# Release Management

COSEDA uses two Homebrew tracks:

- `coseda`: stable releases from version tags.
- `coseda-nightly`: beta builds from the development branch.

## Branches

Use feature branches for ordinary work. Merge tested changes into `develop` when they are ready for beta testing. Merge `develop` into `main` only when the current state is ready to become the next stable release.

Recommended flow:

```bash
git switch main
git pull
git switch -c feature/my-change
```

After review and testing, merge the feature branch into `develop`. Nightly Homebrew builds are published from scheduled or manual GitLab pipelines on `develop`.

When a stable release is ready:

```bash
git switch main
git merge --ff-only develop
git tag 0.9.8
git push origin main 0.9.8
```

The tag pipeline updates the stable `coseda` Homebrew formula. Do not tag a commit unless it should become the user-facing stable version.

## Homebrew

The stable formula is updated by the existing tag pipeline.

The nightly formula is updated by the `bump-homebrew-nightly-tap` CI job. It creates or updates `Formula/coseda-nightly.rb` in the Homebrew tap using the exact Git commit archive from the `develop` pipeline.

Set up a GitLab scheduled pipeline on the `develop` branch to publish nightly builds automatically. A manual web pipeline on `develop` can also run the nightly job.

The stable and nightly formulas intentionally conflict because both install the `coseda` command and app bundle. Users should switch tracks with:

```bash
brew uninstall coseda
brew install coseda-nightly
```

or:

```bash
brew uninstall coseda-nightly
brew install coseda
```