cosmos-sdk/docs/RELEASE_PROCESS.md

cosmos/cosmos-sdk Release Process

Unless otherwise stated, all of the following tasks will be undertaken by the release manager/coordinator:

• 1. Decide on release designation (are we doing a patch, or minor version bump)
• 2. Ensure that all commits/PRs which are destined for this release are merged to the master branch
• 3. Create the release candidate branch rcN (please start with N=1) (going forward known as RC) and ensure it's protected against pushing from anyone except the release manager/coordinator. no PRs targeting this branch should be merged unless exceptional circumstances arise
• 4. On the RC branch, use clog to prepare the CHANGELOG.md.
• 5. Summarize breaking API changes section under “Breaking Changes” section to the CHANGELOG.md to bring attention to any breaking API changes that affect RPC consumers.
• 6. Kick off a large round of simulation testing (e.g. 400 seeds for 2k blocks)
• 7. If errors are found in either #6 or #7 go back to #2 (NOTE: be sure to increment the rcN)
• 8. After #6 and #7 have successfully completed create the release branch from the RC branch (this will trigger the automated relase process which will build binaries, tag the release and push to github)
• 9. Merge the release branch to master and delete the RC branch