Update release flow to be more robust #3938

j-piasecki · 2026-01-29T12:10:02Z

Description

Overhaul of the release process:

adds beta and rc options to the previously existing stable and commitly
allows the release of a specific version, independent from the branch name (optional, will still detect the version from the branch name when unspecified)
verifies that the latest version is either one patch, one minor, or one major higher than the currently published version (ATM throws on major change)
verifies that beta, rc and commitly releases aren't done for an already published version (i.e. will disallow publishing 2.30.0-beta.1 when stable 2.30.0 is published`).
automatic numbering of beta and rc releases

Internally:

moved most of the helpers to separate files
moved version numbering helpers to version-utils
added tests covering the release scripts

Test plan

Tested on a fork:

Fails when trying to skip minor on latest release: https://github.com/j-piasecki/react-native-gesture-handler/actions/runs/21475940199/job/61859862583
Fails when trying to skip patch on latest release: https://github.com/j-piasecki/react-native-gesture-handler/actions/runs/21476045075/job/61860214823
Fails when trying to publish on existing versions (checks base version for beta, rc, and commitly): https://github.com/j-piasecki/react-native-gesture-handler/actions/runs/21476741044/job/61862557674
Succeeds when not skipping any minor: https://github.com/j-piasecki/react-native-gesture-handler/actions/runs/21476056662/job/61860252565
Succeeds when not skipping any patch: https://github.com/j-piasecki/react-native-gesture-handler/actions/runs/21476183083/job/61860683061
Succeeds when publishing a non-latest release: https://github.com/j-piasecki/react-native-gesture-handler/actions/runs/21476510871/job/61861782101

Copilot

Pull request overview

Overhauls the npm release automation to support additional release channels (beta/rc), optional explicit version publishing, and stronger validation around what can be published and tagged.

Changes:

Add release helpers for computing next stable/pre-release versions and validating latest vs non-latest publishes.
Refactor release scripting by extracting argument parsing and version computation into dedicated modules.
Add Jest-based unit tests for the release scripts and introduce a CI workflow to run them.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 17 out of 18 changed files in this pull request and generated 10 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
yarn.lock	Adds Jest dependency to lockfile for running new script tests.
package.json	Adds `test` script and Jest dev dependency for running release-script tests.
scripts/release/version-utils.js	Adds helpers to compute latest/next stable/pre-release versions using npm registry queries.
scripts/release/validate-non-latest-version.js	Adds validation to prevent publishing non-latest releases when the base version already exists.
scripts/release/validate-latest-version.js	Adds validation to ensure latest-tagged stable releases increment semver correctly.
scripts/release/should-be-latest.js	Expands logic for deciding whether a stable release should be tagged as `latest`.
scripts/release/set-package-version.js	Refactors to use shared argument parsing + version selection helpers.
scripts/release/parse-arguments.js	Introduces centralized CLI flag parsing for release scripts.
scripts/release/get-version.js	Implements version selection logic per release type (stable/beta/rc/commitly).
scripts/release/tests/version-utils.test.js	Adds unit tests for version parsing and next-version helpers.
scripts/release/tests/validate-non-latest-version.test.js	Adds unit tests for non-latest publish validation logic.
scripts/release/tests/validate-latest-version.test.js	Adds unit tests for latest publish validation logic.
scripts/release/tests/should-be-latest.test.js	Adds unit tests for npm-tag selection logic.
scripts/release/tests/parse-arguments.test.js	Adds unit tests for release CLI argument parsing.
scripts/release/tests/get-version.test.js	Adds unit tests for deriving versions for each release type.
.github/workflows/run-jest-tests.yml	Adds a CI workflow to run the new Jest tests.
.github/workflows/publish-release.yml	Extends publish workflow to support manual stable/beta/rc and automatic commitly releases.
.github/actions/publish-npm-package/action.yml	Updates composite action to accept release type/version, determine npm tag, and validate versions before publishing.

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Copilot · 2026-01-29T12:16:06Z

scripts/release/version-utils.js

+function getNextPreReleaseVersion(releaseType, version) {
+  let dotIndex = 1;
+  while (true) {
+    const targetVersion = `${version}-${releaseType}.${dotIndex}`;
+
+    try {
+      // if the version is already published, increment the pre-release sequence (rc/beta number) and try again
+      getPackageVersionByTag('react-native-gesture-handler', targetVersion);
+      dotIndex++;
+    } catch (error) {
+      return targetVersion;
+    }
+  }


getNextPreReleaseVersion also treats any getPackageVersionByTag failure as "version doesn't exist". This can incorrectly pick a pre-release number if npm view fails for transient reasons. Suggest the same approach as stable: distinguish "not found" from other errors (or add retries) instead of assuming all errors mean absence.

This should be fine - worst case we try to publish with a version number that's already been published and the process fails.

.github/actions/publish-npm-package/action.yml

.github/workflows/run-jest-tests.yml

Copilot · 2026-01-29T12:16:08Z

scripts/release/validate-non-latest-version.js

+function versionExists(version) {
+  try {
+    getPackageVersionByTag('react-native-gesture-handler', version);
+    return true;
+  } catch (error) {
+    return false;
+  }


versionExists treats any failure from getPackageVersionByTag as "version does not exist". Since npm-utils throws the same error for 404s and for transient npm/network failures, this can incorrectly allow publishing a version that already exists when npm is temporarily unavailable. Consider distinguishing "not found" from other failures (or retrying) and rethrowing unexpected errors.

This should be fine - worst case we try to publish with a version number that's already been published and the process fails.

scripts/release/validate-latest-version.js

Copilot · 2026-01-29T12:16:09Z

scripts/release/version-utils.js

+function getNextStableVersion() {
+  const [major, minor] = getStableBranchVersion();
+
+  let nextPatch = 0;
+  while (true) {
+    const version = `${major}.${minor}.${nextPatch}`;
+
+    try {
+      // if the version is already published, increment the patch version and try again
+      getPackageVersionByTag('react-native-gesture-handler', version);
+      nextPatch++;
+    } catch (error) {
+      return [Number(major), Number(minor), nextPatch];
+    }


getNextStableVersion treats any error from getPackageVersionByTag as "version does not exist" and returns the current nextPatch. With the current npm-utils implementation, transient npm/network failures are indistinguishable from an actual 404, which could cause selecting an already-published version. Consider surfacing the underlying npm error in npm-utils and only treating a real "not found"/E404 as the signal to stop; rethrow or retry on other failures.

This should be fine - worst case we try to publish with a version number that's already been published and the process fails.

scripts/release/get-version.js

scripts/release/validate-non-latest-version.js

j-piasecki added 19 commits January 29, 2026 10:14

Ensure the new major is higher than the previous one

d23d93d

Try to infer the prerelease version from branch if not provided

40e7fcc

Move arg parsing to a helper

d36322e

Split detecting next latest and verifying it

e630c88

Move parseArguments to a separate file

e85adbb

Move version resolution to version-utils

c1366d0

Move getVersion to separate file

6d07c72

Add release scripts tests

3e3f2b0

Allow explicitly setting version for stable release

dd8a13f

Update action

1c6ec40

Update workflow

305627c

Allow on fork

64869c4

Use format()

58f091a

Don't commit to main

6d1b0a3

Run version checks sooner

49d4c82

Always explicitly set npm tag

d093c91

Validate non-latest versions

8bbbb25

Redisable on forks

06d9bc1

Add tests

1399227

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings January 29, 2026 12:10

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of j-piasecki January 29, 2026 12:10 View session

Update wildcards

8c67891

Copilot AI reviewed Jan 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

j-piasecki added 2 commits January 29, 2026 15:03

Address simple remarks

1da92a5

Fix test action

f3ad677

j-piasecki marked this pull request as ready for review January 29, 2026 14:08

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Update release flow to be more robust #3938

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j-piasecki commented Jan 29, 2026

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