Releasing

Packages are published by .github/workflows/publish.yml (workflow_dispatch, inputs releaseType = release | canary, and version). It runs lerna publish under fixed versioning — every package shares one version (lerna.json) — and authenticates to npm via OIDC trusted publishing, so no npm token is involved. Requires npm ≥ 11.5.1 (the workflow installs it).

Always canary first. A full release moves the latest tag and tags/commits git — there's no clean undo. Publish a canary, run the smoke test against it, and only cut the full release once it's green.

Canary

For testing unreleased changes before a full release. Dispatch the workflow from any branch (usually the feature branch you want to test):

releaseType = canary
version     = <ignored for canary, but the form requires a value>

Runs lerna publish --canary --force-publish. Publishes X.Y.Z-alpha.<build> to the canary dist-tag. No git commit or tag is created — canaries are disposable, so cut as many as you need.

Test it. Scaffold a fresh project and point it at the canary, then run the smoke test:

npm create @revideo@canary -- --default
cd my-revideo-project
npx npm-check-updates '/@revideo/' --target newest --install   # or hand-edit deps to @canary

Note the exact canary version from the workflow log (e.g. 0.11.1-alpha.1187) and confirm the installed packages match it before testing — a stale cache can otherwise mask the change you're verifying.

Full release

main is protected (PR-only, enforce_admins, squash-only merges), so lerna cannot push its version commit directly to main. Release from a dedicated branch instead and merge back via PR.

1. Examples submodule. packages/create/examples is a git submodule (midrender/examples) whose example package.jsons pin exact @revideo/* versions. @revideo/create ships this directory in its npm tarball (files: ["index.js", "examples"]), so scaffolded projects install whatever these files pin. lerna does not touch the submodule (separate repo), so bump it by hand or npm create installs the old versions.

   In packages/create/examples, branch off the previous release branch and bump every pinned @revideo/* dep to X.Y.Z:

   git checkout -b release-X.Y.Z origin/release-<prev>
   # every "0.10.4" in these files is an @revideo dep — safe to replace wholesale
   perl -pi -e 's/"<prev>"/"X.Y.Z"/g' $(git ls-files '*package.json')
   git commit -am "chore: bump @revideo deps to X.Y.Z" && git push -u origin release-X.Y.Z
   

   Note the resulting commit SHA — the superproject pointer is updated to it in the next step.

2. Prep commit — branch release-X.Y.Z off main, one commit:

   • submodule pointer packages/create/examples → the new examples commit
   • packages/cli/src/index.ts → const VERSION = 'X.Y.Z'

   (lerna bumps every package.json + the lockfile itself; only these two hand-maintained spots are left.)

3. Publish — dispatch the workflow from release-X.Y.Z:

   releaseType = release
   version     = X.Y.Z
   

   Runs lerna publish --force-publish --exact X.Y.Z: versions all packages, commits ci(release): X.Y.Z, tags vX.Y.Z, pushes to the release branch, and publishes to the latest dist-tag with provenance.

4. Merge — squash-merge release-X.Y.Z → main. The squash folds the prep and ci(release) commits into one; vX.Y.Z still points at the published commit on the release branch.

Then run the smoke test once more against @latest to confirm the published release.

Smoke test

Run against a canary before releasing, and against @latest after. Scaffold a fresh project (@canary or @latest as appropriate) and check all three paths end to end:

cd my-revideo-project
npm install                        # installs cleanly, deps resolve to the version under test
npm run render                     # → output/video.mp4 (non-empty, a few seconds long)
npm start                          # editor dev server boots

• Install — npm ls @revideo/core reports the expected version, no peer/resolution errors.
• Render — npm run render exits 0 and writes a playable output/video.mp4. This is the headless path (Puppeteer + Vite + ffmpeg); a hang here means editor-only code leaked into the render bundle.
• Editor — npm start serves the editor (http://localhost:9000, HTTP 200) and the per-scene plugins resolve (/@id/@revideo/2d/editor → HTTP 200). The footer should show the version under test.