modelcontextprotocol · cliffhall · Sep 9, 2026 · Sep 9, 2026
diff --git a/.claude/skills/release/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/release/SKILL.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: release
-description: Cut an Inspector v2 release — run npm audit and bump the version on v2/main first, merge the milestone into main, tag origin/main with a bare x.y.z, and publish via the GitHub Release. Also covers the v1 line and what the publish jobs gate on.
+description: "Cut an Inspector v2 release — two PRs and then a GitHub Release. PR 1 puts the npm audit, any fixes it forces, and the version bump on v2/main; PR 2 merges v2/main into main and is smoke-tested from the production build with a ledger artifact for the maintainers; the maintainer then tags and publishes through the GitHub UI. Also covers the v1 line and what the publish jobs gate on."
 disable-model-invocation: true
 ---
 
@@ -24,14 +24,35 @@ job or the coverage gate red:
   --access public --provenance`.
 - **`publish-github-container-registry`** — the GHCR image.
 
+## The shape: two PRs, then the Release
+
 There is **one version number** (only the root `package.json` has one — the
-clients carry none), so the flow is three steps.
+clients carry none), and the release moves through **two pull requests** in
+order. They are not interchangeable and neither one's content belongs on the
+other.
+
+| | PR 1 — prep | PR 2 — the milestone merge |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Branch | `v2/chore/<ISSUE>-bump-<X-Y-Z>`, cut from `origin/v2/main` | the milestone-merge branch, cut from `origin/main` |
+| Base | **`v2/main`** | **`main`** |
+| Carries | the `npm audit` report, **any fixes the audit forces**, and the **version bump** — all three, one PR | the milestone's work, arriving whole from `v2/main`. **No commits of its own.** |
+| Verified by | `npm run local:gate` | `npm run local:gate` **plus** a hand-driven smoke of every contribution in the milestone, from the **production build**, written up as a **ledger artifact** |
+| Merged when | reviewed and green | the ledger is reviewed by the maintainers and clean |
+
+Then, and only then, a maintainer tags and publishes the **GitHub Release**
+(step 3), which is what triggers the publish jobs.
 
-## 1. `npm audit`, then bump, on `v2/main` — before the milestone merge
+⚠️ **Do not fold the two together.** The bump must exist on `v2/main` before the
+merge (see [Why the bump goes on `v2/main` first](#why-the-bump-goes-on-v2main-first-2010)),
+and PR 2 must stay a pure merge — a commit authored on the merge branch is a
+change that exists downstream of `v2/main` and nothing carries it back.
 
-Both are part of the milestone's work, so both belong on the develop branch and
-flow into `main` together, in the same PR — audit first, so the bump sits on top
-of a tree you have just checked.
+## 1. PR 1 — audit, audit fixes and the bump, on `v2/main`
+
+All three are part of the milestone's work, so all three belong on the develop
+branch and flow into `main` together, **in the same PR** — audit first, so the
+bump sits on top of a tree you have just checked, and so a reviewer sees the
+report and the fixes it forced as one change.
 
 ```sh
 # Branch from the REMOTE ref, and read the version only once you are on it.
@@ -92,7 +113,11 @@ and the tag would land on a `v2/main` commit — but the release must be cut fro
 `main`, so the tag has to point at the merge commit there (step 3). Tagging here
 creates a tag on a commit that is never released.
 
-## 2. Merge `v2/main` → `main`
+**PR 1 merges before PR 2 is opened.** The merge branch is cut from `main` and
+takes `v2/main` whole, so opening it early means merging a `v2/main` that does
+not yet carry the bump.
+
+## 2. PR 2 — merge `v2/main` → `main`, smoke-test it, and write the ledger
 
 Through the usual milestone-merge branch. It now carries the bump, so the
 release lands on `main` with the version already correct.
@@ -104,10 +129,78 @@ milestone merge lands they agree again, and `v2/main` is never left **behind**
 `main`. If you see `v2/main` ahead of `main`, a release is in flight; if you see
 it behind, something went wrong.
 
-## 3. Tag `origin/main` and draft the Release
+### 2a. Smoke-test the release candidate from the production build
+
+The merge branch's tree **is** the release candidate. Check that rather than
+assume it — the merge commit's tree and `origin/v2/main`'s must be identical:
+
+```sh
+git rev-parse origin/v2/main^{tree}
+git rev-parse <merge-commit>^{tree}     # must print the same hash
+```
 
-Derive the tag from the version that just landed, rather than typing one — a
-hard-coded tag is either already taken (so `git tag` aborts) or, worse, wrong:
+Then drive it. Work from a **dedicated worktree** with its own full
+`npm install` (a symlinked `node_modules` passes lint and tests and then fails
+every story file), run `npm run local:gate` there, and exercise the app from the
+**production build** — the packaged bin and the built bundles, not `vite dev`.
+The `local-dev`, `test-servers` and `pre-push-gate` skills cover the mechanics;
+`pack:verify` inside the gate is what proves the tarball a consumer installs
+actually resolves.
+
+**Every contribution closed in the milestone gets driven, not read.** The bar is
+observed behavior from the running app — a rendered panel, a status attribute, a
+server's own stderr — against a real test server, through whichever clients the
+change touches (web, CLI, TUI). "Its tests pass" is not evidence for this step;
+the gate already said that. For a change with no observable surface, the
+evidence is the thing that holds it — a probe that makes the guard fire, a
+counted before/after, a resolved binary path.
+
+### 2b. The ledger artifact
+
+Write the results up as a **published artifact** for the maintainers to review,
+and link it from PR 2. Shape it like the
+[v2.5.0 ledger](https://claude.ai/code/artifact/6f25d292-3623-419f-af7f-26aba57247ef):
+
+- **Masthead** — repo, PR number and merge commit, version, date; and a
+  standfirst saying what tree was tested and that its hash matches
+  `origin/v2/main`, plus whether the milestone payload is complete (the only
+  issue left open should be the merge itself).
+- **Verdict band** — `local:gate` result, milestone issues verified as `N / N`,
+  distinct test count, regressions found.
+- **The automated gate** — one cell per stage with its number (file counts,
+  test counts, smoke count, `pack:verify` size), and a note on what is new this
+  milestone.
+- **One section per theme**, each a table of *Issue · What was driven ·
+  Observed · Status*. One row per closed issue, issue-linked, with the actual
+  output in the Observed cell.
+- **Notes / findings** — anything that is a caveat rather than a pass, called
+  out rather than folded into a row.
+
+A row that says "verified" without saying what was run is not a ledger entry.
+
+### 2c. When the smoke finds something
+
+**The fix goes on `v2/main`, never on the merge branch.** File the issue, fix it
+through an ordinary PR against `v2/main`, then merge `v2/main` into the merge
+branch again so the fix arrives the same way everything else did. That keeps the
+merge tree byte-identical to `origin/v2/main` — which is both the invariant
+checked in 2a and the reason a finding here does not create a commit that only
+exists downstream (#2000 → #2092; #2215 → #2216–2224).
+
+Re-run the affected part of the smoke afterwards and update the ledger; it is
+the artifact the maintainers approve the merge on.
+
+## 3. Tag and publish the Release
+
+**Normally this is done by a maintainer through the GitHub UI**, after PR 2 has
+merged: *Releases → Draft a new release → Choose a tag → type the bare `x.y.z`
+→ Create new tag on publish*, with **Target: `main`**, then generate the notes
+and publish. Publishing the Release is what fires the `publish` and
+`publish-github-container-registry` jobs.
+
+The equivalent by hand, for when the UI is not an option — derive the tag from
+the version that just landed rather than typing one, since a hard-coded tag is
+either already taken (so `git tag` aborts) or, worse, wrong:
 
 ```sh
 git fetch origin main
@@ -122,13 +215,15 @@ resolves through whatever merge-or-rebase strategy you have configured, so a
 divergent local `main` can quietly produce or replay local commits. Tagging
 `HEAD` there tags a commit that is not on `origin/main`, and `git push origin
 <tag>` pushes only the tag — leaving a release whose commit was never published.
+The UI path avoids this by construction: the target is `main` itself.
 
 ⚠️ **No `v` prefix.** This repo's release tags are bare `x.y.z` — which is why
-the command above tags `$VERSION` and not `v$VERSION`. npm's own `tag-version-prefix` defaults to `v` and the repo
-sets no `.npmrc`, so a bare `npm version` would have produced a mismatched tag;
-tagging by hand is what keeps it right. (The workflow's assert step strips a
-leading `v` before comparing, so a `v`-prefixed tag would still publish — it
-would just be inconsistent with every previous release.)
+the command above tags `$VERSION` and not `v$VERSION`, and why the tag typed
+into the UI carries no prefix either. npm's own `tag-version-prefix` defaults to
+`v` and the repo sets no `.npmrc`, so a bare `npm version` would have produced a
+mismatched tag; tagging by hand is what keeps it right. (The workflow's assert
+step strips a leading `v` before comparing, so a `v`-prefixed tag would still
+publish — it would just be inconsistent with every previous release.)
 
 The release's target commit selects which workflow runs, so this only publishes
 when a release is cut from a commit carrying the v2 workflow.