ci: make the release authoritative about the image it advertises - #292
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Part of #269. Resolves the epic's open question 2 in favour of option (a). publish.yml and release.yml both fired on a tag push and raced. release.yml created a GitHub Release asserting that the controller image for the release was manager:<tag> -- a claim it never checked. It did not know the digest, could not confirm the image existed, and could not have verified a signature even in principle, while publish.yml was independently building and signing that same image. #270's verification gate would have had nothing to verify against. The image build moves into a reusable build-image.yml. release.yml calls it on a tag and receives the index and both platform digests directly as job outputs; publish.yml calls it on main and is now responsible only for main-<sha> dev images. It no longer triggers on tags, so the race is gone rather than mitigated. build-image.yml builds and pushes only. Signing stays in attest.yml, which each caller invokes with the digests it returns. It re-validates image_tag even though both callers validate: the value reaches a shell in a job holding packages:write, and a reusable workflow should not assume every future caller has checked. The release notes now state the digests the release actually built and signed -- index and both platforms, plus the chart -- with a cosign command that pins the index rather than the tag. A gate immediately before publication rejects any digest that is missing or malformed, since the notes now assert them as fact and an empty reference would be worse than the tag it replaced. The tag was being resolved and validated independently in four jobs. That is four places for the release identity to drift, and it is the same duplicate-source-of-truth problem flagged on an earlier PR in this epic. One release-tag job now resolves and validates it once and every consumer reads that. Signed-off-by: Mark Chmarny <mark@chmarny.com>
Self-review finding.
helm-publish depended only on release-tag, making it a sibling of
build-image with no edge between them. helm-publish does a `helm push`
inside a 15-minute budget; build-image runs a multi-platform buildx build
plus two SBOM generations inside 40. The chart would therefore routinely
land in the OCI registry well before `manager:<tag>` existed -- and if the
build then failed, the chart would stay there permanently, referencing a
tag that never arrives. `helm push` is not something the workflow can
take back.
The chart's values.yaml pins that image tag, and GitOps automation
watches the OCI registry rather than the GitHub Release: a Flux
OCIRepository or HelmRelease semver policy, Argo CD Image Updater, or
Renovate can reconcile a chart the moment it appears. A cluster
reconciling in that window gets ImagePullBackOff and no GitHub Release to
explain why. Gating create-github-release does not help, because none of
those consumers wait for it.
This is the same "advertise something we have not confirmed" hazard this
PR exists to remove for the release notes, left open one hop earlier on
the artifact automation actually consumes.
helm-publish now needs image-attested, so the chart is pushed only once
the image exists and is signed. image-attested runs with `if: always()`
and exits non-zero on any upstream failure, so a failed build skips the
chart publish rather than orphaning a chart in the registry.
Also emitted build-image.yml's image_name from a step output rather than
`${{ env.IMAGE_NAME }}` in a job-level outputs block. Whether the env
context resolves there is not a guarantee worth resting the release on:
an empty value would have flowed into every attest call as the subject.
Swept the other workflows for the same pattern; there were none.
Signed-off-by: Mark Chmarny <mark@chmarny.com>
Self-review findings. Three of the five persona screens independently
reached the first one.
attest-chart still read `needs.helm-publish.outputs.tag`. That output was
dropped when tag resolution moved into the release-tag job, and an
undefined output expands to the empty string rather than erroring.
attest.yml rejects an empty subject_tag for an oci-artifact subject, so
chart signing would have failed on every release -- after the image and
the chart were already public -- and create-github-release, which needs
chart-attested, would never have run. No release could ever have been
published.
This was fallout from consolidating four duplicate tag resolutions into
one, and my own check missed it: it verified that every referenced job
was declared in `needs:`, not that the field being read still existed.
test/releasepolicy now checks the latter, and a second test asserts no
`${{ }}` survives inside a run block anywhere in the release path.
Writing them was worth it twice over -- the first version of the output
check passed against the very defect it was written for, because a
reusable-workflow call keeps its references in `with:` and the struct I
marshalled did not model that field. The second version was still wrong,
because YAML reads a bare `on:` key as the boolean true, so reusable
workflow outputs resolved as empty. Both are fixed and both tests were
mutation-tested against reintroduced defects.
Also from the review:
- publish.yml could be dispatched against a release tag. It always tags
the image `main-<sha>`, but github.ref would genuinely be
`refs/tags/v*`, so Fulcio would mint `attest.yml@refs/tags/vX.Y.Z` --
the identity SECURITY.md tells users proves an official release -- for
a dev image at a digest no release advertised. allow_untagged cannot
prevent that; it relaxes a check, it does not shape the certificate.
The job is now pinned to refs/heads/main.
- The controller image section of the release notes was an H3 under
"Helm Chart", so a separately signed artifact read as a detail of the
chart. Promoted to its own section.
- Two comments were left describing steps that had been inserted above
them, and each now sits above the step it actually describes.
- RELEASE.md described three release jobs and said the image was
published separately by publish.yml. Both are now false. It documents
the new ownership, the publication ordering, and that the image-only
rebuild path is gone -- re-running a release means re-running all of
it, dispatched at the tag so signatures carry the release identity.
Signed-off-by: Mark Chmarny <mark@chmarny.com>
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Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 12 included reviews per hour; 10 remain after this review. 📝 WalkthroughWalkthroughAdds a reusable GitHub Actions workflow for multi-platform image builds, manifest digest validation, CycloneDX SBOM generation, and artifact upload. Updates development publishing to use validated Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~60 minutes Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to The release now advertises the exact signed image and chart digests while separating development-image publishing from tagged releases; no actionable merge-blocking risk remains beyond normal checks and review. 🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1❌ Failed checks (1 warning)
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✨ Finishing Touches🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)
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Inline comments:
In @.github/workflows/publish.yml:
- Line 139: Update the condition for the attested job to require the workflow
ref to be main in addition to always() and the existing repository check, so
manually dispatched runs from non-main refs skip attested consistently with tag,
build, and attestation.
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.github/workflows/build-image.yml.github/workflows/publish.yml.github/workflows/release.ymlRELEASE.mdtest/releasepolicy/workflow_graph_test.go
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Review finding on PR #292, and a direct consequence of the ref guard added in the previous commit. `attested` runs on `always()` so it can catch a skipped attestation -- the failure mode where a broken caller gate would otherwise let an unsigned image ship under a green run. But it did not carry the refs/heads/main guard the jobs it watches now have. A workflow_dispatch from any other ref skips tag, build and all three attestation jobs, which is exactly what that guard is for, and then `attested` still ran and reported "no image was published" -- turning a deliberate no-op into a red run that reads like a broken release. It now carries the same condition, so the whole workflow declines cleanly. Audited every job in publish.yml afterwards: each either carries the guard directly or inherits it through `needs`. Signed-off-by: Mark Chmarny <mark@chmarny.com>
lalitadithya
approved these changes
Sep 2, 2026
This was referenced Sep 2, 2026
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Summary
publish.ymlandrelease.ymlboth fired on a tag push and raced.release.ymlcreated a GitHub Release asserting the controller image wasmanager:<tag>— a claim it never checked. It had no digest, could not confirm the image existed, and could not have verified a signature even in principle. #270's verification gate would have had nothing to verify against.Resolved as the epic's open question 2, option (a): the image build moves into a reusable
build-image.yml.release.ymlcalls it on a tag and receives the index and both platform digests directly as job outputs.publish.ymlnow triggers onmainonly and ownsmain-<sha>dev images. The race is removed, not mitigated.The release notes now state the digests the release actually built and signed — index, both platforms, and the chart — with a
cosign verifycommand that pins the index rather than the tag. A gate immediately before publication rejects any digest that is missing or malformed.Publication ordering
Each artifact is published only after the one it depends on is signed:
The chart is not pushed until the image it references exists and is attested. That ordering matters because the chart's
values.yamlpinsmanager:<tag>, and GitOps automation watches the OCI registry rather than the GitHub Release.Related Issue
Part of #269 — deliberately not
Closes.release.ymlruns only on a tag, so none of this has executed.Type of Change
Component(s) Affected
Testing
Two new tests in
test/releasepolicy, both mutation-tested against reintroduced defects:TestJobOutputReferencesResolve— everyneeds.<job>.outputs.<field>reference must resolve to a field the producing job actually declares, resolving through reusable-workflow calls.TestNoExpressionInterpolationInRunBlocks— no${{ }}inside anyrun:block in the release path.Also verified:
actionlintclean,make verify,make lint(0 issues), fullgo test. The digest gate was executed directly (all-present accepted, missing index rejected, malformed chart digest rejected).Self-review findings
Five persona screens. Three independently found the same BLOCKER, and it is the one worth reading:
attest-chartstill readneeds.helm-publish.outputs.tag. That output was dropped when tag resolution was consolidated intorelease-tag, and an undefined output expands to the empty string rather than erroring.attest.ymlrejects an emptysubject_tagfor anoci-artifactsubject, so chart signing would have failed on every release — after the image and chart were already public — andcreate-github-releasewould never have run. No release could ever have been published.That was fallout from my own consolidation, and my verification missed it: I checked that every referenced job was declared in
needs:, not that the field being read still existed. Hence the first new test.Writing that test paid for itself twice before it worked. Version one passed against the very defect it was written for, because a reusable-workflow call keeps its references in
with:and the struct I marshalled didn't model that field. Version two was still wrong, because YAML reads a bareon:key as the booleantrue, so reusable-workflow outputs resolved as empty. Only mutation testing surfaced either.The rest:
publish.ymlcould be dispatched against a release tag (MAJOR). It always tags the imagemain-<sha>, butgithub.refwould genuinely berefs/tags/v*, so Fulcio would mintattest.yml@refs/tags/vX.Y.Z— the identitySECURITY.mdtells users proves an official release — for a dev image at a digest no release advertised.allow_untaggedcannot prevent that: it relaxes a check, it does not shape the certificate. Job pinned torefs/heads/main.helm-publishwas a sibling ofbuild-imagewith no edge between them, and does ahelm pushin a 15-minute budget against a 40-minute image build. A FluxOCIRepository, Argo CD Image Updater or Renovate could reconcile a chart pinning a tag that didn't exist yet — or never would, if the build failed.helm pushcannot be taken back. Now gated onimage-attested.build-image.ymlemittedimage_namefrom${{ env.* }}in a job-leveloutputs:block — an empty value there would have flowed into every attest call as the subject. Moved to a step output; swept the other workflows for the same pattern.RELEASE.mdsaid three release jobs and that the image is published separately bypublish.yml. Both now false. It documents the new ownership, the publication ordering, and that the image-only rebuild path is gone.What is not proven
release.ymlruns only on a release tag, so this has not executed. #269 stays open until it has.Per the agreed plan, an
-rctag right after this merges would exercise the whole path and settle the deferred criteria on #267, #268 and #269 in one run.RELEASE.mdChecklist
git commit -s)make manifests generaterun (if*_types.gowas modified) — n/aRELEASE.md, release notes template