Releasing WoW Addons

Guidance for the release workflow with Mechanic. A release changes files, creates a commit and a tag: never run it without an explicit request from the user, and always preview first.

Related Commands

• c-release - Release workflow

MCP Tools

Call MCP tools directly (using-mechanic). Inputs are in the generated command reference.

Task	MCP Tool
Validate TOC and structure	addon.validate(addon="MyAddon")
Lint / tests / deprecations	addon.lint, addon.test or sandbox.test, addon.deprecations (limited database, see s-audit)
Preview the release	release.all(addon, version, message, category, dry_run=true)
Run the release	release.all(addon, version, message, category) after the user confirms
Individual steps (recovery only)	version.bump, changelog.add, git.commit, git.tag

Workflow

1. Pre-release checks: addon.validate, addon.lint, tests, addon.deprecations. Fix or report problems.
2. Dry run: release.all with dry_run: true. It runs the same preflight (tag conflict check, existing staged changes) and returns steps_planned with nothing changed. Show the planned version, changelog text, category and tag to the user.
3. Ask for confirmation of exactly that plan. Do not proceed on silence.
4. Run release.all without dry_run. It bumps the TOC version, inserts the changelog entry, commits only the addon's files (chore(release): v<version>), and creates the annotated tag v<version>.
5. Report the version, commit hash and tag. Pushing and publishing are separate steps for the user.

Behaviour to know

• Changelog categories: Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed, Security (case-insensitive; anything else fails with INVALID_CATEGORY). Default is Changed. The entry is inserted before the first existing ## [ heading, dated today.
• Version: validated (INVALID_VERSION); the tag is v<version> and an existing tag is never moved (TAG_CONFLICT).
• Preflight errors: STAGED_CHANGES (commit or unstage first), TAG_CONFLICT, NO_TOC, GIT_NOT_FOUND, PREFLIGHT_FAILED.
• Not transactional: on failure the result is RELEASE_PARTIAL_FAILURE with details.failed_step, steps_completed and recovery. Completed steps are not rolled back, and rerunning release.all may duplicate the changelog entry. Inspect git status and git diff --cached, then finish the remaining steps individually.
• A Mechanic release has two TOCs (!Mechanic and Mechanic) with separate versions and changelogs; release each addon by name and keep their changelogs in step.
• The user's CLI equivalent is mech release ADDON VERSION MESSAGE --dry-run (cli-commands); agents use the MCP tool.

Routing Logic

Request type	Load reference
Release workflow, changelog format	../../../docs/integration/release.md
Human CLI reference	../../../docs/cli-reference.md