Cairn release

/cairn-release — release walk (profile-driven)

Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/shared/tracking-rules.md first. This skill prepares a release and hands any outward action to the user — it never self-submits (no registry submission, no tag push without approval). The toolchain-specific steps come from the active profile's release-walk slot; this skill is the universal spine around it. Phase header: # Release <version> → ## <step>. Chapter markers: mark a chapter at each phase transition (session start implicit).

Preconditions

• Session start: read cairn/ROADMAP.md and cairn/DECISIONS.md (standing constraints bind the release too); if an un-ingested RR sits in cairn/reviews/, handle ingestion first (see /milestone-brief).
• No milestone in-progress — release from a clean, green default branch. (A milestone at review should be merged or explicitly deferred first.)
• Clean git status; local default branch up to date with origin (detect it per the tracking-rules git model).
• Read the active profile's release-walk slot (cairn/PROFILE.md; absent → infer per tracking-rules "Toolchain profiles"): it names the release steps for this repo's toolchain. Toolchain preconditions gate on the profile — a DESCRIPTION file, a registry toolchain install — are required only when the profile's release-walk names them (an r-package profile does; a generic profile does not). Never assume a toolchain the profile doesn't declare.

Workflow

The release-walk slot is authoritative — read it, never recall a hardcoded walk. The steps below are the universal spine; the slot fills in the toolchain-specific work at step 3.

1. Version decision (question gate, one round): review the declared changelog — the file the active profile's changelog slot names ("none" → review git history since the last tag instead) — and recommend patch / minor / major with rationale (breaking changes force minor/major; pre-1.0 conventions per DESIGN.md). Confirm the target version with the user.

2. Changelog consolidation (the declared file; a "none" declaration skips this step): retitle the development heading to the release version; group entries (breaking changes first, then new features, fixes); prune noise; no milestone numbers or internal jargon.

3. Follow the active profile's release-walk slot. Run each step the slot names, in order, recording results as you go:

   • An r-package profile's slot is the CRAN walk — full local verification, wide checks, cran-comments.md, the version bump, and a human submission checklist. It is CRAN-flavored end to end and never self-submits.
   • A generic profile's slot is the minimal walk — bump the version marker, commit the release prep to the default branch, and tag the release. The tag is the release; there is no registry step. For any slow checks the slot names (wide/registry checks, reverse-dependency runs), follow the tracking-rules CI waiting rules — one blocking wait each, report results when they arrive. Any outward action (submitting, pushing a tag) is the user's to take at the approval gate; this skill prepares, it does not push.

4. Handoff / final actions. Lead outcome-first: what this release contains and why the version was chosen, in plain words, before the mechanics. Then present the slot's terminal actions as a checklist for the user to run (r-package: the CRAN submission checklist — submit, confirm the email, then tag the GitHub release and bump to the next dev version; generic: the tag/push commands), never performed on their behalf. Every command in that checklist is a handoff — the whole step exists to hand the user work to run — so each goes in a fenced block, never inline backticks (tracking-rules "Copy-run commands"). The rationale and this checklist are mandated substance: they ride in the close block's final rendered text (Mandated-substance rule) — the 1.7.0 release lost both to pre-chip rendering. Offer to prepare the post-acceptance steps as a follow-up when the user returns.

   GitHub release (conditional). When the origin remote is a GitHub remote (git remote get-url origin names github.com) and gh is available, add one more command to the handoff checklist: a gh release create for the new tag whose body is the changelog section you just consolidated for this version. Extract that section to a notes file and pass it with --notes-file, so the published release reads identically to the changelog. cairn provides this command; it never runs it — publishing the release is the user's action at the approval gate, exactly like pushing the tag (never-self-submits). Where the remote is not GitHub or gh is absent, omit this command with no failure — the tag alone is the release. The command, in its own fenced block:

   gh release create v<version> --title "v<version>" --notes-file <notes-file> --verify-tag
   

5. Work-log/ROADMAP note: one line in ROADMAP ("Released <version> YYYY-MM-DD") is permitted as a Done-section annotation; nothing else in tracking changes.

6. Close block (tracking-rules "Question gates and phase closes"), composed from the release's end state: the step-4 rationale and handoff checklist are its substance, the status line names the version and tag state, and the safety line notes that running the checklist yourself or /clear are both the natural moves; no chip.