Release Pipeline: migrate from version-specific branches to main/development

Release Pipeline: migrate from version-specific branches to main/development

Repo: QuickCorp/qcobjects-new-app

Current state

The repo has version-specific branches (v2.4, v2.4-ts, v2.5-beta) and three separate npm publish workflows (npmpublish-beta.yml, npmpublish-lts.yml, npmpublish-main.yml).

Why this change

Version-specific branches add complexity: CI workflows need per-branch configuration, PR paths are unclear, and promoting a beta to LTS requires manual cross-branch coordination. A single development branch with tag-based release channels simplifies everything.

What changed

• Removed all version-specific branches (v2.4, v2.4-ts, v2.5-beta)
• Single active development branch: development
• Release channel is encoded in the tag suffix, not in a branch name
• Old version tracks preserved as archive tags

Branch model

main          ← release digest (merged from development via PR)
development   ← single active development branch
feature/*     ← topic branches, PR into development
fix/*
bugfix/*

Release channels (tags)

Tag pattern	npm dist-tag	Triggered by
vX.Y.Z	latest	consolidated npmpublish.yml
vX.Y.Z-lts	lts	consolidated npmpublish.yml
vX.Y.Z-beta	beta	consolidated npmpublish.yml

Promotion workflow

1. Daily work on development branch
2. v-patch --git --npm → tag vX.Y.Z-beta (beta publish)
3. Change VERSION suffix → v-patch --git --npm → tag vX.Y.Z-lts (LTS publish)
4. PR development → main → merge → tag vX.Y.Z on main (latest publish)

Branch snapshot and removal steps

git fetch --all --prune
git tag archive/v2.4 origin/v2.4
git push origin archive/v2.4
git tag archive/v2.4-ts origin/v2.4-ts
git push origin archive/v2.4-ts
git checkout -b development origin/v2.5-beta
git push -u origin development
git push origin --delete v2.5-beta v2.4 v2.4-ts
git branch -d v2.5-beta

CI pipeline updates

File	Change
npmpublish-beta.yml	Remove — consolidated into single npmpublish.yml
npmpublish-lts.yml	Remove — consolidated into single npmpublish.yml
npmpublish-main.yml	Replace with consolidated npmpublish.yml using tag-suffix detection
codeql-analysis.yml	Branch targets to [main, development]

Consolidated workflow pattern:

on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']
jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
          registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm publish
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
      - name: Set npm dist-tag
        run: |
          VER="${GITHUB_REF_NAME#v}"
          case "$VER" in
            *-lts)  TAG=lts ;;
            *-beta) TAG=beta ;;
            *)      TAG=latest ;;
          esac
          npm dist-tag add "$(node -p "require('./package.json').name")@${VER}" "$TAG"

Archived tracks

Archive tag	Source branch
archive/v2.4	origin/v2.4
archive/v2.4-ts	origin/v2.4-ts

Future considerations

• When starting a new architecture wave, branch from main into a feature branch, develop on development, and release via the same tag flow
• Archived branches are always accessible via the archive tags

Start with npmpublish-main.yml, npmpublish-beta.yml, npmpublish-lts.yml, and codeql-analysis.yml, then review the documented branch and tag flow. Consolidate the publish workflows into npmpublish.yml with the listed tag patterns and update CodeQL branch targets. Verify the archive tags, development branch, and release workflow behavior against the promotion steps.