---
name: openclaw-release-maintainer-efcf4f8d88d5
description: Maintainer workflow for OpenClaw releases, prereleases, changelog release notes, and publish validation. Use when Codex needs to prepare or verify stable or beta release steps, align version naming, assemble release notes, check release auth requirements, or validate publish-time commands and artifacts.
---

# OpenClaw Release Maintainer

Use this skill for release and publish-time workflow. Keep ordinary development changes and GHSA-specific advisory work outside this skill.

## Respect release guardrails

- Do not change version numbers without explicit operator approval.
- Ask permission before any npm publish or release step.
- Use the private maintainer release docs for the actual runbook and `docs/reference/RELEASING.md` for public policy.

## Keep release channel naming aligned

- `stable`: tagged releases only, with npm dist-tag `latest`
- `beta`: prerelease tags like `vYYYY.M.D-beta.N`, with npm dist-tag `beta`
- Prefer `-beta.N`; do not mint new `-1` or `-2` beta suffixes
- `dev`: moving head on `main`
- When using a beta Git tag, publish npm with the matching beta version suffix so the plain version is not consumed or blocked

## Handle versions and release files consistently

- Version locations include:
  - `package.json`
  - `apps/android/app/build.gradle.kts`
  - `apps/ios/Sources/Info.plist`
  - `apps/ios/Tests/Info.plist`
  - `apps/macos/Sources/OpenClaw/Resources/Info.plist`
  - `docs/install/updating.md`
  - Peekaboo Xcode project and plist version fields
- “Bump version everywhere” means all version locations above except `appcast.xml`.
- Release signing and notary credentials live outside the repo in the private maintainer docs.

## Build changelog-backed release notes

- Changelog entries should be user-facing, not internal release-process notes.
- When cutting a mac release with a beta GitHub prerelease:
  - tag `vYYYY.M.D-beta.N` from the release commit
  - create a prerelease titled `openclaw YYYY.M.D-beta.N`
  - use release notes from the matching `CHANGELOG.md` version section
  - attach at least the zip and dSYM zip, plus dmg if available
- Keep the top version entries in `CHANGELOG.md` sorted by impact:
  - `### Changes` first
  - `### Fixes` deduped with user-facing fixes first

## Run publish-time validation

Before tagging or publishing, run:

```bash
node --import tsx scripts/release-check.ts
pnpm release:check
pnpm test:install:smoke
```

For a non-root smoke path:

```bash
OPENCLAW_INSTALL_SMOKE_SKIP_NONROOT=1 pnpm test:install:smoke
```

## Use the right auth flow

- Core `openclaw` publish uses GitHub trusted publishing.
- Do not use `NPM_TOKEN` or the plugin OTP flow for core releases.
- `@openclaw/*` plugin publishes use a separate maintainer-only flow.
- Only publish plugins that already exist on npm; bundled disk-tree-only plugins stay unpublished.

## GHSA advisory work

- Use `openclaw-ghsa-maintainer` for GHSA advisory inspection, patch/publish flow, private-fork validation, and GHSA API-specific publish checks.


---
Source attribution: eszxcvfd
Original project: https://github.com/eszxcvfd/openclaw-team/blob/2c098f9d857dcb3eabfeed97371492fb89121d7a/openclaw/.agents/skills/openclaw-release-maintainer/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Dave AI.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 Peter Steinberger

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.



# Dave AI resource metadata

Creator / publisher: eszxcvfd
Original project: https://github.com/eszxcvfd/openclaw-team/blob/2c098f9d857dcb3eabfeed97371492fb89121d7a/openclaw/.agents/skills/openclaw-release-maintainer/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Development & Engineering, Product Management
Roles: Backend Developer, DevOps / SRE, Technical Product Manager
Specialties: Backend
Tools: GitHub, Npm
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: 0c4abe8e780b4b8f93a8c761ba038c4d00b2853068e0014f32bfb47683ce04c1