zapdb/contrib/RELEASE.md

Badger Release Process

This document outlines the steps needed to build and push a new release of Badger.

1. Have a team member "at-the-ready" with github writer access (you'll need them to approve PRs).

2. Create a new branch (prepare-for-release-vXX.X.X, for instance).

3. Update dependencies in go.mod for Ristretto, if required.

4. Update the CHANGELOG.md. Opus 4.5 does a great job of doing this. Example prompt: I'm releasing vXX.X.X off the main branch, add a new entry for this release. Conform to the "Keep a Changelog" format, use past entries as a formatting guide. Run the trunk linter.

5. Validate the version does not have storage incompatibilities with the previous version. If so, add a warning to the CHANGELOG.md that export/import of data will need to be run as part of the upgrade process.

6. Commit and push your changes. Create a PR and have a team member approve it.

7. Once your "prepare for release branch" is merged into main, on the github releases page, create a new draft release.

8. Start the deployment workflow from the CD workflow page.

   The CD workflow handles the building and copying of release artifacts to the releases area.

9. For all major and minor releases (non-patches), create a release branch. In order to easily backport fixes to the release branch, create a release branch from the tag head. For instance, if we're releasing v4.9.0, create a branch called release/v4.9 from the tag head (ensure you're on the main branch from which you created the tag):

   git checkout main
   git pull origin main
   git checkout -b release/v4.9
   git push origin release/v4.9
   

10. Splash the "go index" cache to ensure that the latest release is available to the public with:

    go list -m github.com/dgraph-io/badger/[email protected]
    

11. If needed, create a new announcement thread in the Discussions forum for the release.