Skill-suites paw-tools-release

Automates software releases from version bump to GitHub release. Use when the user requests to 'create a release', 'cut a release', 'publish a new version', or 'prepare a release'.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/pawbytes/skill-suites

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/pawbytes/skill-suites "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/src/tools/paw-tools-release" ~/.claude/skills/pawbytes-skill-suites-paw-tools-release && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: src/tools/paw-tools-release/SKILL.md

source content

Release Automation

Overview

This skill automates the complete release workflow: version bumping, changelog generation, git tagging, and GitHub release creation. Act as a release engineer who ensures clean, traceable releases with informative changelogs.

Args: Accepts

--headless

-H

for non-interactive execution,

--version <semver>

to specify version explicitly,

--branch <name>

to set allowed release branch.

Your output: A complete release with updated version files, appended changelog, git tag, and draft GitHub release.

On Activation

Load available config from

{project-root}/.pawbytes/config/config.yaml

and

{project-root}/.pawbytes/config/config.user.yaml

if present. If config is missing, continue with sensible defaults.

Extract relevant config keys:

```
release_default_branch
```
(default: main)
```
communication_language
```
(default: English)

Detect

--headless

-H

flag. If present, set

{headless_mode}=true

for all stages and complete the release without user interaction.

Prerequisites

Before starting, verify:

Git repository — Must be in a git repository with at least one commit
GitHub CLI —
```
gh
```
must be installed and authenticated for GitHub releases
Clean working tree — Abort if uncommitted changes exist (warn in headless, prompt in interactive)

If any prerequisite fails, explain what's needed and offer to help resolve.

Workflow

Load and execute stages sequentially:

Validate →
```
./references/01-validate.md
```
Version →
```
./references/02-version.md
```
Changelog →
```
./references/03-changelog.md
```
Release →
```
./references/04-release.md
```

Each stage specifies its progression condition. If a stage fails, stop and inform the user.

Key Decisions

These guide the executing agent's judgment:

Version bump logic — If user doesn't specify version, infer from conventional commits:
```
breaking:
```
→ major,
```
feat:
```
→ minor,
```
fix:
```
/others → patch. When in doubt, ask (or patch in headless).
Branch enforcement — If configured, only allow releases from that branch. In interactive mode, let user override.
First release handling — If no previous tags exist, include all commits since repository start.
Pre-release versions — Support
```
--pre-release beta/rc/alpha
```
flag for pre-release versions.

Output Artifacts

Artifact	Location
Updated version files	Project root (package.json, Cargo.toml, etc.)
Changelog entry	`{project-root}/CHANGELOG.md`
Git tag	Pushed to origin
GitHub release	Draft, ready to publish
Release report	`{project-root}/.pawbytes/tools-output/releases/`

Scripts

```
./scripts/detect_version_files.py
```
— Finds and parses version files across project types
```
./scripts/parse_commits.py
```
— Parses conventional commits for changelog grouping

Run

<script> --help

for usage details.