Release Process¶

chat-cli uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration and GoReleaser for publishing releases. Releases update two repositories:

chat-cli/chat-cli — binaries and GitHub Release assets
chat-cli/homebrew-chat-cli — Homebrew formula

Continuous integration¶

Every pull request and push to main runs .github/workflows/ci.yml:

make test
make lint
make cli + integration tests

How to cut a release¶

Releases are tag-driven, not automatic on every merge to main.

Option A — GitHub Actions (recommended)¶

Merge changes to main and confirm CI is green.
Open Actions → Tag Release → Run workflow.
Choose bump level: patch, minor, or major.
The workflow runs tests, tags locally, publishes with GoReleaser, then pushes the v* tag.
Manual tag pushes (Option B) still trigger the separate Release workflow.

Option B — Manual tag¶

git checkout main
git pull
make test
git tag v0.5.4
git push origin v0.5.4

Pushing a v* tag triggers the Release workflow.

Version strings¶

Released binaries embed the tag via GoReleaser ldflags (chat-cli version shows e.g. v0.5.4).

Local builds without ldflags report dev:

make cli
./bin/chat-cli version
# chat-cli dev, darwin/arm64

You do not need to edit cmd/version.go before releasing.

Repository secrets¶

Configure these in Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions:

Secret	Purpose
`GITHUB_TOKEN`	Provided automatically; publishes release assets to this repo
`HOMEBREW_TAP_DEPLOY_KEY`	SSH private key (write deploy key on `chat-cli/homebrew-chat-cli`)

Without HOMEBREW_TAP_DEPLOY_KEY, GoReleaser still publishes GitHub Release binaries but cannot update the Homebrew tap.

Homebrew tap deploy key (one-time setup)¶

Generate a dedicated key (no passphrase):

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "goreleaser-homebrew-tap" -f ~/.ssh/chat-cli-homebrew-tap -N ""

Add the public key to the tap repo with write access:

gh repo deploy-key add ~/.ssh/chat-cli-homebrew-tap.pub \
  --repo chat-cli/homebrew-chat-cli \
  --title "GoReleaser release automation" \
  --allow-write

Store the private key as a repository secret:

gh secret set HOMEBREW_TAP_DEPLOY_KEY --repo chat-cli/chat-cli < ~/.ssh/chat-cli-homebrew-tap

Local GoReleaser (optional)¶

# Snapshot build (no publish)
goreleaser release --snapshot --clean