fix(ci): preserve build jobs in release-production when skip_e2e

[senamakel]

Summary

• Follow-up to chore(ci): make pretest optional for release-production #2174. When skip_e2e=true on the Release Production workflow, the pretest jobs are skipped — and GitHub Actions then transitively cascades that skipped status to every downstream job whose if: lacks an explicit status function, even those that only needs: [prepare-build, create-release].
• Result observed in run 26079423305: create-release ran (it had always()) and pushed the v0.53.52 tag + commit, but the entire build matrix (desktop / cli / docker / updater / publish-release / sentry / docker-latest) silently skipped, leaving a broken release attempt with no artifacts.
• Adds always() && needs.<X>.result == 'success' to every downstream job, matching the proven pattern from release-staging.yml.

Problem

The release-production.yml skip_e2e path opened in #2174 looked correct in isolation: pretests are gated on !inputs.skip_e2e, and create-release was relaxed to accept pretest success OR (skip_e2e && skipped). That part worked.

But GitHub Actions has a documented behavior where a job's default success-check propagates transitively — a job with if: needs.create-release.result == 'success' is still treated as skipped if any job upstream of create-release (i.e. the pretests) was skipped, even though it doesn't needs: them directly. The only escape hatch is an explicit always() (or success()/failure()/cancelled()) in the if:.

The staging workflow already uses always() && … everywhere for exactly this reason; production was missing it.

Concrete consequence in production run 26079423305:

• Prepare build context ✓
• Create GitHub release ✓ (tag v0.53.52 pushed, draft release created)
• All build jobs: SKIPPED
• cleanup-failed-release also did not fire — its condition only catches failure/cancelled, not skipped — so the orphan tag and draft release survived.

Solution

Gate every job downstream of create-release on always() && needs.<X>.result == 'success':

• build-desktop
• build-cli-linux
• build-docker
• publish-updater-manifest
• publish-release
• tag-docker-latest
• record-sentry-deploy

This matches release-staging.yml's always() usage for build-desktop / build-docker / record-sentry-deploy and ensures the transitive-skipped propagation no longer cancels the build matrix when skip_e2e=true.

cleanup-failed-release is untouched — its existing condition is the right shape for the failure/cancelled paths, and a future patch could add a skipped-aware branch separately if desired.

Submission Checklist

• N/A: workflow-only change, no application code under test
• N/A: workflow-only change, no application code on the diff coverage gate
• N/A: behaviour-only change
• N/A: workflow-only change, no feature IDs affected
• N/A: workflow-only change, no runtime dependencies introduced
• N/A: does not touch a release-cut surface tracked by the manual smoke checklist (control-plane CI input only)
• N/A: no linked issue

Impact

• CI/release pipeline only. No runtime/desktop/CLI impact.
• Fixes the skip_e2e=true path of the Release Production workflow so the build matrix actually runs and the draft release receives artifacts before publish-release flips it out of draft.
• No change to the default skip_e2e=false path — always() plus the explicit success check is equivalent to the previous behavior when no upstream is skipped.

Related

• Closes:
• Follow-up PR(s)/TODOs: orphan v0.53.52 commit on main and any leftover draft release/tag from run 26079423305 need manual cleanup (out of scope for this PR).

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AI Authored PR Metadata (required for Codex/Linear PRs)

Linear Issue

• Key: N/A
• URL: N/A

Commit & Branch

• Branch: fix/release-prod-skip-e2e-cascade
• Commit SHA: de6449f

Validation Run

• N/A: workflow-only change, no frontend formatter delta
• N/A: workflow-only change, no TS surface touched
• N/A: Focused tests — workflow-only change
• N/A: Rust fmt/check — no Rust touched
• N/A: Tauri fmt/check — no Tauri touched

Validation Blocked

• command: N/A
• error: N/A
• impact: N/A

Behavior Changes

• Intended behavior change: when skip_e2e=true on Release Production, the build matrix actually runs instead of being transitively cascade-skipped by the skipped pretest jobs.
• User-visible effect: Release Production with skip_e2e=true now produces a complete release (desktop installers, CLI tarballs, Docker image, updater manifest, published GitHub Release) instead of just an orphan draft.

Parity Contract

• Legacy behavior preserved: with skip_e2e=false, every downstream job's if: still evaluates the same way — always() && needs.<X>.result == 'success' is equivalent to the previous implicit success() when no upstream is skipped.
• Guard/fallback/dispatch parity checks: mirrors the always() && … usage in release-staging.yml (build-desktop, build-docker, record-sentry-deploy).

Duplicate / Superseded PR Handling

• Duplicate PR(s): N/A
• Canonical PR: N/A
• Resolution (closed/superseded/updated): N/A

Summary by CodeRabbit

Chores

• Improved production release workflow robustness to ensure critical build and deployment jobs execute reliably during releases.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 6de21558-3cb7-44b6-9701-05d7dcc4f940

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between ce227c4 and de6449f.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• .github/workflows/release-production.yml

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This PR updates seven jobs in the production release workflow with always() conditions to prevent unintended skips when upstream jobs are skipped (particularly when skip_e2e=true). Each job continues to require successful upstream results, fixing a GitHub Actions transitive skip issue.

Changes

Release Workflow Skip-Transitivity Fix

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Build job skip-transitivity gates .github/workflows/release-production.yml	build-desktop, build-docker, and build-cli-linux jobs now include always() in their if: conditions while still requiring create-release success, preventing transitive skips when E2E is skipped.
Publish and post-publish job skip-transitivity gates .github/workflows/release-production.yml	publish-updater-manifest, publish-release, tag-docker-latest, and record-sentry-deploy jobs are updated with always() while maintaining upstream success requirements, ensuring consistent execution even when earlier steps are skipped.

Possibly related PRs

• tinyhumansai/openhuman#1956: Both PRs change GitHub Actions job if: conditions in release workflows to prevent downstream build jobs from being skipped when upstream pretest/E2E jobs are skipped (adding always() and adjusting dependency-result handling around the skip_e2e override).

• tinyhumansai/openhuman#1887: Both PRs modify .github/workflows/release-production.yml job gating/if/needs logic around E2E/test execution (one adds a pretest gate; the other adjusts always() conditions to prevent unintended skips), so they overlap in the release pipeline's test-result dependency handling.

• tinyhumansai/openhuman#1955: Both PRs adjust GitHub Actions release workflow if: gating around skip_e2e so that downstream build jobs like build-desktop/build-docker run (or don't) correctly when E2E is skipped, making the changes directly related at the workflow-job level.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

Poem

A hop through the workflow so spry,
No more shall our builds skip and shy,
With always() bright,
Each job gets its flight,
When E2E tests can pass on by! 🐰✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title precisely describes the primary change: fixing CI behavior to preserve build jobs in the release-production workflow when skip_e2e is used, which is exactly what the changeset accomplishes.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
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.

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