Release Engineering

Release Engineering

Purpose

Use this skill to turn "ready to merge" into a controlled release. It connects code, data, config, deployment, monitoring, and rollback.

Release Classification

Classify the release before choosing gates:

| Type | Extra Gates |

|---|---|

| Patch fix | focused regression test, rollback proof |

| Feature release | feature flag, docs/changelog, product acceptance |

| API or SDK change | versioning, deprecation, compatibility tests |

| Database migration | data-contract-migrations, backup, backfill, recovery |

| Config or secret change | config-secrets-environments, rotation, drift check |

| Infrastructure change | canary, health checks, capacity and rollback |

Release Plan

For non-trivial releases, require:

• Version or release identifier.
• Changelog entries grouped by user impact.
• Build artifacts and provenance.
• Migration and config gates.
• Canary or staged rollout plan.
• Monitoring dashboard and alert expectations.
• Rollback or roll-forward command.
• Owner, decision time, and abort criteria.

Verification

Use fresh commands from the current session. Typical gates:

git status --short
git log --oneline -n 5
# project-specific build/test command
# migration dry run or validation query
# deployment health check

Do not claim a release shipped unless remote git, CI, artifact, and runtime state have each been checked at the required level.

Output Shape

release_scope:
version_or_identifier:
included_changes:
excluded_changes:
pre_release_checks:
rollout_steps:
migration_and_config_gates:
monitoring:
rollback_or_recovery:
go_no_go_status: