Release Checklist

Use this checklist when a runtime change could affect public docs.

NPM Release Automation

PolitiClaw publishes @politiclaw/politiclaw through a reviewed release PR plus a human-gated GitHub Release.

1. Run the Prepare npm release GitHub Action and choose patch, minor, or major.
2. Review and merge the generated release PR after checks pass.
3. Publish a GitHub Release tagged vX.Y.Z from main.
4. The Publish npm package workflow verifies the tag, reruns npm run release:check, confirms the version is not already published, and publishes with npm provenance.

ClawHub reads the published archive, not this checklist. The catalog image is packages/politiclaw-plugin/assets/icon.png, and the browse category is the single categories entry in openclaw.plugin.json. Topics are not in the package; pass them on publish (at most five; do not use reserved labels such as official or openclaw):

clawhub package publish ./packages/politiclaw-plugin --family code-plugin --dry-run
clawhub package publish ./packages/politiclaw-plugin --family code-plugin \
  --topics "congress,legislation,representatives,ballots,elections"

The package CLI --categories flag is ignored for plugins. Change the category in openclaw.plugin.json instead.

One-time setup:

• Configure npm Trusted Publishing for @politiclaw/politiclaw with provider GitHub Actions, repository PolitiClaw/PolitiClaw, workflow publish-npm.yml, and environment npm-production.
• Create the GitHub environment npm-production with required reviewer protection.

Manual Docs Refresh

1. Update the runtime source of truth first.
2. Regenerate docs with npm run docs:generate.
3. Run npm run docs:check.
4. Re-read any affected guide or maintainer pages for overclaims.
5. Verify the relevant generated pages changed in the expected way.
6. Build the docs site before merging or releasing.

Changes That Usually Need A Docs Refresh

• tool additions, removals, or renamed parameters
• config-schema changes
• source coverage changes
• cron template changes
• skill additions or renamed skill directories
• storage migrations