Follow a tip from my buddy @bhamail, use a shell script, and setup a …

…venv, etc..., and see if this works without sudo

.circleci/ci-publish.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+
+python3 -m venv .venv
+
+source .venv/bin/activate
+
+pip3 install -r requirements.txt
+
+pip3 install python-semantic-release
+
+pip3 install --upgrade setuptools twine wheel
+
+git config user.name "$GITHUB_USERNAME"
+
+git config user.email "$GITHUB_EMAIL"
+
+semantic-release publish --minor

.circleci/config.yml

@@ -3,43 +3,25 @@ version: 2.1
 jobs:
   publish:
     docker: # run the steps with Docker
-      - image: circleci/python:3.6.4
+      - image: circleci/python:3.7
         environment: # environment variables for primary container
           PIPENV_VENV_IN_PROJECT: true 
     steps:
       - add_ssh_keys:
           fingerprints:
             - "4f:7d:6b:26:dc:44:de:b0:4d:f1:96:50:2a:b5:bd:b3"
       - checkout
-      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/bin
-      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages
       - run:
           command: |
-            pip install -r requirements.txt
-      - run:
-          command: |
-            pip install python-semantic-release
-      - run:
-          command: |
-            pip install --upgrade setuptools twine wheel
-      - run:
-          command: |
-            git config user.name "$GITHUB_USERNAME"
-      - run:
-          command: |
-            git config user.email "$GITHUB_EMAIL"
-      - run:
-          command: |
-            semantic-release publish --patch
+            .circleci/ci-publish.sh
+
   build:
     docker: # run the steps with Docker
-      - image: circleci/python:3.6.4
+      - image: circleci/python:3.7
         environment: # environment variables for primary container
           PIPENV_VENV_IN_PROJECT: true
     steps:
       - checkout
-      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/bin
-      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages
       - run:
           command: |
             sudo .circleci/ci-setup.sh