Release Process

This document describes how to prepare and publish a new release via a Pull Request from a fork, and how to set a development version after the release.

✅ Overview of the Process

Step	Actor	Action
1	Contributor	Prepare a release branch in your fork
2	Contributor	Open a Pull Request to upstream (`Akkudoktor-EOS/EOS`)
3	Maintainer	Review and merge the release PR
4	CI	Create the GitHub Release and tag
5	CI	Set the development version marker via a follow-up PR

🔄 Detailed Workflow

1️⃣ Contributor: Prepare the Release in Your Fork

Clone and sync your fork

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/EOS
cd EOS
git remote add eos https://github.com/Akkudoktor-EOS/EOS

git fetch eos
git checkout main
git pull eos main

Create the release branch

git checkout -b release/vX.Y.Z

Bump the version information

Set __version__ in src/akkudoktoreos/core/version.py

__version__ = 0.3.0

Prepare version by updating versioned files, e.g.:

config.yaml

and the generated documentation:

make prepare-version

Check the changes by:

make test-version

Create a new CHANGELOG.md entry

Edit CHANGELOG.md

Create the new release commit

Add all the changed version files and all other changes to the commit.

git add src/akkudoktoreos/core/version.py CHANGELOG.md ...
git commit -s -m "chore: Prepare Release v0.3.0"

Push the branch to your fork

git push --set-upstream origin release/v0.3.0

2️⃣ Contributor: Open the Release Preparation Pull Request

From	To
`<your-username>/EOS:release/vX.Y.Z`	`Akkudoktor-EOS/EOS:main`

PR Title:

chore: prepare release vX.Y.Z

PR Description Template:

## Prepare Release vX.Y.Z

This pull request prepares release **vX.Y.Z**.

### Changes
- Version bump
- Changelog update

### Changelog Summary
<!-- Copy key highlights from CHANGELOG.md here -->

See `CHANGELOG.md` for full details.

3️⃣ Maintainer: Review and Merge the Release PR

Review Checklist:

✅ Only version files and CHANGELOG.md are modified
✅ Version numbers are consistent
✅ Changelog is complete and properly formatted
✅ No unrelated changes are included

Merge Strategy:

Prefer Merge Commit (or Squash Merge, per project preference)
Use commit message: chore: Prepare Release vX.Y.Z

4️⃣ CI: Publish the GitHub Release

The new release will automatically be published by the GitHub CI action.

See .github/workflwows/bump-version.ymlfor details.

5️⃣ CI: Prepare the Development Version Marker

The development version marker .dev will automatically be set by the GitHub CI action.

See .github/workflwows/bump-version.ymlfor details.

✅ Quick Reference

Step	Actor	Action
1. Prepare release branch	Contributor	Bump version & changelog
2. Open release PR	Contributor	Submit release for review
3. Review & merge release PR	Maintainer	Finalize changes into `main`
4. Publish GitHub Release	CI	Create tag & notify users
5. Prepare development version branch	CI	Set development marker