fix(release): keep the release branch on latest, drop the temp branch

Co-authored-by: Ayo <ayo@ayco.io>
Reviewed-on: https://git.ayo.run/ayo/wcb/pulls/37
Co-authored-by: ayobot <agent@ayo.run>
Co-committed-by: ayobot <agent@ayo.run>
Signed-off-by: Ayo <ayo@ayco.io>

Author: ayob0t

.gitignore

@@ -20,10 +20,10 @@ coverage
 # storybook (all generated: `pnpm -F storybook analyze` / `build`)
 storybook/storybook-static
 
-# VS Code HTML custom data, emitted to the repo root by the same analyze run
-# so `html.customData` in .vscode/settings.json can resolve it
+# pre-v7 artifacts
+storybook/custom-elements.json
 vscode.html-custom-data.json
 vscode.css-custom-data.json
 
-# `cem analyze` outputs using `wcb` plugins
+# v7 collected artifacts
 .wcb

scripts/release.js

@@ -1,20 +1,32 @@
-// forked from https://github.com/elk-zone/elk/blob/main/scripts/release.ts
+// Forked from https://github.com/elk-zone/elk/blob/main/scripts/release.ts
 //
-// Runs after `bumpp` in `pnpm release`. It force-syncs `gh/release` to the
-// commit being released and pushes the tag `bumpp` just made — the tag push is
-// what triggers .github/workflows/release.yml, which is what actually publishes
-// to npm.
+// Runs after `bumpp` in `pnpm release`. It pushes the tag `bumpp` just made —
+// that tag push is what triggers .github/workflows/release.yml, which is what
+// actually publishes to npm — and force-syncs the `release` branch to whatever
+// is now on npm's `latest`.
 //
-// Two rules here follow from `main` tracking the next major while the current
-// major ships from its own maintenance line:
+// `release` means "the commit behind the current `latest`". Netlify builds from
+// it, so it must never point at anything a consumer of `npm i
+// web-component-base` would not get.
+//
+// Three rules follow from that, plus `main` tracking the next major while the
+// current major ships from its own maintenance line:
 //
 //   1. It mirrors HEAD, not `main`. Cutting a v6 patch from the `v6` branch
-//      used to force-push v7's `main` onto `gh/release`, and then leave you
+//      used to force-push v7's `main` onto `release`, and then leave you
 //      checked out on `main` rather than the branch you released from.
-//   2. It refuses to release a stable version from `main`, because the publish
+//   2. It only mirrors when this release actually takes `latest`. A prerelease
+//      publishes to `beta`/`rc`/…, so `latest` is unchanged and `release` must
+//      stay where it is.
+//   3. It refuses to release a stable version from `main`, because the publish
 //      workflow derives the dist-tag from the version alone: anything without a
 //      prerelease suffix goes to `latest`, in front of every
 //      `npm i web-component-base` user.
+//
+// The push is a plain refspec rather than a local `release` branch on purpose:
+// a temp branch by that name collides with any `release/*` branch (git cannot
+// have both a ref and a directory at `refs/heads/release`), and a failed
+// checkout leaves the working tree swapped to the old release commit.
 import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
 import { simpleGit } from 'simple-git'
 
@@ -75,28 +87,16 @@ console.log(
   `Releasing ${version} from ${branch} (${hash}) to dist-tag '${distTag}'`
 )
 
-console.log(`Fetch remote ${remote} repo`)
-await git.fetch(remote)
-
-console.log(`Checkout ${releaseBranch} branch`)
-await git.checkout([
-  '-b',
-  releaseBranch,
-  '--track',
-  `${remote}/${releaseBranch}`,
-])
-
-console.log(`Reset to ${branch} (${hash})`)
-await git.reset(['--hard', hash])
-
-console.log(`Push to ${releaseBranch} branch`)
-await git.push(['--force', remote])
-
-console.log(`Checkout ${branch} branch`)
-await git.checkout(branch)
-
-console.log(`Deleting local ${releaseBranch} branch`)
-await git.branch(['-D', releaseBranch])
+// `release` tracks `latest`, so a prerelease must leave it alone — it is still
+// describing the last stable release, which is what consumers are installing.
+if (distTag === 'latest') {
+  console.log(`Push ${branch} (${hash}) to ${releaseBranch} branch`)
+  await git.push([remote, `HEAD:refs/heads/${releaseBranch}`, '--force'])
+} else {
+  console.log(
+    `Leaving ${releaseBranch} alone: ${version} publishes to '${distTag}', not 'latest'`
+  )
+}
 
 // TODO: handle multiple remotes with a data structure
 console.log('Push tags')