# Release Management Output

**Purpose**: Release artifacts, version tags, and release notes.

## Contents

This directory contains outputs and staging for release management operations.

## Release Process

Release management handles:

1. **Version Bumping** - Update version numbers across the project
2. **Changelog Generation** - Create release notes from git history
3. **Git Tagging** - Create git tags for releases
4. **Release Notes** - Write comprehensive release documentation

## Release Workflow

Prepare a release:

```bash
just release-prepare --version 4.0.0   # Prepare new release
just release-validate                   # Validate release readiness
```

Create release artifacts:

```bash
just release-build                      # Build final release packages
just release-tag                        # Create git tags
```

Publish release:

```bash
just release-publish                    # Upload to repositories
```

## Version Management

Versions follow semantic versioning: `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`

- **MAJOR** - Breaking changes
- **MINOR** - New features (backward compatible)
- **PATCH** - Bug fixes

Example: `4.2.1` = Major 4, Minor 2, Patch 1

## Release Artifacts

A release includes:

- Version-tagged binaries
- Changelog with all changes
- Release notes with highlights
- Git tags for all milestones
- Published packages in repositories

## Cleanup

Remove release artifacts:

```bash
just clean                       # Clean all build artifacts
```

## Related Directories

- `dist/` - Build artifacts that releases are based on
- `package/` - Packages that get versioned and released
- `distribution/` - Distribution that incorporates release versions
