Releasing

SimpleDeploy releases through release-please (driven by Conventional Commits) and goreleaser (binaries + packages).

Cadence

When the PR queue contains shippable changes (any feat: or fix: since the last tag), a release-please PR is open against main with a generated CHANGELOG bump. Merging that PR cuts a release.

Patch releases for security fixes can be cut anytime by manually editing the release-please PR’s version bump.

What gets built

goreleaser (config in .goreleaser.yml) produces:

• Linux AMD64 and ARM64 binaries (tarball).
• macOS AMD64 and ARM64 binaries (tarball).
• Debian package (.deb) with a systemd service.
• Homebrew tap update (vazra/homebrew-tap).
• APT repo update (vazra.github.io/apt-repo).
• GitHub release with all artifacts and the CHANGELOG entry.

Build inputs: Go binary with -ldflags for version + commit + date, plus the prebuilt UI bundle from ui/dist/ copied into cmd/simpledeploy/ui_dist/.

Local release dry-run

# Validate goreleaser config and run a snapshot build (no publish)
goreleaser release --snapshot --clean

Release-day checklist

1. Skim the release-please PR’s CHANGELOG. Reword anything unclear.
2. Confirm make test and make e2e are green on the PR.
3. Merge the release-please PR. Tag is created automatically.
4. CI runs goreleaser. Watch the workflow.
5. Verify the new version appears in: GitHub Releases, Homebrew tap, APT repo.
6. Bump the docs site if any reference is version-pinned.
7. Announce in the Blog (docs-site/src/content/docs/blog/) and GitHub Discussions.

Hotfix

For a hotfix without other queued changes:

1. Branch from the release tag.
2. Land the fix as fix: commit(s) on main (or directly on a release branch if main has unreleased work you want to hold back).
3. Let release-please open a patch PR. Merge it.

Post-mortem releases

For incident-driven security releases, follow SECURITY.md for coordinated disclosure.