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Helios Release Automation

This repository now supports automated GitHub releases with generated changelogs.

Releases are both:

  • Tag-driven (push v* tag), and
  • One-command (local helper script / Make target)

Release paths

You can release Helios in any of these ways:

  1. One-command local release (recommended for maintainers)
  2. Manual GitHub Action dispatch
  3. Direct tag push (tag-driven)

1) One-command local release

From the repository root:

make release VERSION=v0.2.0 TARGET=main

Prerelease examples:

# Release candidate
make release VERSION=v0.2.0 CHANNEL=rc PRERELEASE_ITERATION=1 TARGET=main

# Beta release
make release VERSION=v0.2.0 CHANNEL=beta PRERELEASE_ITERATION=1 TARGET=main

What this does:

  • Validates version format (vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH)
  • Verifies clean working tree
  • Creates an annotated tag on origin/main
  • Pushes the tag
  • Triggers the tag-driven release workflow

Dry run (no tag push):

make release VERSION=v0.2.0 CHANNEL=rc PRERELEASE_ITERATION=1 DRY_RUN=true

2) Manual GitHub Action dispatch

Use workflow: Create Release Tag (Manual)

Inputs:

  • version → base or full tag (e.g. v0.2.0 or v0.2.0-rc.1)
  • target → branch to tag (default main)
  • channel → stable | rc | beta
  • prerelease_iteration → used when channel is rc/beta and version has no suffix

This workflow pushes the tag; release publication is then handled automatically by the tag-driven workflow.

3) Tag-driven release (direct)

Push a tag manually:

git tag -a v0.2.0 -m "Release v0.2.0"
git push origin v0.2.0

That triggers Release (Tag-Driven).

What the automated release workflow does

Workflow: .github/workflows/release-on-tag.yml

For each v* tag push, it:

  1. Checks out full git history (for changelog ranges)
  2. Runs tests serially (go test -p 1 ./... -count=1)
  3. Builds artifacts with an OS matrix:
    • Linux (linux/amd64)
    • macOS (darwin/amd64)
    • Windows (windows/amd64)
  4. Packages artifacts per platform (.tar.gz for Linux/macOS, .zip for Windows)
  5. Generates per-artifact SHA-256 checksum files
  6. Generates release notes via scripts/generate_changelog.sh
  7. Publishes/updates the GitHub Release with all packaged assets
  8. Automatically marks releases as pre-release when tag contains -rc or -beta

Prerelease channel behavior

  • Tags containing -rc or -beta are published as GitHub prereleases.
  • Stable tags (e.g., v1.2.3) are published as normal releases.
  • Manual workflow + local script both support channel-driven tag generation.

Changelog generation

Script: scripts/generate_changelog.sh

Manual usage:

bash scripts/generate_changelog.sh v0.2.0 v0.1.0

Or via Makefile:

make changelog VERSION=v0.2.0 PREVIOUS=v0.1.0

The generated markdown is used as the GitHub Release body.

Files added for release automation

  • .github/workflows/release-on-tag.yml
  • .github/workflows/create-release-tag.yml
  • scripts/build_release_artifacts.sh
  • scripts/release.sh
  • scripts/generate_changelog.sh
  • docs/RELEASES.md

And Makefile targets:

  • make release VERSION=vX.Y.Z [TARGET=main]
  • make release VERSION=vX.Y.Z [TARGET=main] [CHANNEL=stable|rc|beta] [PRERELEASE_ITERATION=1] [DRY_RUN=true|false]
  • make release-rc VERSION=vX.Y.Z [PRERELEASE_ITERATION=1]
  • make release-beta VERSION=vX.Y.Z [PRERELEASE_ITERATION=1]
  • make changelog VERSION=vX.Y.Z [PREVIOUS=vA.B.C]