ci: replace direct-push release with a PR-based release flow

[asachs01]

Rollout of the node-datto-rmm canary (fully verified live, including all fixes found during rollout). Identical diff. Fixes GH006. task_1788457898992.

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Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Improved release automation to reliably create and update published release artifacts.
  • Added automated release preparation that calculates upcoming versions and updates release notes when changes are ready.
  • Release workflows now distinguish between preparing an upcoming release and publishing an existing version.
  • Releases that do not require changes are skipped cleanly without creating unnecessary artifacts.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: 618c6f36-3ef7-45ac-9a28-f0897115f0a5

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 2fb01ee and d33000b.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• .github/workflows/release.yml
• scripts/prepare-release.mjs

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 1 remains after this review.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The release workflow now detects incomplete release artifacts, prepares release files through a dry-run script, publishes missing artifacts, and creates or updates a release pull request targeting main.

Changes

Release flow

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Workflow triggers and release-state detection .github/workflows/release.yml	The workflow runs on serialized pushes to main, configures permissions, and selects prepare or publish mode from Git tag, npm package, and GitHub release state.
Release preparation and artifact publishing .github/workflows/release.yml, scripts/prepare-release.mjs	The preparation script calculates the next version, updates package.json, prepends release notes, and emits outputs without publishing. Publish mode creates missing tags, npm packages, and GitHub releases.
Release branch and pull request management .github/workflows/release.yml	The workflow uses a scoped GitHub App token, updates release/next, and creates or updates the release pull request.

Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~45 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to d3300

This change moves release preparation to a pull request flow while retaining resumable publication of missing artifacts. No concrete current-head merge-blocking risk remains.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant Main as main push
  participant Workflow as release workflow
  participant Prepare as prepare-release.mjs
  participant GitHub as GitHub
  participant Npm as npm registry
  Main->>Workflow: start serialized release run
  Workflow->>GitHub: check tag and release
  Workflow->>Npm: check package publication
  Workflow->>Prepare: calculate and prepare release files
  Prepare-->>Workflow: version and release_needed output
  Workflow->>GitHub: update release/next and release pull request
  Workflow->>Npm: publish missing package
  Workflow->>GitHub: create missing tag and release

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🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: replacing the direct-push release process with a pull-request-based release flow.
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 1…
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.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

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 1 files. (1 skipped: 1 unsupported.)

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch ci/pr-based-release-flow

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