How to Set Up CI for Release Branches

A release branch freezes a candidate for stabilization while main keeps moving; CI runs heavier checks and packaging there.

When you cut release/x.y, CI should run more than the PR suite: integration tests, packaging, and a deploy to a release or staging environment. Only bug fixes land on the release branch, and they get cherry-picked back to main.

Steps

• Create release/x.y from main when you start stabilizing.
• Trigger CI on push to release/** with the full integration suite.
• Build and version the release artifact from that branch.
• Tag and deploy once the branch is green, then merge fixes back to main.

Workflow

on:
  push:
    branches: ['release/**']
jobs:
  release-candidate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test:integration
      - name: Build versioned artifact
        run: npm run build && npm pack
      - run: ./deploy.sh release-staging

Gotchas

• Fixes made only on the release branch and never merged back cause regressions in the next release.
• Keep release branches short-lived; long stabilization windows signal weak trunk quality.

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