Version Bump & Release Workflow

IMPORTANT: Plan and write detailed release notes before starting.

CRITICAL: Commit EVERYTHING (including build artifacts). At the end of this workflow, NOTHING should be left uncommitted or unpushed. Run git status at the end to verify.

Preparation

1. Analyze: Determine if the change is PATCH (bug fixes), MINOR (features), or MAJOR (breaking).

2. Environment: Identify repository owner/name from git remote -v.

3. Paths — every file that carries the version string:

   • package.json — the npm/npx-published version (npx claude-mem@X.Y.Z resolves from this)
   • plugin/package.json — bundled plugin runtime deps
   • .claude-plugin/marketplace.json — version inside plugins[0].version
   • .claude-plugin/plugin.json — top-level Claude-plugin manifest
   • plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json — bundled Claude-plugin manifest
   • .codex-plugin/plugin.json — Codex-plugin manifest
   • plugin/.codex-plugin/plugin.json — bundled Codex-plugin manifest
   • openclaw/openclaw.plugin.json — OpenClaw plugin manifest

   Verify coverage before editing: git grep -l "\"version\": \"<OLD>\"" should list all eight. If a new manifest has been added since this doc was last updated, update this list.

Workflow

1. Update: Increment the version string in every path above. Do NOT touch CHANGELOG.md — it's regenerated.
2. Verify: git grep -n "\"version\": \"<NEW>\"" — confirm all eight files match. git grep -n "\"version\": \"<OLD>\"" — should return zero hits.
3. Build and sync: npm run build-and-sync to regenerate artifacts, sync the local marketplace copy, restart the worker, and clear the queue. Do not use plain npm run build for release validation because it can leave the local marketplace/worker out of sync.
4. Commit: git add -A && git commit -m "chore: bump version to X.Y.Z".
5. Tag: git tag -a vX.Y.Z -m "Version X.Y.Z".
6. Push: git push origin main && git push origin vX.Y.Z.
7. Publish to npm — HAND OFF TO HUMAN. The human maintainer raised npm security, so publishing now requires credentials/2FA only they can provide. The agent MUST NOT run npm publish (or np / npm run release:*, which also publish) itself. Hand off NPM publishing to the human now: stop and tell them the version is committed, tagged, and pushed, and that they must publish to npm to make npx claude-mem@X.Y.Z resolve. Give them the command:

   npm publish   # run by the HUMAN — the prepublishOnly script rebuilds the package
   

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   Wait for the human to confirm they published, then verify it landed:

   npm view claude-mem@X.Y.Z version   # should print X.Y.Z
   

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   If the publish build touched local artifacts, run npm run build-and-sync again afterward.
8. GitHub release: gh release create vX.Y.Z --title "vX.Y.Z" --notes "RELEASE_NOTES".
9. Changelog: Regenerate via the project's changelog script:

   npm run changelog:generate
   

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   (Runs node scripts/generate-changelog.js, which pulls releases from the GitHub API and rewrites CHANGELOG.md.)
10. Sync changelog: Commit and push the updated CHANGELOG.md.
11. Notify: Run the Discord notification from ~/Scripts/claude-mem/, where the .env with Discord webhook details lives:

    cd ~/Scripts/claude-mem/ && npm run discord:notify vX.Y.Z
    

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    Do this even when the release worktree does not have a local .env.
12. Finalize: git status — working tree must be clean.

Checklist

• All eight config files have matching versions
• git grep for old version returns zero hits
• npm run build-and-sync succeeded
• Git tag created and pushed
• NPM publishing handed off to the human (agent does NOT run npm publish — human raised security); once they publish, npm view claude-mem@X.Y.Z version confirms it (so npx claude-mem@X.Y.Z resolves)
• GitHub release created with notes
• CHANGELOG.md updated and pushed
• Discord notification run from ~/Scripts/claude-mem/
• git status shows clean tree