Releasing a New Version

Prerequisites

• Go installed matching go.mod version
• Clean working tree (git status shows no changes)
• All tests passing (go test ./...)
• GitHub CLI authenticated (gh auth status)
• No replace directives in go.mod
• GoReleaser configured (.goreleaser.yml in repo root)
• HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN secret exists in GitHub repo settings

Beware of go.work: A parent go.work file can silently use local dependencies instead of published versions. Always use GOWORK=off when updating dependencies and testing builds.

Release Process

1. Determine Version

Follow semantic versioning:

• Major (v2.0.0): Breaking changes
• Minor (v0.2.0): New features, backward compatible
• Patch (v0.1.1): Bug fixes only

git tag -l | sort -V | tail -1

2. Update td Dependency

Sidecar embeds td as a Go module. Always update to latest before releasing:

GOWORK=off go get github.com/marcus/td@latest
GOWORK=off go mod tidy

3. Verify go.mod

Ensure no replace directives (they break go install):

grep replace go.mod && echo "ERROR: Remove replace directives before releasing!" && exit 1

4. Verify Build Without go.work

GOWORK=off go build ./...

If this fails with "undefined" errors, the required dependency version hasn't been published yet.

5. Update CHANGELOG.md

## [vX.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Features
- New feature description

### Bug Fixes
- Fix description

### Dependencies
- Dependency update description

git add CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "docs: Update changelog for vX.Y.Z"

6. Create and Push Tag

git tag vX.Y.Z -m "Brief description of release"
git push origin main && git push origin vX.Y.Z

7. GitHub Release (Automated)

Pushing the tag triggers GitHub Actions GoReleaser, which:

• Creates the GitHub Release with changelog
• Builds and attaches binaries for darwin/linux (amd64/arm64)
• Generates checksums

⚠️ GoReleaser does NOT update the Homebrew tap automatically. The tap uses source-build formulas (to avoid macOS Gatekeeper warnings on pre-built binaries), which GoReleaser doesn't support. You MUST manually update the tap.

7b. Update Homebrew Tap (REQUIRED — Manual Step)

The Homebrew tap at marcus/homebrew-tap must be updated for every release. If you skip this, users will see "update available" but brew upgrade won't find it (see #122).

# Get the source tarball SHA256
curl -sL "https://github.com/marcus/sidecar/archive/refs/tags/vX.Y.Z.tar.gz" | shasum -a 256

# Edit the formula (local tap is at /opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/marcus/homebrew-tap/)
# Update: url (tag version) and sha256
cd /opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/marcus/homebrew-tap
# Edit Formula/sidecar.rb — update version in URL and sha256

# Commit and push
git add Formula/sidecar.rb
git commit -m "sidecar: bump to vX.Y.Z"
git push

Also bump td and nightshift formulas if releasing those.

8. Verify

# Check workflow succeeded
gh run list --workflow=release.yml --limit=1

# Check release exists with binaries
gh release view vX.Y.Z

# Test Homebrew install
brew install marcus/tap/sidecar
sidecar --version

# Test go install (critical!)
GOWORK=off go install github.com/marcus/sidecar/cmd/sidecar@vX.Y.Z
sidecar --version
# Should output: sidecar version vX.Y.Z

# Test update notification
go build -ldflags "-X main.Version=v0.0.1" -o /tmp/sidecar-test ./cmd/sidecar
/tmp/sidecar-test
# Should show toast: "Update vX.Y.Z available!"

Version in Binaries

Version is embedded at build time via ldflags:

go build -ldflags "-X main.Version=v0.2.0" ./cmd/sidecar
go install -ldflags "-X main.Version=v0.2.0" ./cmd/sidecar

Without ldflags, version falls back to:

1. Go module version (if installed via go install)
2. Git revision (devel+abc123)
3. devel

Update Mechanism

On startup, sidecar checks https://api.github.com/repos/marcus/sidecar/releases/latest, compares tag_name against current version, and shows a toast if newer. Results cached for 3 hours. Pre-release suffixes (-rc1, -beta) are stripped for comparison. Dev versions skip the check.

Recovery: Fixing a Bad Release

1. Publish a new patch release with fixes
2. For critical bugs, release immediately
3. Delete unpublished GitHub release: gh release delete vX.Y.Z
4. Keep git tags to preserve history
5. If GoReleaser workflow fails, re-run locally: goreleaser release --clean

Install Methods

1. Setup script: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/marcus/sidecar/main/setup.sh | bash
2. Homebrew: brew install marcus/tap/sidecar
3. Download binary: from GitHub Releases page
4. From source: go install github.com/marcus/sidecar/cmd/sidecar@latest

Checklist

• Tests pass
• Working tree clean
• td dependency updated (GOWORK=off go get github.com/marcus/td@latest)
• No replace directives in go.mod
• Build works without go.work (GOWORK=off go build ./...)
• CHANGELOG.md updated
• Version follows semver
• Tag created and pushed
• GitHub Actions workflow completed
• Binaries attached to release
• Homebrew tap updated (MANUAL — see step 7b, GoReleaser does NOT do this)
• Installation verified (GOWORK=off go install ...@vX.Y.Z)
• Update notification verified