Release Pipeline

This document describes openclaw's staged release pipeline for contributors and maintainers.

Branch Strategy

dev/* ──────► develop ──────► alpha ──────► beta ──────► main
feature/*         │              │            │            │
fix/*             │              │            │            │
                  ▼              ▼            ▼            ▼
              Internal       Alpha         Beta        Stable
              testing      testers       testers      release

Branch Purposes

Branch	Purpose	npm tag	Who uses it
`dev/`, `feature/`, `fix/*`	Active development	-	Contributors
`develop`	Integration branch	-	CI validation
`alpha`	Early testing	`@alpha`	Internal testers
`beta`	Pre-release testing	`@beta`	Beta testers
`main`	Production releases	`@latest`	Everyone

Workflow Overview

1. Feature Development

Create a branch: git checkout -b dev/my-feature
Make changes and push
Auto-PR created to develop via feature-pr.yml
Get review, iterate, merge to develop

2. Promotion Through Stages

When code lands in develop, the promote-branch.yml workflow:

Runs tests appropriate for that stage
Creates a PR to the next branch (develop → alpha → beta → main)
Auto-merges develop → alpha if tests pass
Requires manual approval for alpha → beta and beta → main

3. Releases

Releases are triggered manually via the Release workflow:

Go to Actions → Release → Run workflow
Select release type: alpha, beta, or stable
Workflow runs: version bump → changelog → tests → npm publish → Docker push

Test Coverage by Stage

Stage	Tests Run
develop	tsgo, lint, format, protocol, unit tests (Node + Bun)
alpha	+ secrets scan
beta	+ Windows tests
stable	+ macOS tests, install smoke tests

Emergency Hotfixes

For critical production issues:

Create branch: git checkout -b hotfix/critical-bug
Push → Auto-PR created directly to main
Get expedited review (skip staging)
After merge, cherry-pick to develop, alpha, beta to sync

# After hotfix merges to main
git checkout develop && git cherry-pick <commit-sha> && git push
git checkout alpha && git cherry-pick <commit-sha> && git push
git checkout beta && git cherry-pick <commit-sha> && git push

npm Installation by Channel

# Stable (default)
npm install -g openclaw

# Beta testing
npm install -g openclaw@beta

# Alpha testing (bleeding edge)
npm install -g openclaw@alpha

Docker Images

Images are published to GitHub Container Registry:

# Stable
docker pull ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:latest

# Beta
docker pull ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:beta

# Specific version
docker pull ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:2026.2.6

Version Format

Stable: YYYY.M.D (e.g., 2026.2.6)
Beta: YYYY.M.D-beta.N (e.g., 2026.2.6-beta.1)
Alpha: YYYY.M.D-alpha.N (e.g., 2026.2.6-alpha.3)

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