Tutorial: Preview the next release¶
This tutorial shows what the current release configuration would do, without pushing, tagging, creating a GitHub Release, or publishing a crate.
Before you start¶
Use a bob-cli checkout with Git, just, Cargo, and release-plz 0.3.173 installed. The preview needs network access to clone origin/master and inspect the guard's live release data. It does not use uncommitted changes in your checkout.
1. Preview release-plz's changes¶
just release-preview
It clones origin/master into a temporary directory and runs release-plz update there. Read the reported next version, the diff summary, and any new CHANGELOG section. If release-plz makes no changes, there is no user-visible release commit to ship.
2. Check the package¶
Run the same package check used by CI:
just package-check
Confirm that the package is named bob-obsidian, the required license notices are present, and the reported archive size is below the failure threshold.
3. Read the guard verdict¶
The release-preview output ends with the guard's explain-only result. Read its mode, release date, and verdict. A missing RELEASES_PAUSED variable is reported as unarmed; the train remains paused until the repository variable is exactly false. Explain-only mode reports missing GitHub access as context instead of failing the preview.
You have now seen whether release-plz would make a release, what it would change, and whether the daily guard would allow the next scheduled run. Continue with How the release train works or look up the release train reference.