Pre-Release Gate

Systematic verification that a project is ready to tag and release. Runs every check, reports a summary, and blocks on failures.

Usage

Invoke with an optional version argument:

• /pre-release — detect version from package.json, manifest.json, or similar
• /pre-release 1.2.0 — verify against a specific expected version

Project Detection

Detect the project type from the root directory before running checks. This determines which commands and files to verify.

Obsidian plugin (primary path): manifest.json contains an id field and obsidian appears in devDependencies. Expect package.json, manifest.json, versions.json, and build artifacts main.js, styles.css.

Other projects: Detect from go.mod (Go), pyproject.toml (Python), Cargo.toml (Rust), or fall back to generic checks. Adapt commands accordingly — the checklist structure stays the same, but the specific commands change.

Checklist

Run all checks from the project root. Use parallel tool calls where checks are independent. Report results as they complete.

Phase 1: Repository State

Run these in parallel:

1. Clean working tree — git status must show no uncommitted changes (staged or unstaged). Untracked files are acceptable only if covered by .gitignore.
2. On default branch — Confirm the current branch is main (or the repo's default). Releases should be tagged from the default branch.
3. Up to date with remote — git fetch origin then compare HEAD with origin/main. Warn if behind.
4. No open PRs targeting main — gh pr list --base main --state open should be empty or the user should acknowledge pending PRs.

Phase 2: Quality & Build

Run the project's validation pipeline. For Obsidian plugins, this is typically a single command that covers multiple concerns.

5. Validate — Run the project's validate script if one exists (bun run validate, make validate, etc.). For Obsidian plugins, this typically runs type checking, linting, build, and verifies artifacts exist. If no validate script exists, run check/lint, test, and build as separate steps.
6. Tests pass — Run the project's test command (bun test, go test ./..., pytest, etc.). Skip if the validate script already ran tests.
7. Walkthrough current — If a walkthrough.md exists, run uvx showboat verify walkthrough.md to confirm code blocks match current source. Skip if no walkthrough exists.
8. Dependency audit — Run the project's audit command (bun audit --audit-level=critical, uv pip audit, go vuln check, etc.). Warn on high severity, block on critical.

Phase 3: Release Readiness

9. Version consistency — All version-bearing files must agree on the target version:
   • package.json → version
   • manifest.json → version (Obsidian plugins)
   • versions.json — must have an entry mapping the target version to a minAppVersion (Obsidian plugins)
   • Cargo.toml, pyproject.toml, go.mod — as applicable If versions disagree, suggest running the version-bump script (e.g., bun run version) if one exists.
10. CHANGELOG entry — CHANGELOG.md (or equivalent) must have a section for the target version.
11. CI passing on main — gh run list --branch main --limit 1 should show a successful run. If the latest run failed, report which jobs failed.
12. Tag available — git tag -l <version> must be empty (tag doesn't already exist).
13. Previous release tag exists — Verify there's at least one prior tag. For first releases, note this as informational rather than blocking.
14. Changes since last tag — Show git log --oneline <last-tag>..HEAD so the user can review what's included.

Output

Present a summary table after all checks complete:

Pre-Release Gate: v2.0.0 (Obsidian plugin)
===========================================

| #  | Check                  | Status | Details                        |
|----|------------------------|--------|--------------------------------|
| 1  | Clean working tree     | PASS   |                                |
| 2  | On default branch      | PASS   | main                           |
| 3  | Up to date with remote | PASS   |                                |
| 4  | No open PRs            | WARN   | 1 open PR (#36)                |
| 5  | Validate               | PASS   | types, lint, build, artifacts  |
| 6  | Tests pass             | PASS   | 12 tests                       |
| 7  | Walkthrough current    | PASS   | showboat verified              |
| 8  | Dependency audit       | PASS   |                                |
| 9  | Version consistency    | PASS   | 2.0.0 across all files         |
| 10 | CHANGELOG entry        | PASS   | 2.0.0 section found            |
| 11 | CI passing             | PASS   |                                |
| 12 | Tag available          | PASS   | 2.0.0 not yet tagged           |
| 13 | Prior release exists   | PASS   | 1.5.0                          |
| 14 | Changes since last tag | INFO   | 8 commits                      |

Result: READY (0 failures, 1 warning)

Status meanings

• PASS — Check succeeded, no action needed
• WARN — Non-blocking concern the user should acknowledge
• FAIL — Blocking issue that must be resolved before tagging
• INFO — Informational, not pass/fail
• SKIP — Check not applicable to this project

After the gate

If all checks pass (no FAIL status), ask the user if they want to proceed with tagging. The release workflow is tag-push — GitHub Actions handles building and publishing the release:

git tag -a <version> -m "Release <version>"
git push origin <version>

For Obsidian plugins, this triggers the release workflow which builds the plugin and creates a GitHub release with main.js, styles.css, and manifest.json as assets.

If any check fails, list the failures and suggest specific fixes. Do not offer to tag.