ActivityPub Release Process

Quick reference for managing releases and changelogs for the WordPress ActivityPub plugin.

Quick Reference

Release Commands

npm run release # Create major/minor release PR.

Version File Locations

When updating versions manually, change these files:

activitypub.php
Plugin header (Version: X.Y.Z ).
readme.txt
WordPress.org readme (Stable tag: X.Y.Z ).
package.json
npm version ("version": "X.Y.Z" ).
CHANGELOG.md
Changelog file (auto-updated by release script).

Comprehensive Release Guide

See Release Process for complete release workflow and detailed steps.

Release Workflow

Major/Minor Releases

Quick workflow:

1. Run release script from plugin root.

npm run release

Script automatically:

- Determines version from changelog entries.

- Updates version numbers in all files.

- Updates CHANGELOG.md.

- Creates PR for review.

2. Review and merge the release PR.

3. Create GitHub release from trunk using the new tag.

See Release Process - Major/Minor for detailed steps.

Patch Releases

Quick workflow:

1. Create branch from the tag to patch.

git fetch --tags git checkout -b tags/5.3.1 5.3.0 # Patch 5.3.0 -> 5.3.1

2. Cherry-pick merge commits from trunk (note -m 1 flag).

git cherry-pick -m 1 <commit-hash>

3. Update changelog and versions.

composer changelog:write

Manually update versions in:

- activitypub.php

- readme.txt

- package.json

4. Push branch and create GitHub release.

git push -u origin tags/5.3.1

Important: Use -m 1 flag when cherry-picking merge commits to select the mainline parent.

See Release Process - Patch Releases for detailed steps.

Changelog Management

How It Works

Changelogs are managed automatically through the PR workflow:

PR Template (.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md ):

Check "Automatically create a changelog entry" checkbox.
Select significance: Patch/Minor/Major.
Select type: Added/Fixed/Changed/Deprecated/Removed/Security.
Write message ending with punctuation!

GitHub Action (.github/workflows/changelog.yml ):

Creates changelog file from PR description.
Validates proper punctuation.
Saves to .github/changelog/ directory.

Release Process:

npm run release aggregates all entries.
Updates CHANGELOG.md and readme.txt automatically.

Critical Requirements

Always end changelog messages with punctuation:

✅ Add support for custom post types. ✅ Fix signature verification bug. ❌ Add support for custom post types ❌ Fix signature verification bug

Write end-user friendly messages:

Focus on user benefit, not implementation details.
Avoid technical jargon where possible.
Describe what users can now do, not how it works internally.

✅ Add pre-built block patterns for easy profile and sidebar setup. ✅ Fix follow button not appearing on author pages. ❌ Add register_patterns() method to class-blocks.php. ❌ Refactor User class to use Actors collection.

Never mention AI tools or coding assistants in changelog messages.

See PR Workflow - Changelog for complete changelog requirements.

Version Numbering

Semantic versioning:

Major (X.0.0) - Breaking changes.
Minor (0.X.0) - New features, backward compatible.
Patch (0.0.X) - Bug fixes only.

The release script determines version automatically from changelog entry significance levels.

release

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