kubo/docs/RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md

✅ Release Checklist (vX.Y.Z[-rcN])

Release types: RC (Release Candidate) | FINAL | PATCH

Prerequisites

• GPG signature configured in local git and GitHub
• Docker installed on your system
• npm installed on your system
• kubo repository cloned locally
• non-PATCH: Upgrade Go in CI to latest patch from https://go.dev/dl/

1. Prepare Release Branch

• Fetch latest changes: git fetch origin master release
• Create branch release-vX.Y.Z (base from: master if Z=0 for new minor/major, release if Z>0 for patch)
• RC1 only: Switch to master branch and prepare for next release cycle:
  • Update version.go to vX.Y+1.0-dev (⚠️ double-check Y+1 is correct) (example PR)
  • Create ./docs/changelogs/vX.Y+1.md and add link in CHANGELOG.md
• Switch to release-vX.Y.Z branch and update version.go to vX.Y.Z(-rcN) (⚠️ double-check Y matches release) (example)
• Create draft PR: release-vX.Y.Z → release (example)
• In release-vX.Y.Z branch, cherry-pick commits from master: git cherry-pick -x <commit> (example)
  • ⚠️ NOTE: -x flag records original commit SHA for traceability and ensures cleaner merges with deduplicated commits in history
• Verify all CI checks on the PR are passing
• FINAL only: In release-vX.Y.Z branch, replace Changelog and Contributors sections with ./bin/mkreleaselog stdout (do NOT copy stderr)
• FINAL only: Merge PR (release-vX.Y.Z → release) using Create a merge commit
  • ⚠️ do NOT use Squash and merge nor Rebase and merge because we need to be able to sign the merge commit
  • ⚠️ do NOT delete the release-vX.Y.Z branch (needed for future patch releases and git history)

2. Tag & Publish

Create Tag

⚠️ POINT OF NO RETURN: Once pushed, tags trigger automatic Docker/NPM publishing that cannot be reversed! If you're making a release for the first time, do pair programming and have the release reviewer verify all commands.

• RC: From release-vX.Y.Z branch: git tag -s vX.Y.Z-rcN -m 'Prerelease X.Y.Z-rcN'
• FINAL: After PR merge, from release branch: git tag -s vX.Y.Z -m 'Release X.Y.Z'
• ⚠️ Verify tag is signed and correct: git show vX.Y.Z(-rcN)
• Push tag: git push origin vX.Y.Z(-rcN)
  • ⚠️ do NOT use git push --tags because it pushes all your local tags
• STOP: Wait for Docker build to complete before proceeding

Publish Artifacts

• Docker: Publish to DockerHub
  • Wait for Publish docker image workflow triggered by tag push
  • Verify image is available on Docker Hub → tags
• dist.ipfs.tech: Publish to dist.ipfs.tech
  • Check out ipfs/distributions
  • Create branch: git checkout -b release-kubo-X.Y.Z(-rcN)
  • Verify .tool-versions golang matches Kubo's CI go-version: (update if needed)
  • Run: ./dist.sh add-version kubo vX.Y.Z(-rcN) (usage)
  • Create and merge PR (updates dists/kubo/versions, FINAL also updates dists/kubo/current - example)
  • Wait for CI workflow triggered by merge
  • Verify release on dist.ipfs.tech
• NPM: Publish to NPM
  • Manually dispatch Release to npm workflow if not auto-triggered
  • Verify release on NPM
• GitHub Release: Publish to GitHub
  • Create release (RC example, FINAL example)
  • Use tag vX.Y.Z(-rcN)
  • Link to release issue
  • RC: Link to changelog, check This is a pre-release
  • FINAL: Copy changelog content (without header), do NOT check pre-release
  • Run sync-release-assets workflow
  • Verify assets are attached to the GitHub release

3. Post-Release

Technical Tasks

• FINAL only: Merge release → master
  • Create branch merge-release-vX.Y.Z from release
  • Merge master to merge-release-vX.Y.Z first, and resolve conflict in version.go
    • ⚠️ NOTE: make sure to ignore the changes to version.go (keep the -dev in master)
  • Create and merge PR from merge-release-vX.Y.Z to master using Create a merge commit
    • ⚠️ do NOT use Squash and merge nor Rebase and merge because we want to preserve original commit history
• Update ipshipyard/waterworks-infra
  • Update Kubo staging environment (Running Kubo tests on staging)
    • RC: Test last release against current RC
    • FINAL: Latest release on both boxes
  • FINAL: Update collab cluster boxes to the tagged release
  • FINAL: Update libp2p bootstrappers to the tagged release
• Smoke test with IPFS Companion Browser Extension
• Update ipfs-desktop
  • Create PR updating kubo version in package.json and package-lock.json
  • FINAL: Merge PR and ship new ipfs-desktop release
• FINAL only: Update docs.ipfs.tech: run update-on-new-ipfs-tag.yml workflow and merge the PR

Promotion

• Create IPFS Discourse topic (RC example, FINAL example)
  • Title: Kubo vX.Y.Z(-rcN) is out!, tag: kubo
  • Use title as heading (##) in description
  • Include: GitHub release link, IPNS binaries, docker pull command, release notes
  • Pin topic globally (make banner if no existing banner)
• Verify bot posted to #ipfs-chatter (Discord) or #ipfs-chatter:ipfs.io (Matrix)
• RC only: Comment on release issue mentioning early testers (example)
• FINAL only: Comment on release issue with link (example)
• FINAL only: Create blog.ipfs.tech entry (example)
• FINAL non-PATCH: (optional) Post on social media (bsky, x.com, Reddit)

Final Steps

• FINAL non-PATCH: Create dependency update PR
  • Review direct dependencies from root go.mod (⚠️ do NOT run go get -u as it will upgrade indirect dependencies which may cause problems)
  • Run make mod_tidy
  • Create PR with go.mod and go.sum updates
  • Add PR to next release milestone
• FINAL non-PATCH: Create next release issue (example)
• FINAL only: Close release issue