Skip to content

Simplify release, add agent skill to drive release activities#13408

Open
JanProvaznik wants to merge 1 commit intodotnet:mainfrom
JanProvaznik:release-skill
Open

Simplify release, add agent skill to drive release activities#13408
JanProvaznik wants to merge 1 commit intodotnet:mainfrom
JanProvaznik:release-skill

Conversation

@JanProvaznik
Copy link
Member

updates the process to be aligned with rolling VS updates and provides agent to assist with activities so dev does not have to do the commands

image

@JanProvaznik JanProvaznik marked this pull request as ready for review March 18, 2026 16:47
@JanProvaznik JanProvaznik requested a review from a team as a code owner March 18, 2026 16:47
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 18, 2026 16:47
Copy link
Contributor

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Pull request overview

This PR updates MSBuild’s release documentation to align with the monthly Visual Studio cadence, introduces a phase-gated operational checklist, and adds a GitHub Copilot “release” skill to help drive the process interactively.

Changes:

  • Expanded release.md with an end-to-end VS insertion flow explanation and timeline diagram, pointing to the checklist as the operational source of truth.
  • Reworked release-checklist.md into a 6-phase, trigger-based template suitable for copying into a tracking issue.
  • Added a .github/skills/release skill to guide an agent through the release phases with explicit approval for state-changing actions.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File Description
documentation/release.md Adds release flow explanation/diagram and clarifies checklist ownership of operational steps.
documentation/release-checklist.md Converts prior ad-hoc checklist into a phased, timeline-gated issue template with batched DARC operations.
.github/skills/release/SKILL.md Adds an agent skill that operationalizes the checklist into an interactive phase-by-phase workflow.

You can also share your feedback on Copilot code review. Take the survey.

- [ ] Confirm branch `vs{{THIS_RELEASE_VERSION}}` does **not** already exist — if it does, this release was already started
- [ ] Confirm DARC channel `VS {{THIS_RELEASE_VERSION}}` exists: \
`darc get-channel --name "VS {{THIS_RELEASE_VERSION}}"` \
If missing, it should have been created during the previous release (Phase 1 step 3). Create it now: `darc add-channel --name "VS {{THIS_RELEASE_VERSION}}"`
Steps are **mostly parallel** unless noted.

- [ ] **5.1** Push packages to nuget.org. Contact dnceng — search "Publish MSBuild {{THIS_RELEASE_VERSION}} to NuGet.org" email subject for template. \
`THIS_RELEASE_EXACT_VERSION` = `VersionPrefix` from `eng/Versions.props` on the release branch (also visible in the VS insertion PR). Packages to publish taken from the official build https://devdiv.visualstudio.com/DevDiv/_build?definitionId=9434 for the {{THIS_RELEASE_VERSION}} branch (search in artifacts under Shipping folder:
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

2 participants