vLLM Ascend Release Skill

Overview

This skill manages the complete end-to-end release process for vLLM Ascend, from creating the release checklist issue to final release announcement. It automates repetitive tasks while ensuring human oversight at critical decision points.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Starting a new release cycle (RC or stable)
• The release manager needs to track release progress
• Preparing release artifacts (notes, documentation, tests)

Prerequisites

• GitHub CLI (

  gh

  ) authenticated with write access to

  vllm-project/vllm-ascend

• Access to Ascend NPU hardware for functional testing (or CI infrastructure)
• Python environment with

  uv

  for running scripts

Verify GitHub CLI Installation

Before starting the release process, verify that

gh

# Check if gh is installed
gh --version

# If not installed, install gh CLI:
# Ubuntu/Debian
apt install gh -y

# macOS
brew install gh

# OpenEuler
yum install gh -y

# Check authentication status
gh auth status

# If not authenticated, login with:
gh auth login

Expected output for

gh auth status

github.com
  ✓ Logged in to github.com account <username> (keyring)
  - Active account: true
  - Git operations protocol: https
  - Token: gho_****
  - Token scopes: 'gist', 'read:org', 'repo', 'workflow'

Required scopes:

repo

workflow

Workflow Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         vLLM Ascend Release Process                         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 1: Initialization                                                    │
│  ├── Determine version & branch                                             │
│  ├── Create feedback issue                                                  │
│  └── Create release checklist issue                                         │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 2: Bug Triage                                                        │
│  ├── Scan open bugs                                                         │
│  ├── Identify release-blocking bugs                                         │
│  └── Update checklist with bug list                                         │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 3: PR Management                                                     │
│  ├── Identify must-merge PRs                                                │
│  └── Update checklist with PR list                                          │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 4: Test Coverage Analysis                                            │
│  ├── Scan PRs for features/models without tests                             │
│  ├── Check previous feedback issue status                                   │
│  └── Update checklist with items needing manual testing                     │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 5: Nightly Status                                                    │
│  ├── Get latest Nightly-A3 and Nightly-A2 runs                              │
│  ├── Analyze failures with extract_and_analyze.py                           │
│  └── Update checklist with nightly status table                             │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 6: Release Notes (invoke existing skill)                             │
│  ├── Generate release notes via vllm-ascend-release-note-writer             │
│  └── Create release notes PR                                                │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 7: Documentation & Artifacts                                         │
│  └── Update version references (Docker/wheel built by CI automatically)     │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 8: Release Execution (requires human review)                         │
│  ├── Human review & approval                                                │
│  ├── Merge release notes PR                                                 │
│  ├── Create GitHub release                                                  │
│  └── Verify automated pipelines (PyPI, Docker, ReadTheDocs)                 │
│                                                                             │
│  Phase 9: WeChat Article (微信公众号推文)                                     │
│  ├── Collect release statistics (commits, contributors)                     │
│  ├── Generate WeChat article from template                                  │
│  └── Review and publish to WeChat official account                          │
│                                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Phase 1: Initialization

1.1 Gather Release Information

Prompt the user for:

• Release Version: e.g.,

  v0.15.0rc1

  ,

  v0.15.0

• Release Branch: typically

  main

• Target Release Date: e.g.,

  2026.03.15

• Release Manager: GitHub username

1.2 Determine Previous Version

# Get the latest release tag
gh release list --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend --limit 5

# Or check existing tags
git tag --sort=-creatordate | head -10

1.3 Create Feedback Issue

Create a community feedback issue for the release:

gh issue create --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --title "[Feedback]: v${VERSION} Release Feedback" \
  --body "$(cat templates/feedback-issue-template.md)" \
  --label "feedback"

1.4 Create Release Checklist Issue

Use the template in

templates/release-checklist-template.md

# Generate the checklist from template
python scripts/generate_checklist.py \
  --version ${VERSION} \
  --branch ${BRANCH} \
  --date ${DATE} \
  --manager ${MANAGER} \
  --feedback-issue ${FEEDBACK_ISSUE_NUMBER} \
  --output release-checklist.md

# Create the issue
gh issue create --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --title "[Release]: Release checklist for ${VERSION}" \
  --body-file release-checklist.md \
  --label "release"

Phase 2: Bug Triage

2.1 Scan Issues Since Last Release

Run the issue scanning script to browse all issues since the last release:

python scripts/scan_release_bugs.py \
  --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --since-tag ${LAST_VERSION} \
  --output issue-scan.md

The script:

1. Gets the release date of the previous version (including rc versions)
2. Fetches all issues created since that date
3. Generates a report with:
   • Flagged issues: Automatically flagged based on engagement or keywords
   • All open issues: Quick browse table with titles
   • Recently closed issues: May be relevant for release notes

2.2 Human Review Process

The output is designed for quick human review:

1. Check flagged issues first - these have high engagement or concerning keywords
2. Browse the open issues table - scan titles, click to investigate if needed
3. Review closed issues - identify fixes that should be highlighted in release notes

2.3 Issue Flagging Criteria

Issues are automatically flagged when they have:

• High reactions (≥5) or many comments (≥5)
• Labels:

  bug

  ,

  regression

  ,

  blocker

  ,

  priority:high

  ,

  critical

• Keywords in title: crash, hang, freeze, oom, error, fail, etc.

2.4 Update Checklist

After manual review, add important bugs to the release checklist:

python scripts/update_checklist_section.py \
  --issue-number ${CHECKLIST_ISSUE} \
  --section "Bug need Solve" \
  --content-file bug-list.md

Phase 3: PR Management

3.1 Identify Must-Merge PRs

Scan for PRs that should be included in the release:

# 1. [Priority] List open PRs/issues in the release milestone
gh pr list --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --state open \
  --search "milestone:${VERSION}" \
  --json number,title,url,labels

gh issue list --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --state open \
  --search "milestone:${VERSION}" \
  --json number,title,url,labels

# 2. List open PRs with release-related labels
gh pr list --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --state open \
  --label "release-blocker" \
  --json number,title,url

# 3. List PRs merged since last release
gh pr list --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --state merged \
  --search "merged:>${LAST_RELEASE_DATE}" \
  --json number,title,mergedAt

Priority Order:

1. PRs/Issues in the release milestone - these are explicitly targeted for this release
2. PRs with

   release-blocker

   label - critical items that must be merged
3. Recently merged PRs - for tracking what's already included

3.2 Update Checklist

Update the checklist with PRs that need to be merged:

python scripts/update_checklist_section.py \
  --issue-number ${CHECKLIST_ISSUE} \
  --section "PR need Merge" \
  --content-file pr-list.md

Phase 4: Test Coverage Analysis

4.1 Identify Features/Models Needing Testing

CI already covers most test cases. Manual testing is only needed for:

• New features merged without test cases
• New models added due to environment constraints (e.g., CI doesn't have the model)
• Issues reported in the previous release's feedback

Run the test coverage scanner:

python scripts/scan_test_coverage.py \
  --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --since-tag ${LAST_VERSION} \
  --feedback-issue ${PREVIOUS_FEEDBACK_ISSUE} \
  --output test-coverage-analysis.md

This script:

1. Scans PRs merged since the last release
2. Identifies features/models without corresponding test files
3. Checks the previous feedback issue for unresolved problems

4.2 Review the Analysis

The output categorizes items:

Features/Models Needing Manual Testing:

• New model support (e.g., Kimi K2.5, GLM-5)
• Features that couldn't be tested in CI

Previous Feedback Status:

• Unresolved issues from the feedback thread
• Items that need manual verification

4.3 Manual Testing Checklist

For items identified above, perform manual testing:

#### Manual Testing Required

- [ ] Model: Kimi K2.5 - Basic inference works
- [ ] Model: GLM-5 - Multimodal features work
- [ ] Feature: Expert parallel with 8 GPUs
- [ ] Feedback: User reported slow startup (verify fixed)

4.4 Update Checklist with Results

python scripts/update_checklist_section.py \
  --issue-number ${CHECKLIST_ISSUE} \
  --section "Functional Test" \
  --content-file test-results.md

Phase 5: Nightly Status

5.1 Analyze Nightly CI Runs

Get the latest Nightly-A3 and Nightly-A2 CI runs and analyze failures:

python scripts/scan_nightly_status.py \
  --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --output nightly-status.md

This script:

1. Fetches the latest Nightly-A3 and Nightly-A2 workflow runs
2. Calls

   extract_and_analyze.py

   (from main2main-error-analysis skill) for failed runs
3. Extracts and categorizes errors:
   • Code Bugs: Real issues that need fixing
   • Environment Flakes: Transient issues (network, disk, etc.)

5.2 Review Output

The output includes:

For failed runs, it also shows:

• Code bugs that need fixing before release
• Failed test cases
• Environment flakes (informational)

5.3 Update Checklist

python scripts/update_checklist_section.py \
  --issue-number ${CHECKLIST_ISSUE} \
  --section "Nightly Status" \
  --content-file nightly-status.md

Phase 6: Release Notes

This phase handles the complete release notes writing process, from fetching commits to producing the final release notes.

6.1 Fetch Commits

Fetch all commits between the previous and current version:

# Create output directory
mkdir -p output/${VERSION}

# Fetch commits with contributor statistics
uv run python scripts/fetch_commits.py \
  --owner vllm-project \
  --repo vllm-ascend \
  --base-tag ${LAST_VERSION} \
  --head-tag ${NEW_VERSION} \
  --stats \
  --output output/${VERSION}/0-current-raw-commits.md \
  --stats-output output/${VERSION}/0-contributor-stats.md

The script outputs:

• 0-current-raw-commits.md

  : Raw commit list for analysis

• 0-contributor-stats.md

  : Contributor statistics including new contributors

6.2 Analyze Commits

Create a CSV file to analyze each commit:

# Create analysis workspace
touch output/${VERSION}/1-commit-analysis-draft.csv

The CSV should have headers:

title

pr number

user facing impact/summary

category

decision

reason

6.3 Draft Release Notes

Create the initial draft following the category order:

## v${VERSION} - ${DATE}

This is the first release candidate of v${VERSION} for vLLM Ascend.
Please follow the [official doc](https://docs.vllm.ai/projects/ascend/en/latest) to get started.

### Highlights
(Top 3-5 most impactful changes)

### Features
(New functionality)

### Hardware and Operator Support
(New hardware/operators)

### Performance
(Performance improvements)

### Dependencies
(Version upgrades)

### Deprecation & Breaking Changes
(Breaking changes)

### Documentation
(Doc updates)

### Others
(Bug fixes, misc)

### Known Issue
(Known limitations)

Save drafts to:

• output/${VERSION}/2-highlights-note-draft.md

  - Initial draft

• output/${VERSION}/3-highlights-note-edit.md

  - Reviewed/edited version

6.4 Release Notes Writing Guidelines

Inclusion Criteria:

• User experience improvements (CLI, error messages)
• Core features (PD Disaggregation, KVCache, Graph mode, CP/SP, quantization)
• Breaking changes and deprecations (always include)
• Significant infrastructure changes
• Major dependency updates (CANN/torch_npu/triton-ascend)
• Hardware compatibility expansions (310P, A2, A3)

Writing Tips:

• Focus on what users should know, not internal details
• Look up PR descriptions when uncertain:

  gh pr view <number> --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend

• Group related changes together
• Include PR links:

  [#12345](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/12345)

Reference:

• See

  references/ref-past-release-notes-highlight.md

  for style examples

6.5 Create Release Notes PR

After release notes are finalized:

# Create branch
git checkout -b release/${VERSION}

# Make changes (see Phase 6 for full list)
# ...

# Create PR
gh pr create --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --title "Release ${VERSION}" \
  --body "Release notes and version updates for ${VERSION}" \
  --label "release"

Phase 7: Documentation & Artifacts

7.1 Files to Update

README.md

README.zh.md

docs/source/faqs.md

docs/source/user_guide/release_notes.md

docs/source/community/versioning_policy.md

docs/source/community/contributors.md

docs/conf.py

.github/workflows/schedule_image_build_and_push.yaml

.github/workflows/schedule_update_estimated_time.yaml

7.2 Version Update Script

python scripts/update_version_references.py \
  --version ${VERSION} \
  --vllm-version ${VLLM_VERSION} \
  --feedback-issue ${FEEDBACK_ISSUE_URL}

Phase 8: Release Execution

8.1 Pre-Release Checklist

Before executing the release, verify:

• All P0/P1 bugs resolved or documented as known issues
• All must-merge PRs merged
• Functional tests passing
• Release notes reviewed and approved
• Documentation updated
• CI passing on release branch

8.2 Execute Release

⚠️ Human Review Required: Before executing the release, ensure all previous phases have been reviewed and approved by the release manager. This step requires explicit human confirmation.

Current Approach (Manual): For now, execute release steps manually through GitHub UI or CLI after human review:

1. Merge release notes PR - Review PR, ensure CI passes, then merge via GitHub UI
2. Create GitHub release - Go to GitHub Releases page, create new release with tag
3. Verify automated pipelines - Docker image and wheel package are built automatically by CI

Future Approach (Automated): Once the release process is mature and well-tested, consider:

• Adding a GitHub Actions workflow with manual trigger (

  workflow_dispatch

  )
• Requiring approval from release manager before workflow proceeds
• Automating all steps below with proper guards

Manual Execution Commands (for reference):

# 1. Merge release notes PR (after human review)
gh pr merge ${RELEASE_PR_NUMBER} --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend --squash

# 2. Create GitHub release
gh release create ${VERSION} \
  --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --title "vLLM Ascend ${VERSION}" \
  --notes-file release-notes.md \
  --target main

# 3. Verify automated pipelines (no action needed - CI handles these)
# - Docker image: quay.io/ascend/vllm-ascend:${VERSION}
# - PyPI package: https://pypi.org/project/vllm-ascend/${VERSION}
# - ReadTheDocs: https://app.readthedocs.org/dashboard/

# 4. Upload 310P wheel if applicable
gh release upload ${VERSION} \
  --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  vllm_ascend-${VERSION}-310p-*.whl

8.3 Post-Release

# 1. Broadcast release (prepare announcement)
python scripts/generate_announcement.py \
  --version ${VERSION} \
  --release-notes release-notes.md \
  --output announcement.md

# 2. Close release checklist issue
gh issue close ${CHECKLIST_ISSUE} \
  --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend \
  --comment "Release ${VERSION} completed successfully!"

Phase 9: WeChat Article (微信公众号推文)

After release notes are finalized and the release is completed, generate a WeChat article for community broadcast.

9.1 Article Structure Template

The WeChat article follows a structured format with emojis for visual appeal:

9.2 Article Template

vLLM Ascend ${VERSION}版本发布🎉 此版本是针对vLLM v${VLLM_VERSION}系列版本首个RC版本，[1-2句核心亮点描述]。

🥳 本版本共计${COMMITS_COUNT}个commits，新增${NEW_CONTRIBUTORS_COUNT}位新开发者！
💥 [核心亮点1]
💥 [核心亮点2]
🆕 [新特性1]
🆕 [新特性2]
🆕 [新特性3]
🚀 [性能优化1，最好包含具体数据如"提升X%"]
🚀 [性能优化2]
🔨 [重构/依赖升级1]
🔨 [重构/依赖升级2]
🐞 修复 [重要bug1]
🐞 修复 [重要bug2]
🐞 修复 [重要bug3]
🛡️ [质量/测试改进]
📄 [文档更新汇总]

➡️ 源码地址：https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/releases/tag/${VERSION}
➡️ 快速体验：https://vllm-ascend.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quick_start.html
➡️ 安装指南：https://vllm-ascend.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html

9.3 Fetch Release Note from Release Tag

Important: WeChat articles are typically published after the release is complete. Always fetch the release note directly from the release tag, as it contains the most accurate and up-to-date information including the precise new contributor count.

# Fetch release note from release tag (recommended - most accurate source)
gh release view ${VERSION} --repo vllm-project/vllm-ascend --json body,name,tagName

# The release body contains:
# - Highlights, Features, Performance, Documentation sections
# - Bug fixes (Others section)
# - Dependencies and Known Issues
# - New Contributors list with exact count

Why use release tag instead of other sources:

• The release tag's "New Contributors" section is auto-generated by GitHub and is the most accurate
• Release notes in the tag may have last-minute updates not in the PR
• Dependencies and Known Issues sections are finalized at release time

9.4 Writing Guidelines

1. Opening Paragraph:

   • Start with version number and 🎉
   • Describe version positioning (RC/stable, which vLLM version)
   • Highlight 1-2 core themes of this release

2. Content Selection:

   • Prioritize user-facing features over internal refactoring
   • Include specific performance numbers when available
   • Group related items (e.g., multiple bug fixes for one feature)
   • Highlight breaking changes or dependency upgrades

3. Language Style:

   • Use concise, active voice
   • Avoid overly technical jargon
   • Keep each item to one line when possible
   • Use "完成支持/适配" for new features, "优化/提升" for performance

4. Statistics from Release Tag:

   • New contributor count: Count entries in "New Contributors" section of release body
   • For commits count (if needed):

     git rev-list --count ${LAST_VERSION}..${VERSION}

9.5 Example: v0.18.0rc1

vLLM Ascend v0.18.0rc1版本发布🎉 此版本是针对vLLM v0.18.0系列版本首个RC版本，重点完成了C8(INT8 KV cache)对GQA attention模型的支持，以及性能优化、问题修复等。

🥳 本版本新增9位新开发者，感谢社区开发者的持续贡献！
💥 C8(INT8 KV cache)支持GQA attention模型，同时适配DeepSeek-V3.1 PD分离场景
💥 DeepSeek模型通过新MLA算子支持A5硬件
🆕 Flash Comm V1支持VL模型的MLA，解除多模态服务限制
🆕 支持speculative decoding中target和draft模型使用不同attention backend
🆕 VL MoE模型支持SP，`sp_threshold`替换为vLLM原生`sp_min_token_num`
🆕 Qwen VL模型支持`w8a8_mxfp8`量化
🚀 Triton算子重编译优化，提升算子性能
🚀 Qwen3.5/Qwen3-Next GDN prefill路径优化，预构建chunk metadata减少h2d同步开销
🚀 FIA prefill context merge路径简化，提升运行时效率
🐞 torch-npu 和 triton-ascend 依赖版本更新，请参考官方release note
🐞 修复PD分离场景decode节点因DP节点shape不对齐导致卡住的问题
🐞 修复单卡部署多实例显存 OOM 问题
🐞 修复 DeepSeek v3.1 C8在MTP + full decode + full graph模式下的问题
🐞 修复`AscendModelSlimConfig`中量化配置key映射导致的权重加载报错问题

📄 更新Kimi-K2.5、GLM-4.7、DeepSeek-V3.2、MiniMax-M2.5及PD分离部署文档

➡️ 源码地址：
https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/releases/tag/v0.18.0rc1
➡️ 快速体验：
https://vllm-ascend.readthedocs.io/en/v0.18.0/quick_start.html
➡️ 安装指南：
https://docs.vllm.ai/projects/ascend/en/v0.18.0/installation.html

Script Reference

scripts/fetch_commits.py

Fetches all commits between two tags and generates contributor statistics.

Arguments:

• --owner

  : Repository owner (default: vllm-project)

• --repo

  : Repository name (default: vllm-ascend)

• --base-tag

  : Base tag (older version, e.g., v0.14.0)

• --head-tag

  : Head tag (newer version, e.g., v0.15.0rc1)

• --output

  : Output file for commits (default: 0-current-raw-commits.md)

• --stats

  : Generate contributor statistics

• --stats-output

  : Output file for statistics (default: 0-contributor-stats.md)

• --sort

  : Sort mode (chronological/alphabetical/reverse)

• --include-date

  : Include commit date in output

• --token

  : GitHub token (or use GITHUB_TOKEN env var)

Output:

• Commit list in markdown format with PR links
• Contributor statistics including new contributors

scripts/generate_checklist.py

Generates the release checklist issue body from template.

Arguments:

• --version

  : Release version (e.g., v0.15.0rc1)

• --branch

  : Release branch (default: main)

• --date

  : Target release date

• --manager

  : Release manager GitHub username

• --feedback-issue

  : Feedback issue number

• --output

  : Output file path

scripts/scan_release_bugs.py

Scans GitHub issues since the last release for human review.

Arguments:

• --repo

  : Repository (default: vllm-project/vllm-ascend)

• --since-tag

  : Previous release tag (including rc versions)

• --state

  : Issue state filter (open, closed, all; default: all)

• --output

  : Output file path

Output: Markdown report with:

• Flagged issues (auto-detected as important)
• All open issues table for quick browsing
• Recently closed issues summary

scripts/scan_test_coverage.py

Identifies features/models that need manual testing.

Arguments:

• --repo

  : Repository (default: vllm-project/vllm-ascend)

• --since-tag

  : Previous release tag

• --feedback-issue

  : Previous release feedback issue number (optional)

• --output

  : Output file path

Output: Markdown report with:

• Features/models merged without test coverage
• Previous feedback issue status (resolved/unresolved)

scripts/scan_nightly_status.py

Scans Nightly CI status for release readiness.

Arguments:

• --repo

  : Repository (default: vllm-project/vllm-ascend)

• --output

  : Output file path

Output: Markdown report with:

• Summary table of Nightly-A3 and Nightly-A2 status
• Code bugs that need fixing (from extract_and_analyze.py)
• Environment flakes (informational)
• Failed test cases

Dependencies:

• Calls

  main2main-error-analysis/scripts/extract_and_analyze.py

  for detailed analysis

scripts/update_checklist_section.py

Updates a specific section of the release checklist issue.

Arguments:

• --issue-number

  : Release checklist issue number

• --section

  : Section name to update

• --content-file

  : File containing new content

• --append

  : Append to section instead of replace

scripts/update_version_references.py

Updates version references across documentation files.

Arguments:

• --version

  : New version

• --vllm-version

  : Compatible vLLM version

• --feedback-issue

  : Feedback issue URL

scripts/generate_announcement.py

Generates release announcement for broadcasting.

Arguments:

• --version

  : Release version

• --release-notes

  : Release notes file

• --output

  : Output file path

Templates

templates/release-checklist-template.md

The release checklist issue template (see file for full template).

templates/feedback-issue-template.md

The feedback collection issue template.

References

references/version-files.yaml

List of files that need version updates and their update patterns.

references/ref-past-release-notes-highlight.md

Past release notes examples for style and category reference. Use this as a guide when writing new release notes to maintain consistency in:

• Section ordering and naming
• Writing style and tone
• Level of detail for different categories
• How to describe features, bug fixes, and breaking changes

Error Handling

Common Issues

Recovery Procedures

If the release process fails midway:

1. Check the release checklist issue for current state
2. Resume from the last incomplete step
3. Update checklist with failure notes
4. Notify release manager

Important Notes

1. Human Oversight: This skill automates tasks but requires human approval at key decision points (bug prioritization, test results review, release approval).

2. Idempotency: Most scripts can be re-run safely. Issue updates use section replacement.

3. Rollback: If a release needs to be rolled back:

   • Delete the GitHub release
   • Revert the release notes PR
   • Update checklist issue with rollback notes

4. Communication: Keep the community informed through the feedback issue and release checklist.

5. Testing: Always run functional tests before release, even for RC versions.