Azure / Azure/azure-sdk-tools

Predictable and Fast SDK Release After API Spec Merge and SDK Release start.

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#14,583 0 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
AzSDK Tools Agent dev inner loop Epic Mgmt Mgmt-EngSys Scenario 2
Dominant language
C#
Stars
135
Forks
260
Avg merge
3d 1h
Merged PRs (30d)
143

Description

Today, the end-to-end SDK self service release process after a spec PR is merged often takes significantly longer than expected.
This is mainly caused by back-and-forth between SH team working on CodeGen/review, service team, release planner and tooling teams.

## Problem Statement
After a spec PR is merged, the extra time for SDK release commonly caused by:
- Multiple rounds of discussion with service teams to clarify expectations and correctness
- Late discovery of code generation and pipeline issues
- Insufficient documentation or next step action for service teams in auto PRs.
- Unnecessary or redundant steps in the release workflow: draft=>ready for review, additional steps to release SDK after PR merged. etc.
- Non-intuitive validation experience, leading to avoidable mistakes

As a result, the SDK release timeline is unpredictable and creates negative downstream impact:

- Increased engineering cost: SDK FTEs spend significantly more time coordinating, clarifying, and iterating with service teams during release, beyond what should be required once the API spec is finalized.
- Service team dissatisfaction: Service teams are frustrated by the long and unpredictable SDK release timeline, which makes planning, communication, and customer commitments harder.

## Goal
Define and implement a clear release matrix and supporting improvements to reduce the total SDK release time to 2–3 working days after spec PR is merged, with minimal back-and-forth and predictable outcomes.

## Success Criteria

- SDKs can be released within 2–3 working days after spec PR merge
- Reduced number of back-and-forth communication with service teams during SDK release
- Fewer late-stage blocking issues discovered during release
- Clear, documented release readiness criteria understood by all stakeholders
- Predictable SDK release process & timeline for services

## Action
This epic tracks the work needed to make SDK releases fast, predictable, and low-friction including
build the matrix to analyze how much time spent for services from spec PR merged till SDK finally released, address Code Generation and review Gaps, Improve user experience, documentation and release process, etc.

If people agreed with the goal, more sub issues will be created and added into this epic.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are identified; begin by decomposing this epic into concrete sub-issues and measuring the time from spec PR merge to SDK release. Done means a defined release matrix and supporting improvements that achieve the stated 2–3 working day target, reduce back-and-forth and late blockers, and document release readiness criteria.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
documentation, release, tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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