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Releases

You can use the Releases activity to manage GitHub releases.

When more entries are available, use Load more at the end of the list. A line above the list says how many releases there are.

In the activity panel, New Release, the filter icon, and More actions share the title row with the source badge.

To show the Releases activity, click its activity-bar icon or click DevOps > Releases.

Releases are listed chronologically and display the following information.

  • Name: The name of the release.
  • Status badge: A badge that indicates whether a release is a Draft, Pre-release, or the Latest release.
  • Tag: The Git tag of the release.
  • Timestamp: How long ago the release was published.
  • Release notes: A snippet of the release notes.

In the activity panel, open More actions and select Compact Mode under View to show each release on one line with its status icon, name, and time. A check mark shows when it is on. In a separate tab, use the Toggle compact mode icon. Hold the pointer over the status icon to see whether the release is a draft, a pre-release, the latest release, or published. Hold the pointer over the name to see the tag. More actions contains New Release, Show Filters, and Compact Mode.

To open a release in a separate tab, right-click the release and click Open in New Tab.

Create a release

To create a new release, complete the following steps.

  1. Click DevOps > New Release.
  2. In the New Release tab, enter the tag of the release in the Tag field.
    If the tag is new, the Target (for new tag) field shows the repository’s default branch. To create the tag on a different branch, enter or select it. To create it on a commit, enter the commit SHA. The field is hidden when the folder already has the tag.
  3. In the Release title field, enter the title of the release.
  4. In the Release notes field, enter the description of the release.
  5. Select This is a pre-release to mark the release as a pre-release. Select Set as the latest release to mark the release as the latest release.
  6. Click Publish Release. Click Save as Draft to save the release as a Draft.

A red asterisk (*) marks a required field. Publish Release and Save as Draft are unavailable until the Tag field has a tag and, for a new tag, Target (for new tag) has a target that the repository has. Point to a button to see the reason. If you leave the Tag field empty, a message shows below it.

Filter releases

Click the Show filters icon to open the filter panel. Type a release name, tag, or author in Filter releases to find matching releases. Select Published, Drafts, or Pre-releases in Status to show only those releases. Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on macOS) to focus the search field.

The line above the list says how many releases there are: N releases with no filter, or N matches with one. Zide filters the releases it has read, so while more releases remain, a filtered count says N matches so far; click Load more to search further. When GitHub gives no total, an unfiltered count says N releases loaded. Each filter that is set shows as a chip above the count. Click a chip to change the filter, or click its x to remove it. To remove all of them, click Clear filters at the end of the count line. In a narrow panel the button says Clear.

Release view

Click a release to open the release in Release view. The Release view displays the full release notes, release tag, the author of the release, the date the release was published, and all release assets.

Release actions

In the Release view, click Edit to change the release title and release notes. For a draft, click Publish to publish it. For a pre-release, click Promote to make it the latest release. For a published release that is not a pre-release, select More actions > Mark as pre-release to change its status. To delete the release, select More actions > Delete.

In the Assets section, click the Upload Asset icon to add an asset to the release. Each asset lists the file size and the number of times the asset was downloaded.

Click the Download icon next to an asset to download the asset. Click the Delete asset icon next to an asset to delete the asset.

Click the Download icon next to a source code asset to download the source code.

Immutable releases

When a repository uses immutable releases, GitHub locks a release when you publish it. You cannot add, change, or delete the assets of an immutable release, and you cannot move or delete its tag. You can still edit the title, release notes, pre-release setting, and latest release. An immutable release cannot return to draft. Repository administrators turn on immutable releases in the repository settings on GitHub.

In the Release view, an immutable release shows the Immutable badge. Upload Asset and Delete asset are unavailable. Hold the pointer over them to see the reason.

To publish a release with assets in a repository that uses immutable releases, complete the following steps.

  1. In the New Release tab, click Save as Draft. A note above the buttons tells you that the repository uses immutable releases.
  2. In the Release view of the draft, upload all of the assets.
  3. Click Publish, and then click Publish in the Publish Immutable Release dialog.

If you click Publish Release in the New Release tab, Zide asks you to confirm, because you cannot add assets after you publish.

A release that was published before the repository used immutable releases is not immutable. When you edit it, change its pre-release setting, or promote it, GitHub makes it immutable. Zide shows a note in the Assets section and asks you to confirm in the Make Release Immutable dialog.

When you delete an immutable release, you cannot use its tag name for a different release.

Zide shows these notes and confirmations only when it knows that the repository uses immutable releases. It knows this when your account can read the repository setting, which requires administrator access, or when a recent release is immutable. If no note appears, the assets of a release can still become locked when you publish or edit it. If you are not sure, ask a repository administrator before you publish.

Verify a release

GitHub creates an attestation when it publishes an immutable release. The attestation records the tag and the SHA-256 digest of each asset. Hold the pointer over an asset name to see its digest.

To verify the release, select More actions > Verify attestation in the Release view. Zide runs GitHub CLI (gh) with the account of the project, so install a current version of GitHub CLI first. You do not have to sign in to GitHub CLI. Zide shows one of these results below the tag and badges:

  • Attestation verified: the attestation is valid, and no asset differs from it.
  • Attestation failed: the attestation is not valid, or an asset does not match it or is not in it.
  • Attestation unavailable: Zide could not verify the release, for example because GitHub CLI is not installed. The message gives the reason.

When Zide can compare the assets, an icon next to each asset shows its result. Hold the pointer over the icon to read it. Zide compares the digests that GitHub reports for the assets with the attestation. If GitHub reports no digest for an asset, the icon shows that Zide could not compare it. Zide does not check files that you download.

Verify attestation is unavailable for a draft and for a release that is not immutable. You can also ask Zide Assist to verify a release.

Draft release content with Zide

Use Generate in the Release content header to draft the title and notes together. Its label stays visible when the fields contain text. Hover or focus the button to highlight both fields. Existing drafts open a review with selectable results, and applied results offer Undo. Review the content before creating the release.

Assist with This

Right-click a release and point to Assist with This. In the Release view, you can also right-click the content header or an ordinary background area, or click More actions.

Under Zide Assist, click Add to Conversation to attach the release to a Zide Assist tab. You can also drag the release into a Zide Assist tab. For more information, see Attach items to a message.

Under Ask Zide, click Open Ask Zide. Zide opens the release in the Release view with an Ask Zide panel beside it. In the panel, click Summarize Release or Review Release Notes. Ask Zide does not edit or publish the release. See Ask Zide beside a tab.

Activity indicator

A failed release operation turns the Releases activity icon red. Drafts, published releases, and workflow failures do not change this icon. Workflow failures appear on Actions or Pipelines.

By default, failures stay red until the same operation succeeds. To clear failure indicators when you view Releases, turn off More actions > Failure indicator > Keep failure indicator after viewing. This choice applies across projects and persists across restarts. Failed-operation notices describe this app session.

The Releases panel also names retained failed operations. The notice remains until the same operation succeeds, even if you clear its activity indicator by viewing the panel. Notices belong to the current project and release source and last for this app session.