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How to release a new version

IMPORTANT: Do not push release tags manually. The entire release process is automated via GitHub Actions.

Plugin Validator

Use the "Bump Version and release" workflow:

  1. Click "Run workflow"
  2. Keep branch: main
  3. Select the semver type: patch, minor, or major
  4. Click "Run workflow"

Which semver type to choose?

  • patch -- bug fixes, dependency updates, documentation changes
  • minor -- new features (e.g. adding a new validator)
  • major -- breaking changes to the CLI interface, output format, or public API

What happens after the workflow runs?

The workflow bumps the version in package.json, commits to main, and pushes a v* tag. The tag push automatically triggers the "Create release and publish" workflow, which:

  1. Builds binaries via GoReleaser (Linux, Windows, Darwin) and creates a GitHub Release
  2. Publishes to npm (@grafana/plugin-validator)
  3. Pushes a Docker image to grafana/plugin-validator-cli (tagged with the version and latest)

MCP Server

The MCP server has its own, independent release track. Use the "Release MCP Server" workflow:

  1. Click "Run workflow"
  2. Keep branch: main
  3. Select the semver type: patch, minor, or major
  4. Click "Run workflow"

This bumps the version in mcp-package/package.json, commits to main, and pushes a mcp/v* tag. The tag push automatically triggers the "Create MCP release and publish" workflow, which:

  1. Builds binaries via GoReleaser (Linux, Windows, Darwin -- both amd64 and arm64) and creates a GitHub Release
  2. Publishes to npm (@grafana/plugin-validator-mcp)

Permissions

Note

For security purposes, external contributors don't usually have permissions to create new releases.

GitHub or NPM tokens expiration

GitHub and NPM tokens are required to auto-publish. These tokens eventually expire. If there's an error pushing tags to GitHub or updates to npm, review the token expiration. See the secrets usage table for details on which secrets are used and who owns them.