release-process.md

How to prepare a Creator Alpha release

This guide prepares a reproducible Windows release candidate from a clean checkout. It assumes Node.js 22.17.0, pnpm 9.6.0, and a maintainer account with permission to publish a GitHub prerelease.

1. Align the candidate

Update the root version and every workspace package version to the same semantic prerelease. Keep the tag immutable once it is published. Update the matching changelog, release notes, checklist, and README links.

2. Run the local gates

corepack enable
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm check
pnpm audit --audit-level high
pnpm test:e2e
pnpm validate:provenance:strict

The editor budget, theme contract, documentation contract, sample/starter validation, and package build are included in pnpm check.

3. Verify the Windows package

pnpm verify:windows-package
pnpm --filter @pointclick/editor make
pnpm test:e2e:packaged

Confirm the portable directory contains the embedded player preview and that the smoke test can create a temporary project, save a change, open preview, and close cleanly. GPU stall messages may appear in headless environments; the packaged smoke result remains the acceptance signal.

4. Record and publish evidence

Generate checksums and release evidence only after the candidate has passed the manual smoke checklist. Upload the portable ZIP, installer, RELEASES, full .nupkg, checksums, and evidence JSON to the matching GitHub prerelease.

Unsigned alpha and beta packages must say so explicitly. Do not mark signing, strict provenance, or manual smoke as passed without recorded evidence.