build: add semantic-release (dry-run)

[brian-smith-tcril]

Summary

• Add release CI workflow triggered on push to main
• Add .releaserc config with npm + GitHub release publishing
• Update package version from 1.0.0-prealpha to 1.0.0

Running with --dry-run to verify the setup works correctly. A follow-up PR will remove the dry-run flag to enable actual releases.

Test plan

• Merge this PR and verify the release CI workflow runs successfully on main
• Confirm dry-run output shows correct version analysis and no actual publish occurs
• Follow up with a PR removing --dry-run to enable real releases

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[brian-smith-tcril]

Log

frontend-dev-utils Semantic Release Setup - Work Log

Date: 2026-02-13

Objective

Set up semantic-release for @openedx/frontend-dev-utils so it automatically publishes to npm on merge to main.

---

Progress

Repo Setup

• Cloned fork: brian-smith-tcril/frontend-dev-utils (fork of openedx/frontend-dev-utils)
• Cloned to /home/bsmith/code/claude/frontend-dev-utils

Current State of the Repo

• Branch: main
• Version: 1.0.0-prealpha (in package.json)
• No build step — source files are published directly (bin entries point to ./tools/...)
• No test step beyond a placeholder echo "Error: no test specified"
• Existing workflows: commitlint, add-remove-label-on-comment, add-depr-ticket-to-depr-board, self-assign-issue
• No release workflow yet
• Dependencies: chokidar, cors, express
• 8 commits on main so far

Reference: openedx/frontend-platform Release Setup

Used as the model for how openedx repos do semantic-release.

Workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml):

• Triggers on push to master and alpha branches
• Uses npx semantic-release@25 (not installed as a dep)
• Permissions: id-token: write (OIDC), contents: write (tagging)
• Uses OPENEDX_SEMANTIC_RELEASE_GITHUB_TOKEN secret
• Also has build and docs steps (not needed for frontend-dev-utils)

Config (.releaserc):

• Branches: master + alpha (prerelease)
• Uses @semantic-release/npm (with pkgRoot: "dist"), @semantic-release/github, @semantic-release/commit-analyzer, @semantic-release/release-notes-generator
• Publishes to both npm and GitHub releases

Key Differences for frontend-dev-utils

• Branch is main not master
• No build step needed (no dist directory, publish from root)
• No docs step needed
• pkgRoot should be omitted or set to . (publish from root)

Plan (approved)

Files to create/modify:

1. .github/workflows/release.yml — new workflow, modeled on frontend-platform but without build/docs steps
2. .releaserc — semantic-release config, adapted for root-level publishing
3. package.json — may need version/publishConfig updates

Implementation (completed)

Created .github/workflows/release.yml

• Triggers on push to main
• Uses ubuntu-24.04, Node from .nvmrc
• Runs npm ci then npx semantic-release@25 --dry-run
• Permissions: id-token: write, contents: write
• Uses OPENEDX_SEMANTIC_RELEASE_GITHUB_TOKEN secret
• No build or docs steps (not needed for this repo)

Created .releaserc

• Branch: main (not master like frontend-platform)
• Plugins: commit-analyzer, release-notes-generator, npm (from root), github
• No pkgRoot override — publishes from repo root since there's no build/dist step
• tagFormat: "v${version}"

Updated package.json

• Changed version from 1.0.0-prealpha to 1.0.0
• Semantic-release will manage versioning from here on

Commit & PR

• Branch: bsmith/add-semantic-release-dry-run
• Commit: 32f7006 — build: add semantic-release with dry-run
• PR: build: add semantic-release (dry-run) #6
• Running in --dry-run mode; follow-up PR will remove the flag to enable actual releases

[arbrandes]

Looks good!