fix(release): make immutable desktop release operable (#3943)

## Summary

- document `Prepare Desktop Release` as the canonical desktop release
entry point
- describe the frozen candidate, exact-head approval, and true
merge-commit contract
- document all platform outputs and complete release App/signing
configuration
- link the release runbook from the README
- allow stable reruns to repair the rolling updater manifest after the
versioned release has already published

## Release blocker

The live repository cannot currently complete this flow: repository
settings disable merge commits and the `main` ruleset allows only
squash, while `scripts/verify-desktop-release-merge.sh` requires a
two-parent merge whose second parent is the approved candidate. Those
settings must allow merge commits before a desktop release PR is merged.

## Validation

- `bash scripts/test-desktop-release-candidate.sh`
- `bash scripts/test-release-ref-contract.sh`
- `git diff --check`
- verified live repository merge settings, `main` ruleset, release tag
ruleset, Actions variable names, and secret names with GitHub API
- independent review by Princess Donut; incorporated all findings,
including the rolling-manifest retry gap and unsigned Windows labeling

Signed-off-by: Wes <wesbillman@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Carl <c7ebe626f000404285d3686e1dc74cc07cc60a9754a150041ba132e14bd3e2ec@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
This commit is contained in:
Wes
2026-07-31 09:39:14 -07:00
committed by GitHub
co-authored by Carl
parent c104eecfb3
commit 052174a148
4 changed files with 89 additions and 32 deletions
+4 -1
View File
@@ -120,7 +120,10 @@ grep -Fq "needs.release-macos-x64.result == 'success'" "$release_workflow"
grep -Fq "needs.release-linux.result == 'success'" "$release_workflow"
grep -Fq "needs.release-windows.result == 'success'" "$release_workflow"
grep -Fq "refs/tags/desktop-v{0}" "$release_workflow"
grep -Fq "if: \${{ env.already_published != 'true' && !contains(needs.setup.outputs.version, '-') }}" "$release_workflow"
grep -Fq "if: \${{ !contains(needs.setup.outputs.version, '-') }}" "$release_workflow"
if grep -Fq "env.already_published != 'true' && !contains(needs.setup.outputs.version, '-')" "$release_workflow"; then
echo "rolling updater retry is incorrectly gated by versioned publication state" >&2; exit 1
fi
grep -Fq 'group: desktop-release-${{ github.ref }}' "$release_workflow"
grep -Fq 'cancel-in-progress: false' "$release_workflow"
grep -Fq 'release artifact basename collision' "$release_workflow"