fix: fall back to ccr code when claude CLI is unavailable

[0xApotheosis]

Description

tl;dr: for people like me who use Claude Code via Claude Code Router

When the claude CLI isn't authenticated (e.g. user has no Claude subscription and uses an API key via claude-code-router), the release script's summary generation fails and falls back to the raw commit list.

This PR adds ccr code as a fallback for summary generation:

• Refactors the spawn logic into a shared spawnClaude helper
• Tries claude CLI first (default); if it fails and ccr is on PATH, falls back to ccr code
• Improves error output to capture both stdout and stderr (up to 500 chars each) for easier debugging

Issue (if applicable)

N/A

Risk

Zero risk. This only affects how Claude is invoked during release summary generation - no on-chain transactions, wallets, or protocol interactions are affected.

Testing

Engineering

Run the release script with and without a Claude subscription:

• With Claude subscription: should use claude CLI directly
• Without subscription but with ccr installed: claude fails, falls back to ccr code
• Without either: falls back to raw commit list as before

Operations

• 🏁 My feature is behind a flag and doesn't require operations testing (yet)

Not user-facing - internal tooling change only.

Screenshots (if applicable)

N/A

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Improved the release script's reliability by implementing a fallback mechanism and enhanced error reporting when generating release summaries.

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Replaces the hard-coded Claude invocation in scripts/release.ts with a spawn-based abstraction, adds CLAUDE_ARGS, runtime detection of ccr, and a fallback to invoking ccr when claude fails, plus improved timeout/exit error reporting and aggregated stderr/stdout in failures.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Release script (Claude/CCR flow) scripts/release.ts	Replaces direct runClaude call with spawnClaude abstraction; adds CLAUDE_ARGS constant; detects ccr availability (isCcrAvailable); attempts claude first, falls back to ccr (ccr code ...) on failure; enhances timeout and non-zero-exit error messages and aggregates stderr/stdout for diagnostics.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant Release as Release script
  participant FS as Prompt file
  participant Claude as claude (binary)
  participant CCR as ccr (fallback)

  Release->>FS: read promptPath
  Release->>Claude: spawnClaude('claude', CLAUDE_ARGS, promptPath)
  alt Claude succeeds
    Claude-->>Release: stdout (release summary)
  else Claude fails / times out
    Release->>Release: isCcrAvailable? (checks via `which ccr`)
    alt ccr available
      Release->>CCR: spawnClaude('ccr', ['code', ...CLAUDE_ARGS], promptPath)
      CCR-->>Release: stdout (release summary) / stderr aggregated
    else ccr unavailable
      Release-->>Release: return enhanced timeout/exit error with stderr/stdout
    end
  end

Loading

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• feat: ai-powered release summary in yarn release #11970: Modifies the same scripts/release.ts Claude invocation flow—introducing the spawn abstraction and CCR fallback.

Suggested reviewers

• NeOMakinG

Poem

🐰 I hopped in code with ears alert,

Spawned Claude with args so curt,
If Claude slips, I find CCR's door,
I stitch the bytes and bring the score,
A tiny hop — release once more. 🥕

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately summarizes the main change: adding a fallback to ccr when the claude CLI is unavailable, which is the primary objective of the PR.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing Touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings (stacked PR)
• 📝 Generate docstrings (commit on current branch)

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/release-script-no-conversation

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

Inline comments:
In `@scripts/release.ts`:
- Line 242: The spawn invocation in generateReleaseSummary passes an invalid
Claude CLI flag '--no-conversation' which causes the Claude process to fail;
remove '--no-conversation' from the arguments (or replace it with the supported
'--no-session-persistence' if the goal is to avoid saving the session) in the
spawn call that creates the child process (the line using spawn('claude', ['-p',
'--model', 'opus', '--max-turns', '1', ...])) so the Claude CLI runs with only
valid flags.

---

ℹ️ Review info

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Disabled knowledge base sources:

• Linear integration is disabled

You can enable these sources in your CodeRabbit configuration.

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between c257772 and 60bb3b5.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• scripts/release.ts

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

Inline comments:
In `@scripts/release.ts`:
- Around line 287-305: The isCcrAvailable() pre-check is unreliable; in
runClaude (which calls spawnClaude and uses CLAUDE_ARGS) remove the awaits to
isCcrAvailable() in the catch block and instead always attempt the fallback
spawnClaude('ccr', ['code', ...CLAUDE_ARGS], promptPath) after logging the CLI
failure, and delete or stop referencing isCcrAvailable() (and its spawn('which',
...) logic) so the code directly tries the ccr executable rather than depending
on the which check.

---

ℹ️ Review info

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Disabled knowledge base sources:

• Linear integration is disabled

You can enable these sources in your CodeRabbit configuration.

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 60bb3b5 and 01cec10.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• scripts/release.ts

[gomesalexandre]

lgtm code-wise, will test when there are commits to release!

[gomesalexandre]

Still happy with claude