automate more of the release process

[jamadeo]

This automates release branching using PRs. It uses github actions to create PRs that generate a release log and diff for release branch management. It also includes a check on these PRs so that, when targeting main (for a minor release) we check that each change exists in main's history (has been cherry-picked). When a release tag is pushed, the PR is automatically merged to bump the version.

The process looks like this:

flowchart TD

    A[Weekly Schedule] --> B[Create Minor Release PR<br/>based on main]

    C[Manual Trigger] --> B

    D[Push Release Tag] --> E{PR Mergeable?<br/>Checks Passing?}

    E -->|Yes| F[Merge Release PR]
    E -->|No| G[No Action - PR Not Ready]

    F --> H[Create New Patch Release PR<br/>based on new release tag]

    

    B --> I{PR Status?}

    H --> J{PR Status?}

    

    I -->|Closed| K[No Action]

    I -->|Open & Ready| L[Awaiting Tag Push]

    

    J -->|Closed| M[No Action]

    J -->|Open & Ready| N[Awaiting Tag Push]

    

    L --> D
    N --> D

    style G fill:#ffcdd2
    style K fill:#ffcdd2
    style M fill:#ffcdd2

    style A fill:#e1f5fe
    style C fill:#e1f5fe
    style F fill:#c8e6c9
    style D fill:#fff3e0

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[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR introduces an automated release workflow system that supports both minor and patch releases through GitHub Actions workflows and Just commands.

• Adds Just commands to calculate next minor/patch versions programmatically
• Creates reusable GitHub Actions workflow for automated release PR creation
• Implements scheduled minor releases and on-demand patch releases
• Automates PR merging when tags are pushed and validates release branch commits

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
Justfile	Adds get-next-minor-version and get-next-patch-version commands for version calculation
.github/workflows/create-release-pr.yaml	Reusable workflow that creates release PRs with automatic version bumping
.github/workflows/minor-release.yaml	Scheduled (weekly) and manual trigger for minor releases
.github/workflows/patch-release.yaml	Manual workflow to create patch release PRs for hotfixes
.github/workflows/merge-release-pr-on-tag.yaml	Automated workflow to merge release PRs when version tags are pushed
.github/workflows/check-release-pr.yaml	Validates that release PRs only contain version bump commits

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[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 9 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

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