buzz/RELEASING.md

Releasing Sprout Desktop

Quick Start

# Regular release (next minor version)
just release

# Patch release
just release patch

# Explicit version
just release 1.0.0

This creates a version-bump/<version> PR that bumps all version manifests, regenerates lockfiles, and appends a changelog entry. Merge the PR to trigger the build automatically.

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How It Works

1. just release runs locally on main — computes the next version, creates a version-bump/<version> branch, bumps versions in all manifests, regenerates lockfiles, generates a changelog entry, commits, pushes, and opens a PR.

2. Merge the PR — the auto-tag-on-release-pr-merge workflow detects the version-bump/* branch merge and pushes a v<version> tag.

3. Tag triggers release.yml — the existing release workflow builds, signs, notarizes, and publishes the desktop app for macOS and Linux.

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Release Types

Command	Version	Example
just release	Next minor	0.3.0 → 0.4.0
just release patch	Next patch	0.3.0 → 0.3.1
just release 1.0.0	Explicit	1.0.0

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Version Files

just bump-version <version> updates these files:

File	Field
desktop/package.json	"version"
desktop/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json	"version"
desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml	version (under [package])
mobile/pubspec.yaml	version: (preserves build number)

It also regenerates pnpm-lock.yaml, desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.lock, and mobile/pubspec.lock.

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Manual Fallback

If the automated flow isn't suitable (e.g., building from a non-main ref):

1. Go to Actions > Release in the GitHub UI
2. Click Run workflow
3. Provide the semver version (no v prefix) and the ref to build from

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Internal Releases

After the OSS release ships, trigger an internal build via the sprout-releases Buildkite pipeline:

1. Go to the sprout-releases pipeline and click New Build
2. Fill in the input fields:

   Field	Value	Notes
   version	0.3.0	Semver, no v prefix
   sprout_ref	v0.3.0	The OSS git tag — use the tag, not a branch name
   relay_url	(default)	Pre-filled with the production relay; usually leave as-is
   publish_latest	true	Updates latest.json on Artifactory so installed apps auto-update. Set to false for test builds.

Internal desktop builds display a -block suffix in the version (e.g., v0.3.0-block in the Settings panel). This distinguishes them from OSS builds at a glance. iOS builds and GitHub release tags use the clean version (0.3.0) since Apple's CFBundleShortVersionString rejects pre-release suffixes.

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What Gets Published

Each release produces two GitHub releases:

1. v<version> — the user-facing release with the .dmg installer (macOS) and .deb/.AppImage (Linux).

2. sprout-desktop-latest — a rolling pre-release for the Tauri auto-updater containing latest.json, the signed .tar.gz archive, and its .sig signature.

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Prerequisites

• Write access to the block/sprout GitHub repository
• gh CLI authenticated (gh auth status)
• The following GitHub Actions secrets must be configured:

  Secret	Purpose
  SPROUT_UPDATER_PUBLIC_KEY	Tauri updater public key (minisign)
  TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY	Tauri updater private key
  TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD	Password for the private key

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Troubleshooting

just release fails with "must be on main branch"

Switch to main and pull latest before running just release.

just release fails with "working tree is dirty"

Commit or stash your changes before running just release.

Build fails at "Validate version"

The version string must be valid semver: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH with an optional pre-release suffix. Do not include a v prefix.

Auto-updater reports "no update available"

Verify that the sprout-desktop-latest release exists and contains a valid latest.json.