Release Playbook

Purpose

This playbook is the shortest path for maintainers to publish a new RaceLink_RH_Plugin release.

Inputs

• Plugin release version: optional workflow input. If omitted, the workflow increments the manifest patch version.
• Host development baseline: stored in build/deps.json for local development metadata.
• Host runtime default: latest published RaceLink_Host release.
• Host runtime override: optional workflow input when you need a specific RaceLink_Host version for the release.

Release Steps

1. Confirm that RaceLink_Host has already published the wheel you want to use.
2. Open GitHub Actions and run .github/workflows/offline-release.yaml.
3. Provide: target_branch optional plugin version optional host_version
4. If host_version is empty, the workflow resolves the latest published RaceLink_Host release automatically.
5. Wait for the workflow to finish. It will: resolve the host version sync generated dependency files validate online metadata sync run the manifest dependency spike run RHFest bump the plugin version validate that manifest.json and the release tag match commit the release metadata create and push the plugin tag download the resolved host wheel build the offline ZIP publish the GitHub release
6. Do not create releases directly in the GitHub Releases UI. That path is intentionally unsupported because it cannot update manifest.json before GitHub generates the source archive.

Expected Outputs

• Git tag v<plugin-version>
• GitHub release for RaceLink_RH_Plugin
• Uploaded offline ZIP artifact containing the staged racelink-host wheel for local installation into the RotorHazard Python environment

Failure Hints

• If metadata sync fails, run py scripts/sync_racelink_host_dependency.py locally and commit the result.
• If the host wheel download fails, verify the selected or latest RaceLink_Host release tag and wheel filename.
• If RHFest fails, inspect custom_plugins/racelink_rh_plugin/manifest.json and the dependency-format rules in docs/manifest-dependency-format.md.