ci(nightly): version betas as the next patch of the latest stable

[BlackHole1]

A nightly built after stable X.Y.Z used to be numbered X.Y.Z-beta.N, which semver-sorts below the stable it was built from — the version told the opposite of the truth. The beta base is now the next patch of the latest stable (stable 1.2.3 → nightly 1.2.4-beta.1), so nightlies sort above the stable they follow, and a later stable in turn sorts above all earlier nightlies (1.3.0 > 1.2.4-beta.N, and even 1.2.4 > 1.2.4-beta.N — release beats pre-release). N still continues from the highest existing -beta.* tag for the base; every new stable moves the base and resets N. The base can never collide with an existing stable tag: if vX.Y.(Z+1) existed, it would itself be the latest stable.

Update delivery is untouched: Sparkle orders appcast items by the date-stamped CFBundleVersion, so beta followers already receive a newer stable when one ships (and keep their channel preference across the update) — this change only makes the marketing version tell the same story as the build order. Migration is clean too: the existing old-scheme tags (v1.5.1-beta.*) don't feed the new base, so the first nightly after this lands is simply v1.6.1-beta.1. Verified compute_version.sh against throwaway repos covering the migration state, N continuation/reset, patch > 9 version sorting, backfill rejection, and the re-publish guard.

Two doc corrections the change surfaced are folded in: the Release workflow's version input now says the auto-bump uses the latest stable tag (under the new scheme the newest tag is almost always a beta), and RELEASING.md's failure-recovery advice no longer suggests deleting a stale tag/release — releases are immutable, so a published tag name is burned forever, and compute_version.sh derives both the stable auto-bump and the beta base from live tags, meaning a deletion makes the next run recompute exactly the burned name and fail until a newer version moves past it.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 84ffc96 and c3e6b9d.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

• .github/workflows/nightly.yml
• .github/workflows/release.yml
• docs/RELEASING.md
• scripts/ci/compute_version.sh

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Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Beta/nightly versioning now follows the next patch after the latest stable release, improving how pre-release builds are numbered.
  • Release creation now clearly uses the latest stable tag when auto-bumping a version.

• Documentation

  • Clarified release and versioning guidance, including beta/nightly ordering and what to do if a publish run fails after tagging.

Walkthrough

Type: Documentation and script logic update

Description: This change updates the beta versioning scheme so the beta base version is computed as the next patch of the latest stable tag (X.Y.(Z+1)-beta.N) rather than the latest stable version directly. scripts/ci/compute_version.sh was updated to parse the latest stable tag and increment its patch segment before scanning for beta tags. Documentation comments in .github/workflows/nightly.yml, .github/workflows/release.yml, and docs/RELEASING.md were revised to reflect this scheme, including clarified ordering guarantees and Sparkle build-number behavior. docs/RELEASING.md also changes the guidance for a failed publish run: stale tags/releases should now be left in place rather than deleted, with a new version cut instead.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Change Summary
scripts/ci/compute_version.sh	Beta base version now computed as next patch (X.Y.(Z+1)) of latest stable tag; documentation comment updated accordingly.
.github/workflows/nightly.yml, .github/workflows/release.yml, docs/RELEASING.md	Comments/docs updated to describe the new beta versioning scheme, ordering guarantees, Sparkle build-number behavior, and revised guidance for handling failed publish runs (leave stale tag/release in place instead of deleting).

Related PRs: None identified.

Suggested labels: documentation, ci

Suggested reviewers: None identified.

Poem
A rabbit hopped through tags anew,
From stable patch, a beta grew.
No more deleting, tags stay put,
compute_version.sh takes root.
Docs now clear, the scheme in view—
next patch plus beta, tried and true. 🐇

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title follows the required format and accurately summarizes the beta versioning change.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description matches the versioning and documentation updates in the changeset.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

✨ Simplify code

• Create PR with simplified code
• Commit simplified code in branch ci/nightly-next-patch-beta-base

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