Restructure release skill into ordered phases with verification gates (#5500)

- Group the 12 steps into 5 phases (Prep, GitHub PRs, ADO mirror, Signed
  pipelines, Publish) so the dependency chain is explicit
- Verify the release commit landed (`git log -1 --format=%s`) before pushing
  to ADO, and wait for ADO PR `status=completed` before queuing pipelines --
  phase 4 builds against `refs/heads/main` and would silently produce the
  wrong version if either gate were skipped
- Split phase 4 into separate steps for PSES and vscode-powershell so the
  agent can notify me when each pipeline hits its manual approval stage
- Drop the old "publishing the tag triggers marketplace" line: the
  vscode-powershell pipeline pushes to marketplace directly after approval,
  only the GitHub drafts need a manual publish
- Use `gh release edit <tag> --repo <owner>/<repo> --generate-notes` to
  populate draft release bodies
- Reference `release infrastructure` and `release maintainers` memory
  entries so private contacts stay out of the repo
- Drop redundant rationale where the command itself already encodes the fix

Drafted by Copilot (Claude Opus 4.7).

Author: andyleejordan

.github/skills/release/SKILL.md

@@ -7,19 +7,93 @@ description: >
 
 # Release Process
 
-Read [docs/development.md](../../../docs/development.md) "Creating a Release" and "Versioning" sections first.
+Read [docs/development.md](../../../docs/development.md) "Creating a Release" and "Versioning"
+first — this skill only adds the agent-specific deltas.
 
-## Agent-Actionable Steps (1–2)
+Memory entries this skill depends on (load before starting):
 
-1. Use `./tools/updateVersion.ps1 -Version "<version>" -Changes "<summary>"` in both repos
-   (PSES first, then vscode-powershell). The script validates even/odd rules, updates
-   `package.json` version, prepends a changelog entry (auto-including the PSES version from
-   `../PowerShellEditorServices`), and creates a commit.
-2. Push to an ephemeral `release` branch and open a PR to `main` on GitHub.
+- **`release infrastructure`** — ADO org, project, and pipeline IDs.
+- **`release maintainers`** — the GitHub PR reviewer and the ADO release approver (two
+  different people).
 
-## Manual Steps (3–4)
+PSES leads the extension at every step: its module is embedded in the signed extension
+build, so its release must land before the corresponding vscode-powershell action.
 
-These require Azure DevOps access and cannot be performed by an agent:
+## Phase 1 — Prep
 
-3. After merge, push `main` to the Azure DevOps remote (`ado HEAD:upstream`) to trigger signing pipelines.
-4. Download and test assets from draft GitHub Releases, then publish.
+1. **Sync `main`** in both `../PowerShellEditorServices` and `vscode-powershell`:
+   `git checkout main && git pull --ff-only origin main`.
+2. **Propose version + summary.** In each repo run
+   `git log --oneline $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD`, summarize user-visible
+   changes, apply the rules from docs/development.md "Versioning", and confirm both
+   versions and one-line summaries with the user before continuing.
+
+## Phase 2 — GitHub release PRs
+
+3. **Run `updateVersion.ps1`** in PSES first, then vscode-powershell:
+
+    ```sh
+    git checkout -B release
+    pwsh -NoProfile -c '$env:GIT_EDITOR="true"; ./tools/updateVersion.ps1 -Version "<version>" -Changes "<summary>"'
+    ```
+
+4. **Push and open PRs.** `git push origin release`, then open a PR to `main` via the
+   GitHub MCP `create_pull_request` tool. Title is the commit subject
+   (`v<version>: <summary>`). DM the GitHub PR reviewer on Teams with both PR links.
+5. **Enable auto-squash-merge** on both PRs:
+   `gh pr merge --repo <owner>/<repo> <number> --squash --auto`.
+6. **Wait for both PRs to merge** (`gh pr view ... --json state,statusCheckRollup`).
+   Don't busy-loop — check, report, pause if it'll be a while.
+
+## Phase 3 — Mirror to ADO
+
+7. **Sync `main` and push to ADO `upstream`** in both repos (PSES first). The verify
+   step must print the release commit subject (`v<version>: <summary>`); if it doesn't,
+   the PR hasn't merged yet — stop and wait.
+
+    ```sh
+    git checkout main && git pull --ff-only origin main
+    git log -1 --format=%s
+    git push ado HEAD:upstream
+    ```
+
+8. **Open `upstream → main` PRs in ADO** with auto-complete enabled. The current `ado`
+   MCP server doesn't reach our org, so use `az` (org/project from memory). Title is
+   always `Integrate upstream changes`. Use **merge commit** (preserves GitHub history)
+   and keep the `upstream` branch (re-pushed every release):
+
+    ```sh
+    az repos pr create --org <org> --project <project> --repository <repo> \
+      --source-branch upstream --target-branch main \
+      --title "Integrate upstream changes" --description "Integrate v<version> from GitHub upstream."
+    az repos pr update --org <org> --id <pr-id> \
+      --auto-complete true --squash false --delete-source-branch false
+    ```
+
+    DM the ADO release approver on Teams with both ADO PR links.
+
+9. **Wait for both ADO PRs to complete**
+   (`az repos pr show --org <org> --id <pr-id> --query status` returns `completed`).
+   Auto-complete merges them once policy checks pass; phase 4 builds against
+   `refs/heads/main` and will produce the wrong version if main hasn't been updated yet.
+
+## Phase 4 — Signed pipelines
+
+Each pipeline pauses at a manual approval stage before publishing. Notify the user
+when each one reaches it. Use a detached watcher (`az pipelines runs show --id
+<run-id>`) so polling survives across turns.
+
+10. **Queue the PSES pipeline** on `refs/heads/main` with template parameters
+    `Release=True OfficialBuild=True`. Notify the user when it reaches the approval
+    stage, then wait for `result == succeeded`. On success the pipeline creates a
+    draft GitHub Release in PSES.
+11. **Queue the vscode-powershell pipeline** the same way. Notify the user at its
+    approval stage. On success the pipeline creates a draft GitHub Release in
+    vscode-powershell _and_ publishes the extension to the VS Code marketplace.
+
+## Phase 5 — Publish GitHub releases (manual)
+
+12. For each draft GitHub Release (PSES and vscode-powershell), populate the body via
+    `gh release edit v<version> --repo <owner>/<repo> --generate-notes`. Send the user
+    links to both drafts for review; they publish them manually. The marketplace push
+    already happened in step 11.