Release Process

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Weld separates release preparation, projection tracking, and archiving from Hex publication.

Why

weld should govern exactly what is being published, but it should not own Hex credentials or network-side retry semantics.

Prepare

mix release.prepare

This command:

  • generates the welded artifact
  • runs welded package verification
  • writes a deterministic release bundle
  • includes a tarball when verify.hex_build is enabled

If the manifest sets verify: [hex_build: false], release preparation still writes the prepared bundle. The only thing omitted is the tarball, because the artifact is intentionally not Hex-buildable.

Track

mix release.track

This command:

  • reads the prepared release bundle
  • updates projection/<package_name> by default
  • creates the first projection branch as an orphan by default
  • optionally tags and pushes that projection commit

Tracking is for durable projected-source history, including unreleased and pre-release snapshots. It is not a substitute for Hex publication and it does not imply that a tracked projection commit was released.

Publish

Run mix hex.publish from the prepared bundle after inspection. In package-projection mode, weld.verify already exercises mix hex.publish --dry-run --yes unless verify: [hex_publish: false] is set.

Publish is the only release step that actually requires a tarball.

Archive

mix release.archive

These wrappers delegate to the Weld release tasks and use the same manifest auto-discovery rules. Pass an explicit manifest path only when the repo carries more than one Weld manifest or uses a nonstandard manifest location.

This copies the prepared release bundle into the archive surface.

Release Bundle Contents

The prepared bundle contains:

  • projected Mix project tree
  • projection.lock.json
  • built tarball when verify.hex_build is enabled
  • release.json metadata

release.json records the manifest path relative to the repo root and the Weld version used to prepare the bundle, which keeps release metadata portable across checkout locations.

Tracked projection commits are intentionally separate from the prepared bundle. The bundle is the release input; the projection branch is an optional durable generated-source history.

Archive Policy

The archive output is meant to preserve exactly what was released.

It is not intended to be an active generated development branch. The source monorepo remains the source of truth, and projection/<package_name> is the optional generated-source tracking surface when you need one.