: Manual release workflow

If no release-please config:

1. Validate the VERSION argument follows semver format
2. Check that the working tree is clean: git status --porcelain
3. Confirm the branch is main or master
4. Create the release with:

   gh release create v<VERSION> --title "v<VERSION>" --generate-notes
   

5. Add --draft flag if --draft was passed
6. Add --prerelease flag if --prerelease was passed

Step 3: Set up release-please (if requested)

If the user asks to set up release-please automation:

1. Create release-please-config.json with manifest release type:

   {
     "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
     "release-type": "simple",
     "packages": {
       ".": {
         "component": "<project-name>",
         "extra-files": [
           {"type": "json", "path": "package.json", "jsonpath": "$.version"}
         ],
         "changelog-sections": [
           {"type": "feat", "section": "Features"},
           {"type": "fix", "section": "Bug Fixes"},
           {"type": "perf", "section": "Performance"},
           {"type": "refactor", "section": "Code Refactoring"},
           {"type": "docs", "section": "Documentation"}
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

2. Create .release-please-manifest.json with current version:

   {
     ".": "0.0.0"
   }
   

3. Recommend adding the release-please GitHub Action workflow

Step 4: Report results

Print a summary including:

• Release version and URL (if created)
• Release PR status (if release-please)
• Next steps for the user

Release-Please GitHub Action

Recommended workflow for automation:

name: Release
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
        with:
          config-file: release-please-config.json
          manifest-file: .release-please-manifest.json

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Command
List recent tags	git tag --sort=-v:refname -l 'v*' -n5
Check release PRs	gh pr list --label "autorelease: pending" --json number,title,url
Latest release	gh release view --json tagName,publishedAt,url
Create release	gh release create v1.0.0 --generate-notes
Create draft	gh release create v1.0.0 --draft --generate-notes
Create prerelease	gh release create v1.0.0-rc.1 --prerelease --generate-notes
List all releases	gh release list --json tagName,isLatest,isDraft,isPrerelease
Commits since tag	git log v1.0.0..HEAD --oneline

Quick Reference

Flag	Description
--draft	Create as draft release (not visible publicly)
--prerelease	Mark as pre-release version
--generate-notes	Auto-generate release notes from commits
--notes-file FILE	Use file contents as release notes
--target BRANCH	Target branch for the release tag

Related Skills

• deploy-handoff - Generate deployment handoff documentation
• container-development - Container image construction and optimization