---
name: tmt-release
description: Maintain and promote tmux-team release lines, versions, and prerelease readiness without assuming publish authorization.
---

# tmux-team release management

Use this skill for release-line maintenance, v4 compatibility fixes, v5 promotion, version synchronization, or prerelease readiness in this repository.

## Long-lived branch policy

- `main` is the active v5 line after promotion.
- `v4` is the maintenance line rooted at commit `7056679dfa816a1acef8e7c978cf1733a578115b`.
- If remote `v4` does not exist, create it at that exact anchor only when the user has explicitly requested the maintenance line, then verify the remote ref before continuing.
- Before any branch mutation, verify the relevant remote refs and ancestry. Never force-push or repoint a long-lived line.
- A v4 maintenance fix requires a tracked issue, a dedicated branch and worktree, and a reviewable pull request. Keep the fix on the v4 line unless an explicitly scoped backport is requested.
- Use the checks available on the v4 line for maintenance pull requests; do not require contexts that the target branch cannot produce. Record any coverage gap in the issue.
- Synchronize `package.json`, the `src/version.ts` fallback, and its test whenever a release version changes. The native skill ships with the CLI; there is no separately versioned plugin or marketplace.
- Follow `AGENTS.md` for GitHub issue state, branch and pull-request links, verification evidence, and safe worktree cleanup.

## Promotion and prerelease checks

- For Rust archives, follow DEVELOPMENT's native Rust release archive procedure.
  Keep cargo-dist's manifest as the artifact metadata owner; independently verify
  bounded extraction, notices, linkage, skill installation and persisted state.
  The npm packed matrix does not establish Rust target support. Do not enable a
  generated installer or publication workflow merely to obtain local archives.
- Follow DEVELOPMENT's packed native-install verification for artifact changes.
  Verify the installed application's schema and behavior, not only driver loading
  or manifest equality. Keep broken-artifact failure and cleanup evidence; do not
  seed schema through checkout test helpers or ship test-only sources.
- For native binary publication changes, also follow DEVELOPMENT's offline
  installer lifecycle procedure using actual separately versioned archives.
  Keep ownership anchored in the installation prefix, not application-state
  selectors; verify old executable preservation, pin policy, partial command-link
  finalization and unchanged data. The internal preview entrypoint is not a
  public bootstrap or permission to replace a user/package-manager installation.
- Promotion requires passing Code quality, Unit tests, and Docker E2E checks.
- For curl bootstrap, follow DEVELOPMENT's native curl bootstrap verification.
  Generate from final verified cargo-dist artifacts and invoke the existing
  native publisher; do not enable a competing stock installer. Test an actual
  matching-host archive without Node/Rust on runtime PATH, and distinguish
  controlled-download evidence from an authorized public release smoke test.
  npm/pnpm replacement is a fresh installation without data-transfer machinery,
  not permission to delete old state or silently uninstall another manager.
- Tags, GitHub Releases, npm publishing, and npm dist-tags are separate operations that require explicit authorization; this skill never assumes permission for them.
- Update user-facing installation or channel documentation whenever a version change would make it inaccurate.
- A future prerelease publish must use a non-`latest` npm dist-tag. Before declaring it available, inspect the registry dist-tags and install the exact published version in a clean temporary environment.