templates-dotnet/.github/skills/new-release/SKILL.md

name, description, argument-hint

name	description	argument-hint
new-release	Cut a new release: tag the appropriate commit, generate the changelog, and produce build artifacts. Use when: releasing a new version, tagging a release, publishing NuGet packages, preparing release artifacts.	Branch or commit to release from (default: current main) and the kind of release (stable, prerelease, hotfix)

New Release

Versioning is GitVersion-driven (GitVersion.yml). Do not hand-pick versions — let GitVersion compute them from branch and tag history.

Versioning

Branch	Label	Resulting version
main	—	MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (stable, held until the next tag)
feature/*, hotfix/*	branch name	…-<branch>.N

• Tags use the prefix v (regex [vV]? also accepts V or none).
• Each src/* project is versioned independently: only changes under that project's own directory, Directory.Packages.props, or GitVersion.yml increment its version (see GenerateProjectGitVersionConfig in src/Directory.Build.props, which renders the root GitVersion.yml into a per-project copy). A change to one library does not bump a sibling's version.
• Increments are suppressed for already-merged branches and already-tagged commits.

Changelog

Release notes are generated at pack time and embedded as PackageReleaseNotes. The GenerateChangelogFromGit target writes git log subjects to $(ChangeLogPath), and CreateReleaseNotesFromFile reads that file into the nuspec. Both run before GenerateNuspec, and generation is skipped when the repository root has no .git directory.

The commit range is resolved in this order, first match wins:

1. $(ChangeLogFromRef)..HEAD — when ChangeLogFromRef is set.
2. <tag>..HEAD — from git describe --tags --abbrev=0.
3. <sha>..HEAD — the last first-parent merge whose subject matches $(ChangeLogUpstreamMergePattern).
4. <sha>..HEAD — the last first-parent merge.
5. No range; the log is capped at $(ChangeLogCommitLimit) commits.

Commits are filtered with --no-merges and scoped to the project's own directory, plus the directories of its ProjectReferences unless ChangeLogIncludeReferences is false. This mirrors the per-project versioning rule above: a sibling library's commits do not appear in this package's notes.

Property	Default	Purpose
ChangeLogFromRef	(empty)	Explicit range start; overrides the fallback chain
ChangeLogPath	$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)changes.log	Where the log is written and read from
ChangeLogCommitLimit	100	Cap used only when no range resolves
ChangeLogUpstreamMergePattern	from .*/	Subject matcher for the upstream-merge fallback
ChangeLogIncludeReferences	true	Include ProjectReference directories in scoping
GenerateChangelogFromGit	(unset)	Set to false to skip generation entirely

Important

Step 2 uses the nearest reachable tag, not the newest. Packing from a commit that already carries a release tag therefore yields only the commits added since it — often a single entry. Pass ChangeLogFromRef to widen the range:

dotnet pack -c Release -p:ChangeLogFromRef=v4.0.0

To ship hand-written notes instead, disable generation and point ChangeLogPath at your own file. Generation must be disabled, otherwise the target overwrites it:

dotnet pack -c Release -p:GenerateChangelogFromGit=false -p:ChangeLogPath=notes.md

Confirm the resolved range in the build output before publishing:

Generated changelog at <path> using range v4.0.0..HEAD.

Procedure

1. Sync. git fetch --all --tags && git status — confirm clean.
2. Compute. dotnet build src\<Project>\<Project>.csproj -getProperty:Version — verify the value matches expectations for that specific project (there is no single repo-wide version).
3. Pack. dotnet pack -c Release (or use the docker-build pack target). Artifacts land in artifacts/nuget/. Check the logged changelog range and pass ChangeLogFromRef if it is narrower than the release warrants.
4. Tag. git tag -a v<version> -m "Release v<version>" && git push origin v<version>.
5. Publish packages to the configured feed.
6. Create the GitHub release linked to the tag, using the generated changelog as notes.

For hotfixes: branch from the latest stable tag (git switch -c hotfix/<name> v<latest-stable>), follow the procedure, then merge back into main. There is no develop branch to reconcile with — this repo is trunk-based.

Guardrails

• Tags are immutable once pushed; never move or delete them.
• Never skip a PATCH — ship a fix forward.
• Do not edit GitVersion.yml or a generated src/*/GitVersion.yml to force a version. Address the underlying cause (missing tag, branch base, path filter, commit messages). Generated per-project files are gitignored build artifacts, re-derived from the root GitVersion.yml on every build — never hand-edit them.