openclaw/docs/reference/RELEASING.md

summary, title, read_when

summary	title	read_when
Public release channels, version naming, and cadence	Release policy	Looking for public release channel definitions Looking for version naming and cadence

OpenClaw has three public release lanes:

• stable: tagged releases that publish to npm beta by default, or to npm latest when explicitly requested
• beta: prerelease tags that publish to npm beta
• dev: the moving head of main

Version naming

• Stable release version: YYYY.M.D
  • Git tag: vYYYY.M.D
• Stable correction release version: YYYY.M.D-N
  • Git tag: vYYYY.M.D-N
• Beta prerelease version: YYYY.M.D-beta.N
  • Git tag: vYYYY.M.D-beta.N
• Do not zero-pad month or day
• latest means the current promoted stable npm release
• beta means the current beta install target
• Stable and stable correction releases publish to npm beta by default; release operators can target latest explicitly, or promote a vetted beta build later
• Every stable OpenClaw release ships the npm package and macOS app together; beta releases normally validate and publish the npm/package path first, with mac app build/sign/notarize reserved for stable unless explicitly requested

Release cadence

• Releases move beta-first
• Stable follows only after the latest beta is validated
• Maintainers normally cut releases from a release/YYYY.M.D branch created from current main, so release validation and fixes do not block new development on main
• If a beta tag has been pushed or published and needs a fix, maintainers cut the next -beta.N tag instead of deleting or recreating the old beta tag
• Detailed release procedure, approvals, credentials, and recovery notes are maintainer-only

Release preflight

• Run pnpm check:test-types before release preflight so test TypeScript stays covered outside the faster local pnpm check gate
• Run pnpm check:architecture before release preflight so the broader import cycle and architecture boundary checks are green outside the faster local gate
• Run pnpm build && pnpm ui:build before pnpm release:check so the expected dist/* release artifacts and Control UI bundle exist for the pack validation step
• Run the manual CI workflow before release approval when you need full normal CI coverage for the release candidate. Manual CI dispatches bypass changed scoping and force the Linux Node shards, bundled-plugin shards, channel contracts, Node 22 compatibility, check, check-additional, build smoke, docs checks, Python skills, Windows, macOS, Android, and Control UI i18n lanes. Example: gh workflow run ci.yml --ref release/YYYY.M.D
• Run pnpm qa:otel:smoke when validating release telemetry. It exercises QA-lab through a local OTLP/HTTP receiver and verifies the exported trace span names, bounded attributes, and content/identifier redaction without requiring Opik, Langfuse, or another external collector.
• Run pnpm release:check before every tagged release
• Release checks now run in a separate manual workflow: OpenClaw Release Checks
• OpenClaw Release Checks also runs the QA Lab mock parity gate plus the live Matrix and Telegram QA lanes before release approval. The live lanes use the qa-live-shared environment; Telegram also uses Convex CI credential leases.
• Cross-OS install and upgrade runtime validation is dispatched from the private caller workflow openclaw/releases-private/.github/workflows/openclaw-cross-os-release-checks.yml, which invokes the reusable public workflow .github/workflows/openclaw-cross-os-release-checks-reusable.yml
• This split is intentional: keep the real npm release path short, deterministic, and artifact-focused, while slower live checks stay in their own lane so they do not stall or block publish
• Release checks must be dispatched from the main workflow ref or from a release/YYYY.M.D workflow ref so the workflow logic and secrets stay controlled
• That workflow accepts either an existing release tag or the current full 40-character workflow-branch commit SHA
• In commit-SHA mode it only accepts the current workflow-branch HEAD; use a release tag for older release commits
• OpenClaw NPM Release validation-only preflight also accepts the current full 40-character workflow-branch commit SHA without requiring a pushed tag
• That SHA path is validation-only and cannot be promoted into a real publish
• In SHA mode the workflow synthesizes v<package.json version> only for the package metadata check; real publish still requires a real release tag
• Both workflows keep the real publish and promotion path on GitHub-hosted runners, while the non-mutating validation path can use the larger Blacksmith Linux runners
• That workflow runs OPENCLAW_LIVE_TEST=1 OPENCLAW_LIVE_CACHE_TEST=1 pnpm test:live:cache using both OPENAI_API_KEY and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY workflow secrets
• npm release preflight no longer waits on the separate release checks lane
• Run RELEASE_TAG=vYYYY.M.D node --import tsx scripts/openclaw-npm-release-check.ts (or the matching beta/correction tag) before approval
• After npm publish, run node --import tsx scripts/openclaw-npm-postpublish-verify.ts YYYY.M.D (or the matching beta/correction version) to verify the published registry install path in a fresh temp prefix
• After a beta publish, run OPENCLAW_NPM_TELEGRAM_PACKAGE_SPEC=openclaw@YYYY.M.D-beta.N OPENCLAW_NPM_TELEGRAM_CREDENTIAL_SOURCE=convex OPENCLAW_NPM_TELEGRAM_CREDENTIAL_ROLE=ci pnpm test:docker:npm-telegram-live to verify installed-package onboarding, Telegram setup, and real Telegram E2E against the published npm package using the shared leased Telegram credential pool. Local maintainer one-offs may omit the Convex vars and pass the three OPENCLAW_QA_TELEGRAM_* env credentials directly.
• Maintainers can run the same post-publish check from GitHub Actions via the manual NPM Telegram Beta E2E workflow. It is intentionally manual-only and does not run on every merge.
• Maintainer release automation now uses preflight-then-promote:
  • real npm publish must pass a successful npm preflight_run_id
  • the real npm publish must be dispatched from the same main or release/YYYY.M.D branch as the successful preflight run
  • stable npm releases default to beta
  • stable npm publish can target latest explicitly via workflow input
  • token-based npm dist-tag mutation now lives in openclaw/releases-private/.github/workflows/openclaw-npm-dist-tags.yml for security, because npm dist-tag add still needs NPM_TOKEN while the public repo keeps OIDC-only publish
  • public macOS Release is validation-only
  • real private mac publish must pass successful private mac preflight_run_id and validate_run_id
  • the real publish paths promote prepared artifacts instead of rebuilding them again
• For stable correction releases like YYYY.M.D-N, the post-publish verifier also checks the same temp-prefix upgrade path from YYYY.M.D to YYYY.M.D-N so release corrections cannot silently leave older global installs on the base stable payload
• npm release preflight fails closed unless the tarball includes both dist/control-ui/index.html and a non-empty dist/control-ui/assets/ payload so we do not ship an empty browser dashboard again
• Post-publish verification also checks that the published registry install contains non-empty bundled plugin runtime deps under the root dist/* layout. A release that ships with missing or empty bundled plugin dependency payloads fails the postpublish verifier and cannot be promoted to latest.
• pnpm test:install:smoke also enforces the npm pack unpackedSize budget on the candidate update tarball, so installer e2e catches accidental pack bloat before the release publish path
• If the release work touched CI planning, extension timing manifests, or extension test matrices, regenerate and review the planner-owned checks-node-extensions workflow matrix outputs from .github/workflows/ci.yml before approval so release notes do not describe a stale CI layout
• Stable macOS release readiness also includes the updater surfaces:
  • the GitHub release must end up with the packaged .zip, .dmg, and .dSYM.zip
  • appcast.xml on main must point at the new stable zip after publish
  • the packaged app must keep a non-debug bundle id, a non-empty Sparkle feed URL, and a CFBundleVersion at or above the canonical Sparkle build floor for that release version

NPM workflow inputs

OpenClaw NPM Release accepts these operator-controlled inputs:

• tag: required release tag such as v2026.4.2, v2026.4.2-1, or v2026.4.2-beta.1; when preflight_only=true, it may also be the current full 40-character workflow-branch commit SHA for validation-only preflight
• preflight_only: true for validation/build/package only, false for the real publish path
• preflight_run_id: required on the real publish path so the workflow reuses the prepared tarball from the successful preflight run
• npm_dist_tag: npm target tag for the publish path; defaults to beta

OpenClaw Release Checks accepts these operator-controlled inputs:

• ref: existing release tag or the current full 40-character main commit SHA to validate when dispatched from main; from a release branch, use an existing release tag or the current full 40-character release-branch commit SHA

Rules:

• Stable and correction tags may publish to either beta or latest
• Beta prerelease tags may publish only to beta
• For OpenClaw NPM Release, full commit SHA input is allowed only when preflight_only=true
• OpenClaw Release Checks is always validation-only and also accepts the current workflow-branch commit SHA
• Release checks commit-SHA mode also requires the current workflow-branch HEAD
• The real publish path must use the same npm_dist_tag used during preflight; the workflow verifies that metadata before publish continues

Stable npm release sequence

When cutting a stable npm release:

1. Run OpenClaw NPM Release with preflight_only=true
   • Before a tag exists, you may use the current full workflow-branch commit SHA for a validation-only dry run of the preflight workflow
2. Choose npm_dist_tag=beta for the normal beta-first flow, or latest only when you intentionally want a direct stable publish
3. Run the manual CI workflow on the release ref when you want full normal CI coverage instead of smart-scoped merge coverage
4. Run OpenClaw Release Checks separately with the same tag or the full current workflow-branch commit SHA when you want live prompt cache, QA Lab parity, Matrix, and Telegram coverage
   • This is separate on purpose so live coverage stays available without recoupling long-running or flaky checks to the publish workflow
5. Save the successful preflight_run_id
6. Run OpenClaw NPM Release again with preflight_only=false, the same tag, the same npm_dist_tag, and the saved preflight_run_id
7. If the release landed on beta, use the private openclaw/releases-private/.github/workflows/openclaw-npm-dist-tags.yml workflow to promote that stable version from beta to latest
8. If the release intentionally published directly to latest and beta should follow the same stable build immediately, use that same private workflow to point both dist-tags at the stable version, or let its scheduled self-healing sync move beta later

The dist-tag mutation lives in the private repo for security because it still requires NPM_TOKEN, while the public repo keeps OIDC-only publish.

That keeps the direct publish path and the beta-first promotion path both documented and operator-visible.

If a maintainer must fall back to local npm authentication, run any 1Password CLI (op) commands only inside a dedicated tmux session. Do not call op directly from the main agent shell; keeping it inside tmux makes prompts, alerts, and OTP handling observable and prevents repeated host alerts.

Public references

• .github/workflows/openclaw-npm-release.yml
• .github/workflows/openclaw-release-checks.yml
• .github/workflows/openclaw-cross-os-release-checks-reusable.yml
• scripts/openclaw-npm-release-check.ts
• scripts/package-mac-dist.sh
• scripts/make_appcast.sh

Maintainers use the private release docs in openclaw/maintainers/release/README.md for the actual runbook.

Related

• Release channels