Full Release Validation

The Full Release Validation umbrella, release publish, and Docker Release dispatch. Part of the Release validation workflows index.

Full Release Validation

Full Release Validation is the manual release umbrella. Every run binds an exact Validation SHA + Tooling SHA tuple and rejects an expected_sha mismatch before child dispatch. Validation SHA maps to the Code SHA for product validation or the Release SHA for changelog-only validation; it is not a third release identity. Beta-publish maps to release_profile=beta with run_release_soak=false. A canonical beta's all run records npm-beta-v1: it retains Node and Control UI CI, Plugin Prerelease, package/install/cross-OS checks, and QA parity, while deferring native apps, performance, and Telegram confidence. Broad live/E2E and QA-live remain outside that bounded gate. Postpublish-confidence uses the exact published package with soak or explicit focused groups. Regular stable releases use release_profile=stable and npm-stable-v1: only native apps are deferred; stable soak, blocking performance, Node on all three OS families, Control UI, package acceptance, and QA remain. Both npm scopes require an exact release version and validated matching branch or tag context. Numeric regular corrections are supported; extended-stable, uncontextualized main, full profiles, and explicit ci groups retain full CI.

See Full release validation for the stage matrix, exact workflow job names, profile differences, artifacts, and focused rerun handles.

The live/E2E selected-ref validator fetches the complete commit and ref history with a sparse checkout. Ancestry and release-ref checks remain unchanged, while historical file contents stay out of this metadata-only job. Build and test jobs check out their own complete source trees.

OpenClaw Release Publish is the manual mutating release workflow. Dispatch regular beta and stable publishes from a protected lightweight release-publish/<tooling-sha12>-<epoch> tag at the frozen Tooling SHA after the release tag exists and after the OpenClaw npm preflight has succeeded (the preflight runs pnpm plugins:sync:check among its checks). The tag still selects the exact release commit, including a commit on release/YYYY.M.PATCH; Tideclaw alpha publishes keep using their matching alpha branch. For current validation runs, set preflight_run_id and full_release_validation_run_id to the same successful Full Release Validation run ID and pin full_release_validation_run_attempt. The publisher resolves the independent Full Release Artifacts producer from that validation manifest's sealed publicationArtifacts.npmPreflight descriptor. The producer ID alone does not carry Full Release Validation authorization.

Docker Release requests the docker-release environment approval in a separate job after source identity and image preparation succeed (or prepared artifacts are supplied). Approval waits stay outside docker-release-publish; only the approved publisher enters that global registry/alias lock. It then revalidates the immutable source, prepared artifacts, attestations and alias state before writing. Docker Hub credentials remain required caller-provided secrets. Failed preparation, denied approval and cancellation cannot publish.

Historical recovery may still supply a separate successful OpenClaw NPM Release preflight run ID alongside the matching successful Full Release Validation run and attempt. Create the tooling tag with the release publish commands; real core npm, plugin npm, or ClawHub publication from main is rejected before child dispatch. Docker-only recovery may still use main.

The publisher dispatches Plugin NPM Release for all publishable plugin packages, dispatches Plugin ClawHub Release for the same release SHA, then dispatches OpenClaw NPM Release after plugin npm succeeds. Stable Windows promotion is optional: supply both an exact windows_node_tag and candidate-approved windows_node_installer_digests to dispatch its signed installers after GitHub release finalization. Omit both to skip Windows. For npm-stable evidence, when the tagged apps/android/version.json matches the stable tag's base version, a separate native qualification job starts full CI for the exact release SHA with Android enabled. A successful result is revalidated after core publication before the separate Android job creates its existing approval receipt and dispatches the tag-owned APK workflow. This keeps frozen release tags usable without allowing narrower npm evidence to authorize an unqualified native build. Native failure remains visible and prevents Android approval; core npm and GitHub release finalization do not wait for it. The whole parent can remain active after core publication while native qualification finishes. Existing full evidence and macOS's independent validation retain their native qualification contracts. A mismatched Android pin skips both native qualification and APK publication, with the pin, release train, and shared mobile cutter (scripts/mobile-release-version.ts --prepare) remedy recorded in the parent summary and release proof. Focused plugin-only repairs use plugin_publish_scope=selected with a nonempty package list. Plugin-only all-publishable runs require the same immutable npm preflight and Full Release Validation evidence as a core publish.

PUBLISH_REF="release-publish/<tooling-sha12>-<epoch>"FRV_RUN_ID="<successful-full-release-validation-run-id>"FRV_RUN_ATTEMPT="<successful-full-release-validation-run-attempt>"gh workflow run openclaw-release-publish.yml \  --ref "$PUBLISH_REF" \  -f tag=vYYYY.M.PATCH-beta.N \  -f preflight_run_id="$FRV_RUN_ID" \  -f full_release_validation_run_id="$FRV_RUN_ID" \  -f full_release_validation_run_attempt="$FRV_RUN_ATTEMPT" \  -f npm_dist_tag=beta

For pinned commit proof on a fast-moving branch, use the helper instead of gh workflow run ... --ref main -f ref=<sha>:

TOOLING_SHA="<recorded-full-main-ancestor-sha>"VALIDATION_SHA="<full-release-candidate-sha>"pnpm ci:full-release \  --sha "$VALIDATION_SHA" \  --target-ref release/YYYY.M.PATCH \  --workflow-sha "$TOOLING_SHA"

GitHub workflow dispatch refs must be branches or tags, not raw commit SHAs. The helper pushes a temporary release-ci/<sha>-... branch at a trusted Tooling SHA, passes the requested Validation SHA through ref and expected_sha, reuses strict exact-target evidence when available, and verifies every child workflow headSha matches the Tooling SHA. Record that Tooling SHA once and never refresh it from moving main. Regular release branches accept only their final package version or a matching beta prerelease; Tideclaw alpha validation uses its exact alpha tag and matching alpha branch.

release_profile controls live/provider breadth passed into release checks. The manual release workflows default to stable; use full only when you intentionally want the broad advisory provider/media matrix. Stable and full release checks always run the exhaustive live/E2E and Docker release-path soak; the beta profile can opt in with run_release_soak=true.

fail_fast defaults to false: the umbrella waits for each dispatched child workflow and reports its independent failures together. Set fail_fast=true only when cancelling a child after its first failed job is more useful than the complete failure inventory. In Release Checks, this also enables the Matrix QA CLI's own first-scenario cancellation.

• beta keeps the fastest OpenAI/core release-critical lanes.
• stable adds the stable provider/backend set.
• full runs the broad advisory provider/media matrix.

The umbrella records dispatched child run ids, and Verify full validation checks them during that parent attempt. Parent cancellation or timeout leaves adopted exact children running; cancel one explicitly when it is no longer needed.

For recovery, classify product, harness/tooling/provenance, infrastructure/credential, and wrapper failures before editing. Only confirmed product failure changes the Code SHA. Use one diagnosis, one fix when needed, and one narrow rerun_group retry, then reassess; never widen automatically to all. Narrow evidence is not publish authorization by itself.

OpenClaw Release Checks uses the trusted workflow ref to resolve the selected ref once into a release-package-under-test tarball, then passes that artifact to cross-OS checks and Package Acceptance, plus the live/E2E release-path Docker workflow when soak coverage runs. That keeps the package bytes consistent across release boxes and avoids repacking the same candidate in multiple child jobs. For the Codex npm-plugin live lane, release checks either pass a matching published plugin spec derived from release_package_spec, pass the operator-supplied codex_plugin_spec, or leave the input blank so the Docker script packs the selected checkout's Codex plugin.

Full Release Validation concurrency is keyed by Validation SHA, Tooling SHA, rerun group, release profile, and effective soak coverage with cancel-in-progress: false. Release Checks uses the same coverage identity in each phase, so beta, stable, and full requests do not queue behind each other. Stable/full always include soak; setting their soak flag explicitly does not create another concurrency group. Parent cancellation does not cancel adopted children.

In the canonical repository's hybrid runner mode, target resolution, evidence reuse, candidate discovery, candidate binding, and candidate resolution use the small Blacksmith runner pool. These serial jobs otherwise compound hosted runner admission delays before tests can start. Other modes and noncanonical repositories retain GitHub-hosted runners; the reusable harness also honors its explicit hosted-runner override. Long-running decision and diagnostic collectors remain hosted.