Release Finalizer

Overview

This skill completes the final step of the release cycle: merging the release PR to main, replying to all related issues with solutions, and automatically closing them using GitHub's issue linking mechanism.

Prerequisites

• The PR is in OPEN state and ready to merge
• All status checks have passed (CI green)
• All review feedback has been addressed
• The PR relates to one or more GitHub issues (either in PR description or through commits)

Workflow

Step 1 — Pre-Merge Verification

Verify that the PR is ready:

PAGER=cat GH_PAGER=cat gh pr view <PR-NUMBER> --json state,statusCheckRollup,reviewDecision

Checklist:

• ✅ state is OPEN
• ✅ statusCheckRollup all have conclusion: SUCCESS
• ✅ reviewDecision is APPROVED or empty (no blocking reviews)

If any check fails, do NOT merge. Report the issue to the user.

Step 2 — Identify Related Issues

Issues can be linked to a PR in multiple ways. Check the PR description and commit messages for keywords:

PAGER=cat GH_PAGER=cat gh pr view <PR-NUMBER> --json body,commits

Look for patterns like:

• Closes #XX, Fixes #XX, Resolves #XX (in description or commit bodies)
• #XX mentioned as "related to" or "addresses"

Manual input: If issue links are not in the PR, ask the user which issue(s) this PR resolves.

Extract all issue numbers into a list: [#48, #52, ...]

Step 3 — Select Merge Strategy

Offer the user three options:

Recommendation for release PRs: Use --squash to create a single clean commit.

If user doesn't specify, default to --squash.

Step 4 — Prepare Merge Commit Message

If using --squash, craft a single comprehensive commit message:

Format (Conventional Commits + Github linking):

type(scope): description

- Bullet point 1
- Bullet point 2

Closes #48
Closes #52

The Closes #XX keyword tells GitHub to automatically close those issues when the commit lands on main.

Example:

feat(pipes,filters): release Copilot SDK Pipe v0.8.0 and Files Filter v0.1.3

- Implement P1~P4 conditional tool filtering system
- Fix file publishing reliability across all storage backends
- Add strict file URL validation
- Update bilingual documentation

Closes #48

Step 5 — Execute Merge

gh pr merge <PR-NUMBER> \
  --squash \
  --delete-branch \
  -m "type(scope): description" \
  -b "- Bullet 1\n- Bullet 2\n\nCloses #48"

Key flags:

• --squash: Squash commits (recommended for releases)
• --delete-branch: Delete the feature branch after merge
• -m: Commit subject
• -b: Commit body (supports \n for newlines)

Confirm the merge is successful; GitHub will automatically close related issues with Closes #XX keyword.

Step 6 — Verify Auto-Close

GitHub automatically closes issues when a commit with Closes #XX lands on the default branch (main).

To verify:

PAGER=cat GH_PAGER=cat gh issue view <ISSUE-NUMBER> --json state

Should show state: CLOSED.

Step 7 — Post Closing Message (Optional but Recommended)

For better UX, manually post a summary comment to each issue before it auto-closes (since auto-close happens silently):

gh issue comment <ISSUE-NUMBER> --body "
This has been fixed in PR #<PR-NUMBER>, which is now merged to main.

**Solution Summary:**
- <Key fix 1>
- <Key fix 2>

The fix will be available in the next plugin release. Thank you for reporting! ⭐
"

Step 8 — (Optional) Regenerate Release Notes

If the merge revealed any final tweaks to release notes:

# Re-export release notes from merged commit
git log --oneline -1 <merged-commit-sha>

If needed, create a follow-up PR with doc polish (do NOT force-push the merged commit).

Merge Strategy Decision Tree

Is this a patch/hotfix release?
├─ YES → Use --squash
└─ NO → Multi-feature release?
     ├─ YES → Use --squash (cleaner history)
     └─ NO → Preserve detail? 
          ├─ YES → Use --rebase
          └─ NO → Use --merge (preserve PR context)

Issue Auto-Close Keywords

These keywords in commit/PR messages will auto-close issues when merged to main:

• Closes #XX
• Fixes #XX
• Resolves #XX
• close #XX (case-insensitive)
• fix #XX
• resolve #XX

Important: The keyword must be on the final commit that lands on main. For squash merges, it must be in the squash commit message body.

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

• ❌ Do NOT merge if any status checks are PENDING or FAILED
• ❌ Do NOT merge if there are blocking reviews (reviewDecision: CHANGES_REQUESTED)
• ❌ Do NOT merge without verifying the Conventional Commits format in the merge message
• ❌ Do NOT merge without including Closes #XX keywords for all related issues
• ❌ Do NOT assume issues will auto-close silently — post a courtesy comment first
• ❌ Do NOT delete the branch if it might be needed for cherry-pick or hotfixes later

Troubleshooting

Issue did not auto-close after merge

• Verify the Closes #XX keyword is in the final commit message (use git log to check)
• Ensure the commit is on the main branch
• GitHub sometimes takes a few seconds to process; refresh the issue page

Multiple issues to close

• List all in separate Closes #XX lines in the commit body
• Each one will be independently auto-closed

Want to close issue without merge?

• Use gh issue close <ISSUE-NUMBER> manually
• Only recommended if the PR was manually reverted or deemed invalid