css/RELEASING.md

Releasing a new version of Primer CSS 🎉

Prepare the release (in primer/css)

1. Decide which PRs should be part of the next release and if it will be a major, minor or patch <version>. You may also check the release tracking project or ask your team members in Slack.

2. Create a new release branch from main and name it release-<version>.

3. Run npm version <version> to update the version field in both package.json and package-lock.json.

4. Create a new PR for the release-<version> branch. Please use the following template for the PR description, linking to the relevant issues and/or pull requests for each change.

   # Primer CSS [Major|Minor|Patch] Release
   
   Version: 📦 **`0.0.0`**
   Approximate release date: 📆 **Mon DD, YYYY**
   Changes: 🎉 [All merged PRs](https://github.com/primer/css/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged+base%3Arelease-0.0.0) <!-- Update version at the end of the link. E.g. ...release-0.0.0 -> ...release-15.1.0 -->
   
   ---
   
   ### :boom: Breaking Change
   - [ ] Description #
   
   ### :rocket: Enhancement
   - [ ] Description #
   
   ### :bug: Bug Fix
   - [ ] Description #
   
   ### :nail_care: Polish
   - [ ] Description #
   
   ### :memo: Documentation
   - [ ] Description #
   
   ### :house: Internal
   - [ ] Description #
   
   ---
   
   ### Ship checklist
   
   - [x] Update the `version` field in `package.json`
   - [ ] Merge all PRs
   - [ ] Update `CHANGELOG.md`
   - [ ] Test the release candidate version with `github/github` (optional)
   - [ ] Get approval
   - [ ] Merge this PR and [create a new release](https://github.com/primer/css/releases/new)
   - [ ] Update `github/github`
   - [ ] Tell the world (Slack, Twitter, Team post)
   
   For more details, see [RELEASING.md](https://github.com/primer/css/blob/main/RELEASING.md).
   
   /cc @primer/ds-core
   

5. Start merging existing PRs into the release branch. Note: You have to change the base branch from main to the release-<version> branch before merging.

6. Update CHANGELOG.md and the PR description. Tip: You can copy&paste the changelog from Checks > changelog > all > changelog. It gets generated based on adding the Tag labels to PRs.

7. Wait for your checks to pass, and take note of the version that primer/publish lists in your status checks.

   Tip: The release candidate version will always be <version>-rc.<sha>, where <version> comes from the branch name and <sha> is the 7-character commit SHA.

Test the release candidate (in github/github):

1. Create a new branch in the github/github repo, name it primer-<version>.

2. Update the Primer CSS version to the published release candidate with:

   bin/npm install @primer/css@<version>-rc.<sha>
   

   Then commit and push the changes to package.json, package-lock.json, LICENSE and vendor/npm.

3. If you need to make changes to github/github due to the Primer CSS release, do them in a branch and merge that into your release branch after testing.

4. Add or re-request reviewers and fix any breaking tests.

5. Test on review-lab.

Publish the release (in primer/css)

1. If the release PR got approved and you've done necessary testing, merge it.

   After tests run, the docs site will be deployed and @primer/css will be published with your changes to the latest dist-tag. You can check npm to see if primer/publish has finished.

2. Create a new release with tag v<version>.

3. Copy the changes from the CHANGELOG and paste them into the release notes.

4. Publish 🎉

Update github.com (in github/github):

1. Install the latest published version in the same primer-<version> branch created earlier with:

   bin/npm install @primer/css@<version>
   

   Then commit and push the changes to package.json, package-lock.json, LICENSE and vendor/npm.

2. Fix any breaking tests.

3. Deploy! 🚀

Publish the release

1. Create a new release with tag v<version>.

2. Copy the changes from the CHANGELOG and paste them into the release notes.

3. Publish 🎉