fix: add release-only mode to workflow_dispatch for manual release retry without version bump

[konard]

Summary

Implements the fix for issue #60: Manual CI/CD did not produce any new releases.

The root cause was that when a push-triggered build fails after apply-changesets bumps the version, there is no way to retry the build without creating an extra version bump. The only manual trigger (bump-and-release mode) always increments the version — so retrying after a v1.3.11 failure would bump to v1.3.12, skipping v1.3.11 entirely (which is exactly what happened).

What Was Fixed

Added a new release-only mode to workflow_dispatch inputs:

Mode	What it does
build-only	Builds images, no GitHub Release created (unchanged)
bump-and-release	Bumps version, builds images, creates GitHub Release (unchanged)
release-only ✨ new	Builds images and creates GitHub Release using current VERSION — no version bump

With release-only, users can now trigger:

workflow_dispatch → release_mode: release-only
→ Reads current VERSION (e.g. 1.3.11)
→ Builds all Docker images tagged 1.3.11
→ Creates GitHub Release v1.3.11

This directly fixes the problem from issue #60: if a push-triggered build fails after a version bump commit, the user can retry with release-only instead of accidentally creating an extra version increment.

Changes

• .github/workflows/release.yml:

  • Added release-only as a third release_mode option with a clear description
  • Simplified should-build logic: any workflow_dispatch always builds (removed redundant mode-specific branches)
  • All build, manifest, and create-release jobs already used github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' so no additional conditions were needed

• docs/case-studies/issue-60/CASE-STUDY.md:

  • Updated from "Proposed Solutions" to "Solutions Implemented" for Solution A
  • Documented exactly what changed and how release-only mode works

Root Cause Analysis

See full case study: docs/case-studies/issue-60/CASE-STUDY.md

Timeline of the incident:

1. PR fix: handle du exit code for missing paths in sandbox script (Issue #57) #58 merged → apply-changesets bumped 1.3.10 → 1.3.11 via GITHUB_TOKEN push
2. Build failed with transient network timeouts on language image builds (ghcr.io/Docker Hub unreachable)
3. The GITHUB_TOKEN push does NOT trigger a new workflow run (GitHub's documented behavior to prevent loops)
4. No v1.3.11 Docker images or GitHub Release were created
5. User ran workflow_dispatch with bump-and-release → accidentally created v1.3.12, skipping v1.3.11

Test Plan

• release-only option appears in workflow_dispatch inputs dropdown
• version-bump job's existing if: release_mode == 'bump-and-release' correctly skips for release-only
• should-build sets result=true for release-only (now covered by the generic workflow_dispatch check)
• All downstream build, manifest, and create-release jobs already trigger on any workflow_dispatch
• No version bump commit is created when using release-only

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Fixes #60

[konard]

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[konard]

✅ Ready to merge

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[konard]

Can we fix all issues? I need that manual release will build all images and actually trigger new version bump. And the end result should be all releases just as auto releases.

[konard]

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[konard]

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?? pr-61-conversation.json
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?? pr-61-reviews.json
?? pr-61.txt
?? root-ls.txt
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?? workflow-measure-disk-space.txt
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