Prepare Code Freeze

Prepare Code Freeze

Use this skill when the user asks to start, prepare, or automate a NeMo Relay

code freeze.

Companion Guidance

Use update-project-version for version bump semantics and prepare-pr before

opening the PR.

Workflow

This workflow assumes upstream is the NVIDIA repository remote

(NVIDIA/NeMo-Relay). The origin remote can be a maintainer's personal fork.

• Confirm or infer the target release version from upstream/main:Cargo.toml.

Derive the release branch as release/<major>.<minor>.

• Prompt for <next-version> if the user did not provide it. This is the

version that main moves to after the release branch is cut.

• Fetch the latest main and create the release branch from upstream/main:

   git fetch upstream main
   git branch release/<major>.<minor> upstream/main
   git push upstream release/<major>.<minor>

If the remote release branch already exists, verify it points where expected

before continuing.

• Create a PR branch from latest upstream/main, for example

docs/code-freeze-<major>.<minor>.

• Update .github/nightly-alpha-branches.yaml to include the new release

branch.

• Run just set-version <next-version> to bump all release-versioned package

surfaces on main.

Regenerate the dynamic worker-plugin fixture lockfile so its path

dependencies use the new workspace version:

   cargo generate-lockfile --manifest-path crates/core/tests/fixtures/worker_plugin/Cargo.toml

• Search documentation source for references to the old version and update

current-version install commands, package examples, and configuration

examples to <next-version> where appropriate:

   rg -n '<old-version>' README.md docs fern --glob '!docs/_build/**' || true

Review matches before changing them. Leave intentional historical references

alone, such as release notes, changelogs, generated build output, and

third-party dependency attribution entries.

• Validate with targeted checks:

   ruby -e 'require "yaml"; YAML.load_file(".github/nightly-alpha-branches.yaml"); YAML.load_file(".github/workflows/nightly-alpha-tag.yaml")'
   just set-version <next-version>
   cargo generate-lockfile --manifest-path crates/core/tests/fixtures/worker_plugin/Cargo.toml
   cargo build --locked --manifest-path crates/core/tests/fixtures/worker_plugin/Cargo.toml
   rg -n '<old-version>' README.md docs fern --glob '!docs/_build/**' || true
   git diff --check

Any remaining documentation matches for <old-version> should be intentional

and called out in the PR description.

• Open a PR targeting main using .github/pull_request_template.md. The PR

must mention:

• the new release branch
• the nightly alpha branch config update
• the just set-version <next-version> bump
• documentation old-version reference updates or intentional leftovers
• that release-bound PRs now target the new release/* branch

Guardrails

• Do not create release tags. Code freeze only creates the branch and the main

PR.

• Do not target the code-freeze PR at the release branch. It targets main.
• Do not leave uncommitted user changes mixed into the code-freeze PR branch.