MCP Server & Plugin Release Preparation

Prepare an MCP server and plugin release by updating version numbers across all required files and generating a changelog entry. The MCP server version advances independently of the qsv binary version.

Arguments

• version (required): The new MCP server version number (e.g., "16.2.0")
• minimum_qsv_version (optional): New minimum qsv binary version, if changing

All paths below are relative to .claude/skills/.

Version Bump Checklist

Core (must always update)

1. package.json: find "version": field — source of truth; version.ts reads this at runtime
2. manifest.json: find "version": field near top — must match package.json
3. .claude-plugin/plugin.json: find "version": field
4. ../../.claude-plugin/marketplace.json (repo root): find "version": in both metadata and plugins[0] — must match package.json
5. agents/data-analyst.md: version: in YAML frontmatter
6. agents/data-wrangler.md: version: in YAML frontmatter
7. agents/policy-analyst.md: version: in YAML frontmatter

After bumping package.json, run npm install --package-lock-only to sync package-lock.json.

Conditional (only if minimum qsv binary version changes)

8. src/config.ts: find MINIMUM_QSV_VERSION constant — primary runtime enforcement point
9. manifest.json: find "minimum_qsv_version": field — must match config.ts
10. scripts/cowork-setup.cjs: find MINIMUM_QSV_VERSION constant — must match config.ts and manifest.json

Documentation (hardcoded versions to update)

11. README-MCP.md: search for **Version**: X.Y.Z near the bottom
12. docs/desktop/README-MCPB.md: search for download URLs and version badge (multiple occurrences)
13. docs/guides/START_HERE.md: check for any hardcoded version references

Command count verification

Verify the skill-based command count matches actual files:

ls qsv/qsv-*.json | wc -l

Then check descriptions in these files for stale counts:

• .claude-plugin/plugin.json description
• ../../.claude-plugin/marketplace.json — both metadata.description and plugins[0].description
• cowork-CLAUDE.md — Tool Discovery section
• skills/csv-wrangling/SKILL.md — Tool Discovery section
• manifest.json — _meta.com.dathere.qsv.features array

Changelog Entry

Add a new section at the top of CHANGELOG.md (in .claude/skills/) following this format:

## [X.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Added
- (new features)

### Changed
- (changes to existing features)

### Fixed
- (bug fixes)

Find the last qsv release tag and use it to populate the changelog:

# Find the most recent qsv release tag
LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --match '[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*' --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")

# List relevant commits since that tag (or all commits from repo root if no tag exists)
git log --oneline --no-merges --grep="(mcp)" "${LAST_TAG:-$(git rev-list --max-parents=0 HEAD)}"..HEAD

Only commits with (mcp) or (plugin) in the title are relevant to MCP server releases.

Verification Steps

After version bumps:

1. npm run build — TypeScript compilation succeeds
2. npm test — all tests pass
3. npm run mcpb:package — generates qsv-mcp-server-X.Y.Z.mcpb
4. npm run plugin:package — generates qsv-data-wrangling-X.Y.Z.plugin

Cowork Plugin

The Cowork plugin (.plugin file) is a separate distribution artifact from the Desktop Extension (.mcpb). It provides the workflow layer (skills, agents, hooks) without the MCP server itself.

Plugin components (all relative to .claude/skills/)

• .claude-plugin/plugin.json — plugin manifest (version already bumped in Core step 3)
• scripts/cowork-setup.cjs — SessionStart hook that deploys cowork-CLAUDE.md to the working directory and validates the qsv binary
• cowork-CLAUDE.md — workflow template deployed by the hook
• skills/ — 15 SKILL.md files: 9 user-invocable (csv-query, data-clean, data-convert, data-describe, data-join, data-profile, data-validate, data-viz, infer-ontology) + 6 model-invoked (bls-query, csv-wrangling, data-quality, genai-disclaimer, qsv-performance, reproducible-analysis)
• agents/ — subagents (data-analyst, data-wrangler, policy-analyst)

Plugin-specific review

When preparing a release, also review:

• cowork-CLAUDE.md: check that tool names, workflow steps, and limits are still accurate
• scripts/cowork-setup.cjs: if minimum_qsv_version changed, update the MINIMUM_QSV_VERSION constant (listed in Conditional step 10)
• skills/, agents/: check for any hardcoded version references or stale tool names

Important Notes

• MCP server version advances independently of qsv binary version
• minimum_qsv_version tracks binary compatibility, not server version — enforced in 3 places: src/config.ts, manifest.json, and scripts/cowork-setup.cjs (all must stay in sync)
• Skill JSON files (qsv/*.json) are auto-generated by the qsv binary (qsv --update-mcp-skills), not by this skill — only bump those via /release-prep
• version.ts reads version from package.json at runtime — no need to edit version.ts directly
• The .plugin package reads its version from package.json (same source of truth as the .mcpb)