Engine Release Checklist (detailed)

This checklist ensures a safe, repeatable release for a Rails engine gem.

• Confirm that assets/release_checklist.md was loaded and applied to release quality gates
• Update version constant (lib//version.rb) and commit on a release branch
• Update CHANGELOG.md with user-facing changes (Keep entries short and factual)
• Run full test suite for the engine and host integration (dummy app)
• Run tessl tile lint locally to catch packaging issues
• Verify dummy app boots and mounts the engine
• Ensure migrations are namespaced and reversible; run migration smoke tests in dummy app
• Build gem locally: bundle exec rake build and test gem install into a sandboxed project
• Validate gemspec: required metadata, licenses, files included/excluded
• Inspect packaged files before publishing: tar tf <engine>-<version>.gem for local .gem archives (gem contents is for installed gems by name)
• Dry-run push before publishing: gem push --dry-run <engine>-<version>.gem
• Run any packaging CI checks (e.g., RubyGems credentials, signing)
• Draft GitHub release notes from assets/release_notes_template.md
• Tag release (annotated tag) and push tag to repo
• Publish gem to Rubygems or private registry; verify package appears
• Update README with installation/mount instructions and initializer notes
• Close release PR and merge back to main; ensure changelog and version are correct

Notes: prefer semantic versioning. For breaking changes, follow Major version bump and document migration notes in CHANGELOG.