promote
Runs the full release workflow for the current project. Commits any uncommitted changes, pushes to remote, creates and merges a PR if on a feature branch, determines the next semver version from conventional commits, creates an annotated git tag and GitHub release with generated notes, cleans up merged branches, and returns to a clean main. Use when the user says promote, ship, release, commit and push, tag and release, or get back to main.
Allowed Tools
Provided by Plugin
claude-workflow-skills
Common workflow skills for Claude Code sessions: promote changes through the full release cycle, audit Claude Code plugins/skills/agents, audit project standards compliance, analyse projects for improvements, triage open GitHub issues, and review pull requests
Installation
This skill is included in the claude-workflow-skills plugin:
/plugin install claude-workflow-skills@claude-code-plugins-plus
Click to copy
Instructions
Promote Changes
Runs the full release workflow from current working state to a tagged GitHub release on main.
Current branch: !git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown"
Git status: !git status --short 2>/dev/null || echo "not a git repo"
Last tag: !git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "none"
Recent commits since last tag:
!`git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")..HEAD --oneline -10 2>/dev/null || git log --oneline -10`
Next version (calculated from commits above):
!`(last=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "v0.0.0"); IFS='.' read -r ma mi pa <<< "${last#v}"; log=$(git log "${last}..HEAD" --format="%s" 2>/dev/null); if echo "$log" | grep -qE "^[a-z]+(\([^)]+\))?!:"; then echo "v$((ma+1)).0.0"; elif echo "$log" | grep -qE "^feat"; then echo "v${ma}.$((mi+1)).0"; else echo "v${ma}.${mi}.$((pa+1))"; fi)`
Step 0: Pre-flight checks
gh auth status 2>&1 || { echo "ERROR: gh is not authenticated. Run: gh auth login"; exit 1; }
Check for untracked .env files that could be accidentally staged:
git status --short | grep -E '^\?\? .*\.env' && echo "WARNING: untracked .env files detected — review before staging"
cat .gitignore 2>/dev/null | grep -q '\.env' || echo "WARNING: .gitignore does not exclude .env files"
If any .env files would be staged:
if [ -t 0 ]; then
# Interactive — ask for confirmation before continuing
read -p "WARNING: .env files detected. Continue? (y/N) " confirm
[[ "$confirm" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]] || { echo "Aborted."; exit 1; }
else
# Non-interactive — hard stop; too risky to proceed without human review
echo "ERROR: untracked .env files detected in non-interactive mode. Aborting."
exit 1
fi
Step 1: Commit any uncommitted changes
If the git status above shows uncommitted or untracked changes:
- Review the diff:
git diffandgit diff --cached - Stage changes selectively — prefer tracked files:
git add -u, then review and add any
intentional new files individually. Avoid git add -A unless the user explicitly confirms.
- Draft a conventional commit message from the changes — lead with a type prefix
(feat:, fix:, docs:, chore:, etc.) and a concise summary
- Commit using a heredoc so multi-line messages format correctly
If there is nothing uncommitted, skip to Step 2.
Step 2: Push
Push the current branch to remote:
git push -u origin HEAD
Step 3: Merge to main (feature branch only)
Skip this step if already on main (or the repo's default branch).
If on a feature branch:
- Scan commits since the last tag for issue references:
git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")..HEAD --format="%B"
Look for Closes #N, Fixes #N, Resolves #N (case-insensitive). Collect all issue numbers
found. If none are found:
if [ -t 0 ]; then
# Interactive — ask the user
read -p "Any GitHub issues this resolves? (e.g. 12 15 — or enter to skip) " issues
else
# Non-interactive — skip silently
issues=""
fi
- Create a PR targeting main, including closing keywords in the body so GitHub closes the issues
automatically on merge:
gh pr create --title "<type>: <summary>" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
<bullet points from commits>
Closes #N, Closes #N
🤖 Generated with [claude-workflow-skills:promote](https://github.com/ali5ter/claude-workflow-skills) on behalf of [Alister](https://github.com/ali5ter)
EOF
)"
Omit the Closes lines if no issues were identified.
- Enable auto-merge (squash preferred):
gh pr merge --auto --squash
- Poll until merged:
gh pr view --json state --jq '.state'
- Switch to main and pull:
git checkout main && git pull
Step 4: Confirm next version
The next version is pre-calculated in the context block above using these semver rules:
- Commit subject with
!:(e.g.feat!:,fix!:) → major bump - Commit subject beginning with
feat→ minor bump - All other commits → patch bump
Confirm the calculated version is correct given the commit list. If no previous tag exists, use
v1.0.0. Override only if the calculated version is clearly wrong (e.g. the injection returned
an error or empty output).
Step 5: Sync plugin manifest (if present)
If .claude-plugin/plugin.json exists, update its version field to (no v
prefix — plugin manifests use bare semver like 1.2.3):
node -e "
const fs = require('fs');
const f = '.claude-plugin/plugin.json';
const d = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(f, 'utf8'));
d.version = '<next-version>';
fs.writeFileSync(f, JSON.stringify(d, null, 2) + '\n');
"
Then commit and push:
git add .claude-plugin/plugin.json
git commit -m "chore: sync plugin.json version to v<next-version>"
git push
Skip this step entirely if .claude-plugin/plugin.json does not exist.
Step 6: Tag and release
git tag -a v<next-version> -m "Release v<next-version>"
git push origin v<next-version>
gh release create v<next-version> \
--generate-notes \
--title "v<next-version>"
Step 7: Close resolved issues (main branch only)
Skip this step if a PR was created in Step 3 — GitHub will close the issues automatically when
the PR merges via the Closes #N keywords in the PR body.
If the promotion was directly on main (no PR), close any identified issues now:
gh issue close <N> --comment "Resolved in $(gh release view v<next-version> --json url --jq '.url')"
Step 8: Clean up merged feature branch
If a feature branch was merged in Step 3, delete it locally and remotely:
git branch -d <feature-branch>
git push origin --delete <feature-branch>
Step 9: Confirm clean state
git status
git log --oneline -5
Report the GitHub release URL from gh release view v.