[mday-io]

Description

The repo has release workflows but no written process. CONTRIBUTING.md, GOVERNANCE.md and docs/ don't say how to cut a release. This PR documents how releases work.

• RELEASING.md covers the three packages we publish:
  • sqlmesh on PyPI, released by pushing a v*.*.* tag
  • the VS Code extension, released by running a workflow by hand
  • @tobikodata/sqlmesh-common on npm, released by running a workflow by hand
• CONTRIBUTING.md gets a short "Releases" section that links to the new file.

Depends on #6178

The "Release Notes" section and step 6 describe how releases work after #6178:

• Labels are applied automatically from PR titles. A ! in the title puts the PR under Breaking changes.
• The workflow creates draft GitHub releases. Step 6 is to add upgrade notes and then publish the draft.

This PR no longer adds .github/release.yml. #6178 owns that file. The two PRs merge cleanly in either order, but this one should merge after #6178 or at the same time, so the doc never describes behavior that isn't there yet. I'm keeping it as a draft until then.

Open questions for the TSC

The doc describes how releases work and doesn't set policy. These still need a decision:

1. Who may push release tags. Any account that can push a v* tag publishes to PyPI with no approval step. Options include:
   • a tag ruleset limiting who can create v* tags
   • a GitHub environment with required reviewers on the publish job
   • PyPI Trusted Publishing, which also removes the TWINE_PASSWORD secret
2. When to bump the minor version. Every recent release is a 0.236.x patch, including ones with features and breaking fixes.
3. Whether to keep the tobiko-private upload. make publish-tests still publishes the test package to the private registry from the Tobiko era.

Test Plan

Docs only.

• I checked each step against release.yaml, release_extension.yaml, release_shared_js.yaml, the Makefile and the setuptools_scm settings in pyproject.toml.
• I checked the "Release Notes" section and step 6 against .github/release.yml, .github/workflows/pr-labels.yaml and the draft: true change in ci: document releases and group release notes by label #6178.
• git merge-tree shows this branch and ci: document releases and group release notes by label #6178's branch merge with no conflicts.

Checklist

• I have run make style and fixed any issues (not applicable: no Python changes)
• I have added tests for my changes (not applicable)
• All existing tests pass (make fast-test) (not applicable)
• My commits are signed off (git commit -s) per the DCO

[coderabbitai]

Important

Draft PR not reviewed

Draft PRs are not automatically reviewed by default.

• Trigger a manual review

To automatically review draft PRs, update your CodeRabbit configuration:

reviews:
  auto_review:
    drafts: true

• Autofix · Keep fixing CodeRabbit findings and required CI, and resolving merge conflicts

[mday-io]

Closing in favor of #6178, which now includes RELEASING.md along with the release-note grouping, so both can be reviewed together.

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