ci: automate authoritative desktop release tags

[elkaix]

Related Issue

No issue — reported directly: the desktop app on Windows was still offering 0.1.6 after 0.2.0 had landed on main.

Problem

apps/desktop is a private workspace package. Changesets bumps its version on a release merge, but nothing ships it: desktop-release.yml fires only on a desktop-v* tag, and cutting that tag was a manual git tag && git push step outside CI.

On the 1.0.0 release, apps/desktop/package.json went 0.1.6 -> 0.2.0 and no tag followed. The newest release in PyModel/pythinker-desktop-releases stayed v0.1.6, so its latest.yml — the electron-updater feed — kept advertising 0.1.6 to every installed client. Nothing was red; CI on main was fully green the whole time.

A second problem sat next to it. Both platform jobs ran a "Stamp desktop version for tag builds" step that rewrote apps/desktop/package.json to whatever the tag said. git tag desktop-v9.9.9 <any commit> would therefore have silently turned that commit into a 9.9.9 release, with the tag — not the reviewed source — deciding what shipped.

What changed

release.yml — cut the tag automatically. After the changesets step, compare apps/desktop/package.json between ${GITHUB_SHA}^ and ${GITHUB_SHA}; on a change, create desktop-v<version> at that commit.

Both versions are read by sha, never by HEAD. This step runs after the changesets action, and on the run that opens the version PR that action checks out changeset-release/main and commits the bumped package.json files — so HEAD there is a bump that is not a release. Reading HEAD would cut, say, desktop-v0.3.0 pointing at main's tip, where the package still says 0.2.0. The new prepare assertion would correctly fail that build, but the bogus tag would persist, and when the real 0.3.0 release landed the already-exists check would report "nothing to do" and desktop 0.3.0 would never ship — the same silent-no-ship failure this PR exists to close, through a new door. $GITHUB_SHA is the pushed commit whatever the action does to the checkout, which makes the question moot on both paths.

For the same reason the already-exists check distinguishes a re-run from an anomaly: a tag on this commit is a ::notice::, a tag on a different commit is an ::error:: naming both shas, rather than being waved through as benign.

The tag is created with the release-bot App token, not GITHUB_TOKEN: GitHub does not start workflows from events generated with GITHUB_TOKEN, so a tag pushed with it would sit there without ever building. (The same token already pushes the changeset-release/main branch, which needs the same contents: write — but this specific path is exercised for the first time on the next desktop bump.)

The step is continue-on-error: true and never exits non-zero on a read it cannot make. It runs inside the release job, which gates the npm publish, the Marketplace publish and the CDN redeploy; a missed desktop tag costs one manual git tag, while a failed step there would block all three. Every skip emits a ::notice::, and a failed tag creation emits an ::error:: carrying the exact recovery command — a silent no-op is the bug being fixed, so no path here is allowed to be silent.

It is deliberately not gated on steps.changesets.outputs.published. A desktop-only release publishes nothing to npm, so published is false on exactly the releases this needs to fire for.

desktop-release.yml — the package version is the source of truth. Both "Stamp desktop version" steps are deleted. prepare now reads the version from apps/desktop/package.json and fails the build when a desktop-v* tag disagrees with it, instead of rewriting the tree to match. The tag chooses which commit ships; it can no longer change what that commit is.

desktop-release.yml — the tagged commit must be on main. A new prepare step calls the compare API and accepts only identical or behind, so a release can no longer be built from a commit that never landed on main.

Verification of the shell logic against real commits in this repo:

case	prev	curr	outcome
35c89a73b (the 1.0.0 release commit)	0.1.6	0.2.0	cuts desktop-v0.2.0 — the tag this PR exists because nobody cut
3acb36c66 (an ordinary commit)	0.1.6	0.1.6	no tag
unreadable ref	empty	empty	::notice::, exit 0
desktop-v0.2.0 already at 35c89a73b…	—	—	::notice:: "already points here", exit 0
desktop-v9.9.9 absent	—	—	existing empty, proceeds to create

Compare-API statuses were checked against this repository: main...35c89a73b → identical, main...3acb36c66 → behind, main...<branch head> → ahead.

desktop-v0.2.0 was pushed by hand to unblock the current release before these changes land.

Checklist

• I have read the CONTRIBUTING document.
• I have linked a related issue (external PRs: the issue must have a maintainer's /approve).
• I have added tests that prove my feature works. — no test harness exists for workflow YAML; the shell logic was run against the real commits in the table above.
• Ran gen-changesets skill, or this PR needs no changeset. — CI-only, nothing users perceive.
• Ran gen-docs skill, or this PR needs no doc update.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Release Improvements
  • Desktop releases now consistently use the version defined by the desktop application.
  • Release tags are validated against the application version and confirmed to exist on the main branch.
  • Tag handling now reliably recognizes both annotated and direct release tags.
  • Unchanged desktop versions no longer trigger unnecessary releases.

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• .github/workflows/release.yml

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---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The release workflows now derive desktop versions from apps/desktop/package.json, validate tag agreement, verify tagged commits against main, and resolve annotated tags through peeled commit references.

Changes

Desktop release flow

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Desktop tag creation .github/workflows/release.yml	The release workflow checks direct and peeled tag references when it detects an existing desktop tag. It preserves subsequent tag creation behavior.
Tagged desktop release validation .github/workflows/desktop-release.yml	The workflow reads the package version, rejects mismatched desktop-v tags, and rejects tagged commits that are not identical to or behind main.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 52af8

This change automates desktop release tagging and makes the committed package version authoritative for builds; no actionable merge-blocking risk remains after normal checks and review.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant ReleaseWorkflow
  participant GitHubAPI
  participant PackageJson
  participant DesktopReleaseWorkflow
  ReleaseWorkflow->>GitHubAPI: Query direct and peeled desktop tag references
  GitHubAPI-->>ReleaseWorkflow: Return tag object or peeled commit
  DesktopReleaseWorkflow->>PackageJson: Read authoritative desktop version
  DesktopReleaseWorkflow->>GitHubAPI: Compare tagged commit with main
  GitHubAPI-->>DesktopReleaseWorkflow: Return comparison status

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🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Description check	⚠️ Warning	The description includes all main sections and gives detailed implementation context, but it does not link the required related issue or maintainer approval.	Link the approved related issue and include the maintainer's /approve comment, or document the repository-approved exception for this change.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0 files. (1 skipped: 1 unsupported.)
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title uses the required ci: prefix, stays within 72 characters, uses imperative mood, and accurately describes the workflow changes.

---

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commit: 08e61d6

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In @.github/workflows/release.yml:
- Around line 165-171: Update the existing tag lookup in the release workflow to
resolve annotated tags to their peeled commit by querying refs/tags/${tag}^{}
and falling back to the direct tag ref when no peeled result exists. Keep the
existing comparisons and notice/error behavior in the surrounding tag-existence
check unchanged.

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Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

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• .github/workflows/release.yml

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 2 remain after this review.