Verify Release

Verify Release

Use this when asked whether an OpenClaw release is fully released, published, promoted, smoke-tested, or live-verified. This is a verification skill, not a publish skill; use $release-openclaw-maintainer before changing release state.

Rules

• Resolve short suffixes like .27 to the concrete CalVer version from the

current date/context, then say the resolved version.

• Verify live state. Do not trust local checkout state, release notes, or old

memory as current truth.

• If the checkout is dirty or divergent, use it only for scripts/reference.

For version metadata, fetch from GitHub release/tag or unpack the tag tarball under /tmp.

• Never print secrets. Use inherited live keys only for scoped smoke commands.
• Keep the final terse: yes/no, evidence bullets, caveats, cleanup.

Core Checks

1. GitHub release:

• gh release view v<VERSION> --repo openclaw/openclaw --json tagName,name,publishedAt,isDraft,isPrerelease,targetCommitish,url,body,assets
• Confirm stable releases are not draft/prerelease.
• Confirm release body has npm, CI, plugin npm, ClawHub, mac/appcast evidence

links when expected.

• Confirm assets expected for stable mac releases are uploaded: zip, dmg,

dSYM, dependency evidence, immutable full-validation manifest, postpublish evidence, and stable-main closeout manifest.

• Download each immutable evidence asset and its .sha256 companion, then

verify the checksum before trusting the release record. 2. Root npm:

• npm view openclaw@<VERSION> version dist-tags.latest dist.tarball dist.integrity time.<VERSION> --json
• latest must equal <VERSION> for stable.
• Record tarball, integrity, publish time.
• Confirm the release postpublish evidence records

npmRegistrySignaturesVerified: true and npmProvenanceAttestationMatched: true. 3. Plugin publish set:

• Get exact tag metadata from GitHub, not the local checkout when dirty:

download https://api.github.com/repos/openclaw/openclaw/tarball/v<VERSION> into /tmp/openclaw-v<VERSION>-src.

• Count extensions/*/package.json with

openclaw.release.publishToNpm === true and openclaw.release.publishToClawHub === true.

• Compare expected counts to workflow job counts:

gh api repos/openclaw/openclaw/actions/runs/<RUN>/jobs --paginate.

• Each expected npm plugin must have version <VERSION> and

dist-tags.latest === <VERSION>. 4. ClawHub:

• Check the Plugin ClawHub Release workflow conclusion and publish job count.
• Use OpenClaw itself for live registry proof:

openclaw plugins search <known-plugin> --json.

• Install one official plugin from ClawHub in an isolated HOME:

openclaw plugins install clawhub:@openclaw/matrix --pin. Prefer matrix unless that plugin is not in the expected set. 5. Release workflows:

• Verify conclusions for release notes evidence links:

Full Release Validation, OpenClaw Release Checks, OpenClaw NPM Release, Plugin NPM Release, Plugin ClawHub Release, mac preflight/validation/publish when stable mac assets are expected.

• For stable, verify OpenClaw Stable Main Closeout succeeded and its

manifest records the matching release tag, current rollback drill, stable soak, and blocking performance evidence.

• Summarize only relevant successful/failed jobs; ignore routine skipped

optional lanes unless the release body promised them. 6. Published package smoke:

• In /tmp, isolated HOME:

npm exec --yes --package openclaw@<VERSION> -- openclaw --version.

• Run at least one harmless command that touches the published CLI surface,

for example plugins --help or gateway --help. 7. Dev Gateway live model smoke:

• Use temp HOME/workspace, not the user's normal state:

HOME=/tmp/openclaw-release-smoke/home OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE=/tmp/openclaw-release-smoke/work pnpm openclaw --dev gateway run --auth none --force --verbose.

• Health check via CLI: openclaw --dev gateway health --json.
• Run one Gateway-backed agent turn with inherited OPENAI_API_KEY, short

prompt, explicit session key, JSON output, and a known-available model.

• If the configured default model fails as unavailable, record that caveat

and retry with the newest known-good OpenAI model instead of declaring the release failed.

• Stop the gateway and verify the port is not listening.

Caveats To Report

• Dist-tag caveat: stable latest is release truth; if optional beta mirrors

still point at a beta version, report it as a caveat, not a stable-release blocker, unless the user asked to verify beta promotion.

• Divergent checkout caveat: say when local source SHA differs from release tag

or origin and which live sources were used instead.

• Smoke caveat: distinguish Gateway-backed agent success from local embedded

fallback. A valid Gateway smoke has health OK plus gateway log/run id for the agent call.