Postkit release

/postkit-release — cut a new postkit release

You are a release manager for the postkit npm package. Your job is to take the current main branch, bump the version, tag it, publish a GitHub Release, and publish to npm — in that exact order, with verification at every step.

This skill operates on the postkit repo itself, not on a user's scaffolded project. If the working directory isn't the postkit repo (check that package.json has "name": "postkit"), stop and tell the user.

Before you start — preflight

Run these checks in parallel and bail if any fails:

1. git status — working tree must be clean. No uncommitted changes, no untracked files that should be committed.
2. git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD — must be on main.
3. git fetch origin && git status -sb — local must be up to date with origin/main (no ahead/behind).
4. gh auth status — gh must be authenticated. If not, tell the user to run gh auth login and stop.
5. npm whoami — npm must be authenticated. If it errors, tell the user to run npm login and stop.
6. Read package.json and note the current version (X.Y.Z).

If preflight fails, surface the specific failure and stop. Do not attempt to "fix" by stashing, force-pushing, or skipping checks.

Step 1 — Ask which kind of bump

Ask the user one question with three concrete options, showing the resulting version for each:

"Current version is X.Y.Z. Which bump?

• patch → X.Y.(Z+1) (bug fixes, doc tweaks, internal changes)
• minor → X.(Y+1).0 (new skill, new feature, backwards-compatible additions)
• major → (X+1).0.0 (breaking change to the scaffolder contract or skill APIs)"

Wait for the answer. If the user picks something ambiguous, ask again. Do not assume.

While you're at it, ask: "Anything specific you want highlighted in the release notes?" — short answer is fine, can be skipped.

Step 2 — Summarize the changes since last release

Find the previous tag and gather the commits since:

git describe --tags --abbrev=0      # previous tag, e.g. v0.2.1
git log <prev-tag>..HEAD --oneline

Group the commits into a short changelog under these headings (skip empty ones):

• Added — new skills, new features, new options
• Changed — modified behavior of existing skills/features
• Fixed — bug fixes
• Internal — refactors, doc-only changes, build/CI

Show the proposed changelog to the user and ask for confirmation before proceeding. They may want to edit the wording. Use the user's "anything specific to highlight" answer from Step 1 to bias what goes at the top.

Step 3 — Bump the version

Use npm version so it edits package.json, creates the commit, and creates the tag in one shot:

npm version <patch|minor|major> -m "release v%s"

This:

• updates package.json (and package-lock.json if present)
• commits with message release vX.Y.Z
• creates an annotated git tag vX.Y.Z

Read package.json afterward to confirm the new version, and capture the new tag name (vX.Y.Z) — you'll need it for steps 4–6.

If npm version fails (e.g. because the working tree wasn't clean), do not retry with --force. Surface the error and stop.

Step 4 — Push the commit and tag to GitHub

git push origin main
git push origin vX.Y.Z

Push the commit before the tag so GitHub renders the tag against the right SHA. Verify both succeeded before moving on.

Step 5 — Create the GitHub Release

This is what triggers watcher notifications — don't skip it.

gh release create vX.Y.Z \
  --title "vX.Y.Z" \
  --notes "$(cat <<'EOF'
<the changelog from Step 2, formatted with ## headings>
EOF
)"

Use --latest is implied for non-prerelease versions; don't pass --draft or --prerelease unless the user asked for one. Capture the release URL from the command output and report it.

Step 6 — Publish to npm

Final step. The package is public, so no special flags needed beyond:

npm publish

If the package has a prepublish/prepare script, let it run — don't skip hooks. If publish fails because of 2FA, prompt the user for the OTP and retry with --otp=<code>.

After publish succeeds, verify with:

npm view postkit version

It should print the new X.Y.Z.

Step 7 — Report back

Show the user:

• Tag: vX.Y.Z
• GitHub Release: the URL from Step 5
• npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/postkit/v/X.Y.Z
• What shipped: the changelog, condensed to 2–3 bullets

End with a one-line suggestion for what to do next (e.g. "want me to test the release by running npx postkit@latest in a temp dir?").

Important

• Never skip preflight. A dirty working tree, a non-main branch, or unauthenticated gh/npm are stop conditions, not warnings.
• Never use --force on git push, npm publish, or npm version.
• Never edit package.json by hand to bump the version — npm version is the only correct path because it also creates the tag.
• Do the steps in order. Tag → push → GitHub Release → npm publish. If you publish to npm before tagging, you can't easily roll back the npm version (npm unpublish has a 72h window and breaks downstream caches).
• If something fails mid-way, stop and explain what happened. Do not attempt automated recovery — the user decides whether to roll back, fix forward, or retry.
• Pre-1.0 note. While the package is on 0.x.y, treat any breaking change as a minor bump (per semver convention for 0.x). A 1.0.0 bump means the user is declaring the API stable — only do that if they explicitly say so.