#511 fix(ci): auto-cut staging on every pre-main push, remove the fragile marker

[Anonymous]

Originally created by: adityaharishch

What happened

Merging [#508] to pre-main cut an unintended staging release (v1.72.0-staging.6 — a draft prerelease, now deleted).

Root cause

release-prepare.yml triggered on every push to pre-main and gated on:

contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[staging-release]')

A squash merge folds every PR commit's body into the merge commit message, and this repo's own workflow comments quote the literal marker [staging-release]. So merging a PR that merely touched these files matched the gate → semantic-release ran → a release was cut. A substring match on a commit message you don't control is not a safe trigger.

Fix

Remove the push trigger entirely. Staging releases now cut only via manual workflow_dispatch (Actions → Release (prepare) → Run workflow). A release can no longer happen as a side effect of a merge. The job's if: guard is removed too — reaching the job now means a human clicked the button.

Blast radius of the incident (all contained)

• Draft prerelease only — not public.
• No build ran (release-build never fired), no DMG published.
• No version-bump commit on pre-main.
• Zero production impact (prereleases are never releases/latest).
• Stray release + tag already deleted.

How to cut a staging release now

Actions → Release (prepare) → Run workflow (branch: pre-main). Optionally tick dry_run first to preview the version. It tags v*-staging.N, which triggers release-build.yml.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Ticket changed by: adityaharishch

• status: open --> closed

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: adityaharishch

Updated per requirement: staging should auto-release on every pre-main merge (no button)

Reworked this PR. It no longer makes releases manual — instead it does what you want (auto-release on merge) safely:

• Trigger: push to pre-main (+ workflow_dispatch kept for on-demand / dry_run previews).
• No marker gate. semantic-release runs on every push and decides for itself: it cuts a new v*-staging.N prerelease when there are releasable commits (feat/fix/perf…) since the last staging tag, and no-ops on chore/docs/ci-only merges. That tag then triggers release-build.yml → per-arch DMG → staging channel.

The original bug was never "auto-release" — it was matching a [staging-release] substring in a commit message you don't fully control (a squash body quoting the marker fired it). Removing the string match entirely and letting semantic-release judge the commits is the canonical pattern and can't misfire.

Net behaviour after this merges

• Merge a feat/fix to pre-main → staging build is cut and published automatically → install/dogfood it on the staging channel → promote pre-main → main when happy.
• Merge a docs/ci-only change → no release (nothing to test).

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: adityaharishch

Clarification: this PR merged as manual-only (workflow_dispatch), which is what's on pre-main now. The later intent — auto-release on every pre-main merge — is in #512 (supersedes this). Ignore my edited title/comment above; the auto-on-push change lives in [#512].