kserve/release/RELEASE_PROCESS_copilot.md

KServe Release Process - Copilot CLI Guide

Run a KServe release with a single command using GitHub Copilot CLI.

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1. Prerequisites

Item	Requirement
GitHub account	Listed as approver in kserve/kserve OWNERS file
GitHub Copilot	Personal or org subscription active
gh CLI	v2.40.0 or later
OS	Linux / macOS / Windows (amd64 or arm64)

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2. Install & Setup

Step 1: Install gh CLI

macOS

brew install gh

Linux (apt)

type -p curl >/dev/null || sudo apt install curl -y
curl -fsSL https://cli.github.com/packages/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg \
  | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https://cli.github.com/packages stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update && sudo apt install gh -y

Linux (rpm)

sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(config-manager)'
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://cli.github.com/packages/rpm/gh-cli.repo
sudo dnf install gh -y

Verify version:

gh --version  # must be v2.40.0+

Step 2: Log in to gh

gh auth login
# → Select GitHub.com
# → Select HTTPS
# → Authenticate via browser or paste a token

Verify login:

gh auth status

Step 3: Verify Copilot CLI

gh copilot is built into gh v2.40+. No separate installation required.

gh copilot -- --help  # check version and usage

Step 4: Clone the repository

git clone [email protected]:<your-github-id>/kserve.git
cd kserve
git remote add upstream https://github.com/kserve/kserve.git

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3. Run Release

gh copilot --agent release-orchestrator -i "Release v0.18.0-rc0"

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4. What It Does

The release-orchestrator agent runs the following phases in order:

Phase	Description
1	Detect current version, identify release type, confirm with user
2	Version bump → commit → create PR
2B	RC1+ only: create cherry-pick PR
3	Wait for CI to finish (--watch), run /rerun-all on failure
4	[Approval required] Merge PR
5	Verify branch & tag creation
6	[Approval required] Create draft release → publish
7	Verify PyPI / Helm deployment
8	Validate artifacts (validate-release.sh)
9	[Approval required] Kind-based smoke test

There are 5 approval points total. Everything else is automated.

Checkpoints are saved to ~/.kserve_release/checkpoint.json during long-running steps. If the session is interrupted, the agent will detect the checkpoint on restart and offer to resume.

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5. Release Types

RC0

gh copilot --agent release-orchestrator -i "Release v0.18.0-rc0"

RC1+

gh copilot --agent release-orchestrator -i "Release v0.18.0-rc1"

The cherry-pick phase is added automatically.

Final

gh copilot --agent release-orchestrator -i "Release v0.18.0"

⚠️ Final release is still in testing. Verify before running.

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6. Agent Definition

The agent logic is defined in:

• .github/agents/release-orchestrator.agent.md

Edit that file to modify the release workflow.

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7. Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
gh copilot not recognized	Check gh --version, must be v2.40+
Copilot permission error	Re-auth with gh auth login --scopes copilot
--agent option missing	Run gh copilot -- --help to check version
CI keeps failing	Retry or select abort in Phase 3

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8. Related Documents

• RELEASE_PROCESS.md