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Releasing changes

Have changes that you need to release? There are a few things to understand:

  • The responsibility of maintenance is not the only thing shared among multiple teams at MetaMask; releases are as well. That means if you work on a team that has codeownership over a package, you are free to create a new release without needing the Wallet Framework team to do so.
  • Unlike clients, releases are not issued on a schedule; anyone may create a release at any time. Because of this, you may wish to review the Pull Requests tab on GitHub and ensure that no one else has a release candidate already in progress. If not, then you are free to start the process.
  • The release process is a work in progress. Further improvements to simplify the process are planned, but in the meantime, if you encounter any issues, please reach out to the Wallet Framework team.
  • Breaking changes take special consideration. Read the guide on how to prepare and handle them effectively.

Now for the process itself, you have two options: using our interactive UI (recommended for most users) or manual specification.

Option A: Interactive Mode (Recommended)

This option provides a visual interface to streamline the release process:

  1. Start the interactive release tool.

    On the main branch, run:

    yarn create-release-branch -i

    This will start a local web server (default port 3000) and open a browser interface.

  2. Select packages to release.

    The UI will show all packages with changes since their last release. For each package:

    • Choose whether to include it in the release
    • Select an appropriate version bump (patch, minor, or major) following SemVer rules
    • The UI will automatically validate your selections and identify dependencies that need to be included

  3. Review and resolve dependency requirements.

    The UI automatically analyzes your selections and identifies potential dependency issues that need to be addressed before proceeding. You'll need to review and resolve these issues by either:

    • Including the suggested additional packages
    • Confirming that you want to skip certain packages (if you're certain they don't need to be updated)

    Common types of dependency issues you might encounter:

    • Missing dependencies: If you're releasing Package A that depends on Package B, the UI will prompt you to include Package B
    • Breaking change impacts: If you're releasing Package B with breaking changes, the UI will identify packages that have peer dependencies on Package B that need to be updated
    • Version incompatibilities: The UI will flag if your selected version bumps don't follow semantic versioning rules relative to dependent packages

    Unlike the manual workflow where you need to repeatedly edit a YAML file, in the interactive mode you can quickly resolve these issues by checking boxes and selecting version bumps directly in the UI.

  4. Confirm your selections.

    Once you're satisfied with your package selections and version bumps, confirm them in the UI. This will:

    • Create a new branch named release/<new release version>
    • Update the version in each package's package.json
    • Add a new section to each package's CHANGELOG.md for the new version

  5. Review and update changelogs.

    Each selected package will have a new changelog section. Review these entries to ensure they are helpful for consumers:

    • Categorize entries appropriately following the "Keep a Changelog" guidelines. Ensure that no changes are listed under "Uncategorized".
    • Remove changelog entries that don't affect consumers of the package (e.g. lockfile changes or development environment changes). Exceptions may be made for changes that might be of interest despite not having an effect upon the published package (e.g. major test improvements, security improvements, improved documentation, etc.).
    • Reword changelog entries to explain changes in terms that users of the package will understand (e.g., avoid referencing internal variables/concepts).
    • Consolidate related changes into single entries where appropriate.

    Run yarn changelog:validate when you're done to ensure all changelogs are correctly formatted.

  6. Push and submit a pull request.

    Create a PR for the release branch so that it can be reviewed and tested. Release PRs can be approved by codeowners of affected packages, so as long as the above guidelines have been followed, there is no need to reach out to the Wallet Framework team for approval.

  7. Incorporate any new changes from main.

    If you see the "Update branch" button on your release PR, stop and look over the most recent commits made to main. If there are new changes to packages you are releasing, make sure they are reflected in the appropriate changelogs.

  8. Merge the release PR and wait for approval.

    "Squash & Merge" the release PR when it's approved.

    Merging triggers the publish-release GitHub action workflow to tag the final release commit and publish the release on GitHub. Before packages are published to NPM, this action will automatically notify the npm-publishers team in Slack to review and approve the release.

  9. Verify publication.

    Once the npm-publishers team has approved the release, you can click on the link in the Slack message to monitor the remainder of the process.

    After the action has completed, check NPM to verify that all relevant packages have been published.

Tip: You can specify a different port if needed: yarn create-release-branch -i -p 3001

Option B: Manual Release Specification

If you prefer more direct control over the release process:

  1. Start by creating the release branch.

    On the main branch, run yarn create-release-branch. This command creates a branch named release/<new release version> which will represent the new release.

  2. Specify packages to release along with their versions.

    Unless you've made a lot of breaking changes, you probably don't want to publish a new version of every single package in this repo. Fortunately, you can choose a subset of packages to include in the next release. You do this by modifying a YAML file called a "release spec", which the tool has generated and opened it in your editor. Follow the instructions at the top of the file for more information.

    In addition to selecting a list of packages, you'll also want to tell the tool which new versions they ought to receive. Since you'll want to follow SemVer, how you bump a package depends on the nature of the changes. You can understand these changes better by opening the changelog for each package in your editor.

    Once you save and close the release spec, the tool will proceed.

  3. Review and resolve dependency requirements.

    The tool automatically analyzes your selections and identifies potential dependency issues that need to be addressed before proceeding. You'll need to review and resolve these issues by either:

    • Including the suggested additional packages
    • Confirming that you want to skip certain packages (if you're certain they don't need to be updated)

    Common types of dependency issues you might encounter:

    • Missing dependencies: If you're releasing Package A that depends on Package B, the UI will prompt you to include Package B
    • Breaking change impacts: If you're releasing Package B with breaking changes, the UI will identify packages that have peer dependencies on Package B that need to be updated
    • Version incompatibilities: The UI will flag if your selected version bumps don't follow semantic versioning rules relative to dependent packages

    To address these issues, you will need to reopen the YAML file, modify it by either adding more packages to the release or omitting packages from the release you think are safe, and then re-running yarn create-release-branch. You may need to repeat this step multiple times until you don't see any more errors.

  4. Review and update changelogs for relevant packages.

    Once the tool proceeds without issue, you will be on the new release branch. In addition, each package you intend to release has been updated in two ways:

    • The version in package.json has been bumped.
    • A new section has been added at the top of CHANGELOG for the new version.

    At this point, you need to review the changelog entries and ensure that they are helpful for consumers:

    • Categorize entries appropriately following the "Keep a Changelog" guidelines. Ensure that no changes are listed under "Uncategorized".
    • Remove changelog entries that don't affect consumers of the package (e.g. lockfile changes or development environment changes). Exceptions may be made for changes that might be of interest despite not having an effect upon the published package (e.g. major test improvements, security improvements, improved documentation, etc.).
    • Reword changelog entries to explain changes in terms that users of the package will understand (e.g., avoid referencing internal variables/concepts).
    • Consolidate related changes into single entries where appropriate.

    Make sure to run yarn changelog:validate once you're done to ensure all changelogs are correctly formatted.

  5. Push and submit a pull request.

    Create a PR for the release branch so that it can be reviewed and tested. Release PRs can be approved by codeowners of affected packages, so as long as the above guidelines have been followed, there is no need to reach out to the Wallet Framework team for approval.

  6. Incorporate any new changes from main.

    If you see the "Update branch" button on your release PR, stop and look over the most recent commits made to main. If there are new changes to packages you are releasing, make sure they are reflected in the appropriate changelogs.

  7. Merge the release PR and wait for approval.

    "Squash & Merge" the release PR when it's approved.

    Merging triggers the publish-release GitHub action workflow to tag the final release commit and publish the release on GitHub. Before packages are published to NPM, this action will automatically notify the npm-publishers team in Slack to review and approve the release.

  8. Verify publication.

    Once the npm-publishers team has approved the release, you can click on the link in the Slack message to monitor the remainder of the process.

    After the action has completed, check NPM to verify that all relevant packages have been published.