release-checklist.md

Release Checklist

Use this checklist before creating a release tag (vX.Y.Z).

1) Version and Release Notes

• Update gradle.properties version to the release version (remove -SNAPSHOT).
• Prepare GitHub release notes draft that reflects all user-visible changes.
• Confirm README examples and configuration docs match the current code.

2) Local Verification

• Run full verification:
  • ./gradlew clean check
  • ./gradlew test integrationTest e2eTest
• Run API compatibility check against latest released version:
  • ./gradlew apiCompat -PapiBaselineVersion=<latest released version>
• Run benchmark smoke:
  • ./gradlew :jsonrpc-core:jmhQuick
• Run consumer smoke verification:
  • ./scripts/verify-consumer-smoke.sh

3) Publication Preconditions

• Confirm Sonatype Central Portal user token credentials are available:
  • OSSRH_USERNAME, OSSRH_PASSWORD
  • These env var names are kept for workflow compatibility, but values must be Central Portal user token username/password.
• Confirm signing credentials are available:
  • SIGNING_KEY, SIGNING_PASSWORD
• Validate generated artifacts:
  • jars, sources jar, javadoc jar, signatures, pom metadata

4) Tag and Publish

• Commit release changes.
• Create annotated git tag:
  • git tag -a vX.Y.Z -m "Release vX.Y.Z"
• Push branch and tag:
  • git push
  • git push origin vX.Y.Z
• Verify GitHub Actions Publish workflow completed successfully.

5) Post-Release

• Bump gradle.properties version to next snapshot (for example X.Y.(Z+1)-SNAPSHOT).
• Publish GitHub release notes.
• Smoke test the sample project with the published version.
• Verify Central Portal deployment visibility:
  • Publish workflow should call the manual/upload/defaultRepository/<namespace> finalize API.
  • Publish workflow should poll deployment status and complete only when state reaches PUBLISHED.
  • Confirm central.sonatype.com/publishing/deployments shows the component and reaches Published.