# Release Guide

## Published: v2.1.2 (2026-05-23)

Performance and reliability release: faster startup, deferred provider/runtime hydration, resilient file watching under watcher limits, safer context switching, better team launch diagnostics, and packaged app entry/runtime fixes. GitHub release: [v2.1.2](https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/tag/v2.1.2).

## Published: v1.2.0 (2026-03-31)

Agent Graph, per-team tool approval, interactive AskUserQuestion, task comment notifications, cross-team ghost nodes. Major graph improvements: force-directed visualization with kanban task layout, fullscreen/tab mode, animated particles, member hexagons with avatars, popover actions. Permission system overhaul with proper Write/Edit/NotebookEdit seeding and MCP tool catalog integration. Full list: [CHANGELOG.md](./CHANGELOG.md).

## Published: v1.1.0 (2026-03-26)

Minor release: React 19 + Electron 40 migration, start-task-by-user, auth troubleshooting guide, syntax highlighting for R/Ruby/PHP/SQL, search performance improvements, cost tracking accuracy, WSL/Windows path fixes. Full list: [CHANGELOG.md](./CHANGELOG.md).

## Published: v1.0.0 (2026-03-23)

Initial release: Agent Teams with reliable CLI detection in packaged builds (shell PATH/HOME, `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR`, auth output parsing), IPC status cache handling, concurrent binary resolution, capped NDJSON diagnostics. Full list: [CHANGELOG.md](./CHANGELOG.md).

After CI uploads artifacts, optional notes update:

```bash
gh release edit v1.0.0 --repo 777genius/agent-teams-ai --notes "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Agent Teams v1.0.0

First stable build: CLI/auth reliability in packaged apps, IPC hardening, and platform packaging.

### What's New
- Setting to auto-expand AI response groups in transcripts (`general.autoExpandAIGroups`).

### Improvements
- CLI status uses interactive shell environment and merged PATH so packaged builds match terminal behavior.
- Stricter IPC validation and clearer notification/update contracts.

### Bug Fixes
- Fix false "not logged in" when the CLI is authenticated in the shell.
- Clear stale CLI status cache when status refresh fails.
- Windows path edge cases in tooling and tests.

### Downloads

<table>
<tr>
<td align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v1.0.0/Agent.Teams.AI-1.0.0-arm64.dmg">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS_Apple_Silicon-.dmg-000000?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple&logoColor=white" alt="macOS Apple Silicon" />
  </a>
  <br />
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v1.0.0/Agent.Teams.AI-1.0.0.dmg">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS_Intel-.dmg-434343?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple&logoColor=white" alt="macOS Intel" />
  </a>
</td>
<td align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v1.0.0/Agent.Teams.AI.Setup.1.0.0.exe">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Windows-Download_.exe-0078D4?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows&logoColor=white" alt="Windows" />
  </a>
  <br />
  <sub>May trigger SmartScreen — click "More info" → "Run anyway"</sub>
</td>
<td align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v1.0.0/Agent.Teams.AI-1.0.0.AppImage">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Linux-Download_.AppImage-FCC624?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux&logoColor=black" alt="Linux AppImage" />
  </a>
  <br />
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v1.0.0/claude-agent-teams-ui_1.0.0_amd64.deb">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/.deb-E95420?style=flat-square&logo=ubuntu&logoColor=white" alt=".deb" />
  </a>&nbsp;
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v1.0.0/claude-agent-teams-ui-1.0.0.x86_64.rpm">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/.rpm-294172?style=flat-square&logo=redhat&logoColor=white" alt=".rpm" />
  </a>&nbsp;
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v1.0.0/claude-agent-teams-ui-1.0.0.pacman">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/.pacman-1793D1?style=flat-square&logo=archlinux&logoColor=white" alt=".pacman" />
  </a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
EOF
)"
```

## Versioning (SemVer)

Format: `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`

| Bump  | When                                                                  | Example       |
| ----- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| MAJOR | Breaking changes, major UI overhaul, incompatible data format changes | 1.0.0 → 2.0.0 |
| MINOR | New features, new panels/views, new integrations                      | 1.0.0 → 1.1.0 |
| PATCH | Bug fixes, performance improvements, small UI tweaks                  | 1.0.0 → 1.0.1 |

## Release Process

### Test Releases And Auto-Update Safety

Packaged apps check GitHub releases through `electron-updater` shortly after startup and then periodically. A normal public release with a higher SemVer and uploaded `latest.yml`, `latest-linux.yml`, or `latest-mac.yml` can be shown to users as an available update.

For smoke/testing releases, do not publish a normal stable release. Use at least one of these guards:

- Mark the GitHub release as `prerelease`.
- Keep the GitHub release as `draft`.
- Add one of these exact markers to the release title or notes: `[skip-updater]`, `[test-release]`, `[internal-release]`, `[no-autoupdate]`.

The app suppresses update notifications for releases with those flags or markers. A stable production release must not use those markers.

### 1. Prepare

```bash
# Make sure branch is clean and pushed
git status
git push origin <branch>
```

### 2. Create tag and push

```bash
git tag v<VERSION>
git push origin v<VERSION>
```

This triggers the `release.yml` GitHub Actions workflow which:

- Builds the app (ubuntu)
- Packages macOS arm64 + x64 (with code signing & notarization)
- Packages Windows (NSIS installer)
- Packages Linux (AppImage, deb, rpm, pacman)
- Creates a GitHub Release with all artifacts

### 3. Update release notes

After the workflow completes, edit the release notes:

```bash
gh release edit v<VERSION> --repo 777genius/agent-teams-ai --notes "$(cat <<'EOF'
<paste release notes here>
EOF
)"
```

Public release notes must follow this standard every time:

- Start with a short user-facing summary. Explain what changed and why users should care.
- Do not add a duplicate `## Agent Teams v<VERSION>` heading inside the release body; the GitHub release title already shows the version.
- Use the sections `What's New`, `Improvements`, and `Bug Fixes`; omit a section only if it would be empty.
- Keep internal-only CI, lint, dependency, and refactor work out of public notes unless it directly explains a user-visible fix.
- Put `Downloads` as the final section, after all text notes.
- Use badge/button links in `Downloads`, not bare asset links.
- Verify actual asset names with `gh release view v<VERSION> --repo 777genius/agent-teams-ai --json assets` before writing links.
- Prefer versioned installer links for release-specific notes: `Agent.Teams.AI-<VERSION>-arm64.dmg`, `Agent.Teams.AI-<VERSION>-x64.dmg`, `Agent.Teams.AI.Setup.<VERSION>.exe`, `Agent.Teams.AI-<VERSION>.AppImage`, `agent-teams-ai_<VERSION>_amd64.deb`, `agent-teams-ai-<VERSION>.x86_64.rpm`, and `agent-teams-ai-<VERSION>.pacman`.

Draft releases must be treated as review artifacts:

- Do not hand off a draft release for review while it still has generated notes, stale notes from an earlier run, or a `Full Changelog`-only body.
- Before telling the user a draft is ready, always edit the draft body with the current release notes template and then re-check it with `gh release view v<VERSION> --repo 777genius/agent-teams-ai --json body,assets,isDraft,isPrerelease,targetCommitish`.
- Confirm the notes describe the exact target commit that the draft was built from, including any commits added after a previous draft attempt.
- If a draft already exists when starting or retrying a release, do not delete it automatically. Ask for explicit permission to delete, replace, or reuse it.
- Never delete a draft release just because the user said to "make a release" or "redo the release". Deleting a draft requires a separate explicit command such as "delete the draft release".

### 4. Required release closeout gate

Do not publish or call a release finished until this is true:

- The GitHub release body is not just auto-generated `Full Changelog`.
- The release body starts with short user-facing notes: what changed, why users care, and the most important fixes.
- The `Downloads` table from the template is present and every link points to the current `v<VERSION>` assets.
- The asset names in the notes match the assets uploaded by `release.yml`.
- For a draft handoff, `gh release view v<VERSION> --json body,assets,isDraft,isPrerelease,targetCommitish` confirms the release is still a draft, targets the intended commit, has current notes, and has the expected installer assets.
- For final publication, `gh release view v<VERSION> --json body,assets,isDraft,isPrerelease,targetCommitish` confirms the release is public, has current notes, targets the intended commit, and has the expected installer assets.

If a draft was published before notes were written, immediately edit the public release body with `gh release edit`; do not leave a release with only generated notes.

## Release Notes Template

```markdown
<1-2 sentence summary of the release>

### What's New

- feat: <feature description>
- feat: <feature description>

### Improvements

- improve: <improvement description>

### Bug Fixes

- fix: <bug fix description>

### Downloads

<table>
<tr>
<td align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v<VERSION>/Agent.Teams.AI-<VERSION>-arm64.dmg">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS_Apple_Silicon-.dmg-000000?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple&logoColor=white" alt="macOS Apple Silicon" />
  </a>
  <br />
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v<VERSION>/Agent.Teams.AI-<VERSION>-x64.dmg">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS_Intel-.dmg-434343?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple&logoColor=white" alt="macOS Intel" />
  </a>
</td>
<td align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v<VERSION>/Agent.Teams.AI.Setup.<VERSION>.exe">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Windows-Download_.exe-0078D4?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows&logoColor=white" alt="Windows" />
  </a>
  <br />
  <sub>May trigger SmartScreen - click "More info" then "Run anyway"</sub>
  <br />
  <sub><strong>Windows required:</strong> launch Agent Teams AI as Administrator, especially when using OpenCode runtimes.</sub>
</td>
<td align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v<VERSION>/Agent.Teams.AI-<VERSION>.AppImage">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Linux-Download_.AppImage-FCC624?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux&logoColor=black" alt="Linux AppImage" />
  </a>
  <br />
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v<VERSION>/agent-teams-ai_<VERSION>_amd64.deb">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/.deb-E95420?style=flat-square&logo=ubuntu&logoColor=white" alt=".deb" />
  </a>&nbsp;
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v<VERSION>/agent-teams-ai-<VERSION>.x86_64.rpm">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/.rpm-294172?style=flat-square&logo=redhat&logoColor=white" alt=".rpm" />
  </a>&nbsp;
  <a href="https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/download/v<VERSION>/agent-teams-ai-<VERSION>.pacman">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/.pacman-1793D1?style=flat-square&logo=archlinux&logoColor=white" alt=".pacman" />
  </a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
```

## Changelog Guidelines

Write changelog entries from the **user's perspective**, not the developer's.

Release notes must stay short, concrete, and user-facing. Do not include internal
maintenance details unless they directly change what users can do or clearly fix
a user-visible problem.

Avoid entries about:

- CI/lint/test gates, smoke tests, or validation infrastructure.
- README/docs cleanup, roadmap checkbox changes, or release-process polish.
- Runtime artifact internals, bundled runtime version numbers, stable aliases,
  compatibility aliases, or updater plumbing.
- Refactors, dependency bumps, or workflow changes without a user-visible effect.

If a change only made future releases, tests, packaging, or developer validation
more reliable, keep it out of the public notes or fold it into one concise
user-facing line only when it explains a real fix.

**Good:**

- "Add team member activity timeline with live status tracking"
- "Fix crash when opening sessions with corrupted JSONL data"
- "Improve session list loading speed by 3x with streaming parser"

**Bad:**

- "Refactor ChunkBuilder to use new pipeline"
- "Update dependencies"
- "Fix bug in useEffect cleanup"
- "Fix CI lint gate"
- "Stabilize provider smoke tests"
- "Update README install guidance"
- "Bundled runtime remains vX.Y.Z"
- "Compatibility aliases are still included"

Group entries by type: `What's New` > `Improvements` > `Bug Fixes` > `Breaking Changes` (if any).

## File Naming Convention

electron-builder generates these artifacts per platform:

| Platform        | Versioned Name                       | Stable Name (for /latest/download) | Compatibility Alias                |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| macOS arm64 DMG | `Agent.Teams.AI-<VER>-arm64.dmg`     | `Agent.Teams.AI-arm64.dmg`         | `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI-arm64.dmg`  |
| macOS x64 DMG   | `Agent.Teams.AI-<VER>-x64.dmg`       | `Agent.Teams.AI-x64.dmg`           | `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI-x64.dmg`    |
| macOS arm64 ZIP | `Agent.Teams.AI-<VER>-arm64-mac.zip` | -                                  | -                                  |
| macOS x64 ZIP   | `Agent.Teams.AI-<VER>-x64-mac.zip`   | -                                  | -                                  |
| Windows         | `Agent.Teams.AI.Setup.<VER>.exe`     | `Agent.Teams.AI.Setup.exe`         | `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI-Setup.exe`  |
| Linux AppImage  | `Agent.Teams.AI-<VER>.AppImage`      | `Agent.Teams.AI.AppImage`          | `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI.AppImage`   |
| Linux deb       | `agent-teams-ai_<VER>_amd64.deb`     | `agent-teams-ai-amd64.deb`         | `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI-amd64.deb`  |
| Linux rpm       | `agent-teams-ai-<VER>.x86_64.rpm`    | `agent-teams-ai-x86_64.rpm`        | `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI-x86_64.rpm` |
| Linux pacman    | `agent-teams-ai-<VER>.pacman`        | `agent-teams-ai.pacman`            | `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI.pacman`     |

## Stable Download Links

The `upload-stable-links` job in `release.yml` re-uploads key assets with version-agnostic names.
It starts only after **release-mac** (two matrix jobs), **release-win**, and **release-linux** all succeed, so it often stays in **Queued** until the slowest job finishes. Delays of several minutes are common when macOS hosted runners are backed up.

This enables permanent links in README that always point to the latest release:

```
https://github.com/777genius/agent-teams-ai/releases/latest/download/Agent.Teams.AI-arm64.dmg
```

GitHub automatically redirects `/releases/latest/download/FILENAME` to the asset from the most recent release. No README updates needed when releasing a new version.
The `Claude-Agent-Teams-UI-*` aliases are kept only for backward compatibility with older links and clients.

## macOS Code Signing

macOS builds are signed and notarized via GitHub Actions secrets:

| Secret                        | Description                                  |
| ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| `CSC_LINK`                    | Base64-encoded .p12 certificate              |
| `CSC_KEY_PASSWORD`            | Certificate password                         |
| `APPLE_ID`                    | Apple Developer account email                |
| `APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD` | App-specific password from appleid.apple.com |
| `APPLE_TEAM_ID`               | Apple Developer Team ID                      |

Without these secrets, macOS builds will be unsigned (users need to bypass Gatekeeper manually).

## Auto-Update

The release workflow publishes canonical updater metadata after all platform assets are uploaded:

- `latest.yml` for Windows
- `latest-linux.yml` for Linux
- `latest-mac.yml` for macOS

⚠️ `latest-mac.yml` is currently Apple Silicon first because `electron-updater` on GitHub releases still uses a single macOS metadata file. Intel Mac users keep manual download support, while automatic macOS updates stay aligned with the native arm64 build until we move to universal packaging or an arch-aware provider.

## Quick Reference

```bash
# Create and publish a release
git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0
# Wait for CI to finish (~10 min), then update notes

# Delete a release (if needed)
gh release delete v1.0.0 --repo 777genius/agent-teams-ai --yes
git tag -d v1.0.0
git push origin :refs/tags/v1.0.0

# Check workflow status
gh run list --repo 777genius/agent-teams-ai --workflow release.yml --limit 3
```
