### General Notes
All dates should align with VS Code's [iteration](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/labels/iteration-plan) and [endgame](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/labels/endgame-plan) plans.

Feature freeze is Monday @ 17:00 America/Vancouver, XXX XX. At that point, commits to `main` should only be in response to bugs found during endgame testing until the release candidate is ready.

<details>
  <summary>Release Primary and Secondary Assignments for the 2025 Calendar Year</summary>

| Month and version number     | Primary  | Secondary |
|------------|----------|-----------|
| January v2025.0.0   | Eleanor  | Karthik   |
| February v2025.2.0   | Anthony  | Eleanor   |
| March v2025.4.0      | Karthik  | Anthony   |
| April v2025.6.0      | Eleanor  | Karthik   |
| May v2025.8.0        | Anthony  | Eleanor   |
| June v2025.10.0      | Karthik  | Anthony   |
| July v2025.12.0      | Eleanor  | Karthik   |
| August v2025.14.0    | Anthony  | Eleanor   |
| September v2025.16.0  | Karthik  | Anthony   |
| October v2025.18.0    | Eleanor  | Karthik   |
| November v2025.20.0   | Anthony  | Eleanor   |
| December v2025.22.0   | Karthik  | Anthony   |

</details>


# Release candidate (Thursday, XXX XX)
NOTE: This Thursday occurs during TESTING week. Branching should be done during this week to freeze the release with only the correct changes. Any last minute fixes go in as candidates into the release branch and will require team approval.

Other:
NOTE: Third Party Notices are automatically added by our build pipelines using  https://tools.opensource.microsoft.com/notice.
NOTE: the number of this release is in the issue title and can be substituted in wherever you see [YYYY.minor].


### Step 1:
##### Bump the version of `main` to be a release candidate (also updating third party notices, and package-lock.json).❄️ (steps with ❄️ will dictate this step happens while main is frozen 🥶)

-   [ ] checkout to `main` on your local machine and run `git fetch` to ensure your local is up to date with the remote repo.
-   [ ] Create a new branch called  **`bump-release-[YYYY.minor]`**.
-   [ ] Update `pet`:
    -  [ ] Go to the [pet](https://github.com/microsoft/python-environment-tools) repo and check `main` and latest `release/*` branch. If there are new changes in `main` then create a branch called `release/YYYY.minor` (matching python extension release `major.minor`).
    -  [ ] Update `build\azure-pipeline.stable.yml` to point to the latest `release/YYYY.minor` for `python-environment-tools`.
-   [ ] Change the version in `package.json` to the next **even** number. (🤖)
-   [ ] Run `npm install` to make sure `package-lock.json` is up-to-date _(you should now see changes to the `package.json` and `package-lock.json` at this point which update the version number **only**)_. (🤖)
-   [ ] Update `ThirdPartyNotices-Repository.txt` as appropriate. You can check by looking at the [commit history](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/commits/main) and scrolling through to see if there's anything listed there which might have pulled in some code directly into the repository from somewhere else. If you are still unsure you can check with the team.
-   [ ] Create a PR from your branch  **`bump-release-[YYYY.minor]`** to `main`. Add the `"no change-log"` tag to the PR so it does not show up on the release notes before merging it.

NOTE: this PR will fail the test in our internal release pipeline called `VS Code (pre-release)` because the version specified in `main` is (temporarily) an invalid pre-release version. This is expected as this will be resolved below.


### Step 2: Creating your release branch ❄️
-   [ ] Create a release branch by creating a new branch called **`release/YYYY.minor`** branch from `main`. This branch is now the candidate for our release which will be the base from which we will release.

NOTE: If there are release branches that are two versions old you can delete them at this time.

### Step 3 Create a draft GitHub release for the release notes (🤖) ❄️

-   [ ] Create a new [GitHub release](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/releases/new).
-   [ ] Specify a new tag called `YYYY.minor.0`.
-   [ ] Have the `target` for the github release be your release branch called **`release/YYYY.minor`**.
-   [ ] Create the release notes by specifying the previous tag for the last stable release and click `Generate release notes`. Quickly check that it only contain notes from what is new in this release.
-   [ ] Click `Save draft`.

### Step 4: Return `main` to dev and unfreeze (❄️ ➡ 💧)
NOTE: The purpose of this step is ensuring that main always is on a dev version number for every night's 🌃 pre-release. Therefore it is imperative that you do this directly after the previous steps to reset the version in main to a dev version **before** a pre-release goes out.
-   [ ] Create a branch called **`bump-dev-version-YYYY.[minor+1]`**.
-   [ ] Bump the minor version number in the `package.json` to the next `YYYY.[minor+1]` which will be an odd number, and add `-dev`.(🤖)
-   [ ] Run `npm install` to make sure `package-lock.json` is up-to-date _(you should now see changes to the `package.json` and `package-lock.json` only relating to the new version number)_ . (🤖)
-   [ ] Create a PR from this branch against `main` and merge it.

NOTE: this PR should make all CI relating to `main` be passing again (such as the failures stemming from step 1).

### Step 5: Notifications and Checks on External Release Factors
-   [ ] Check [Component Governance](https://dev.azure.com/monacotools/Monaco/_componentGovernance/192726?_a=alerts&typeId=11825783&alerts-view-option=active) to make sure there are no active alerts.
-   [ ] Manually add/fix any 3rd-party licenses as appropriate based on what the internal build pipeline detects.
-   [ ] Open appropriate [documentation issues](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-docs/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Apython).
-   [ ] Contact the PM team to begin drafting a blog post.
-   [ ] Announce to the development team that `main` is open again.


# Release (Wednesday, XXX XX)

### Step 6: Take the release branch from a candidate to the finalized release
-   [ ] Make sure the [appropriate pull requests](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-docs/pulls) for the [documentation](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/python-tutorial) -- including the [WOW](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/python) page -- are ready.
-   [ ] Check to make sure any final updates to the **`release/YYYY.minor`** branch have been merged.

### Step 7: Execute the Release
-   [ ] Make sure CI is passing for **`release/YYYY.minor`** release branch (🤖).
-   [ ] Run the [CD](https://dev.azure.com/monacotools/Monaco/_build?definitionId=299) pipeline on the **`release/YYYY.minor`** branch.
    -   [ ] Click `run pipeline`.
	-   [ ] for `branch/tag` select the release branch which is **`release/YYYY.minor`**.
	-   NOTE: Please opt to release the python extension close to when VS Code is released to align when release notes go out. When we bump the VS Code engine number, our extension will not go out to stable until the VS Code stable release but this only occurs when we bump the engine number.
-   [ ] 🧍🧍 Get approval on the release on the [CD](https://dev.azure.com/monacotools/Monaco/_build?definitionId=299).
-   [ ] Click "approve" in the publish step of [CD](https://dev.azure.com/monacotools/Monaco/_build?definitionId=299) to publish the release to the marketplace.  🎉
-   [ ] Take the Github release out of draft.
-   [ ] Publish documentation changes.
-   [ ] Contact the PM team to publish the blog post.
-   [ ] Determine if a hotfix is needed.
-   [ ] Merge the release branch **`release/YYYY.minor`**  back into `main`. (This step is only required if changes were merged into the release branch. If the only change made on the release branch is the version, this is not necessary. Overall you need to ensure you DO NOT overwrite the version on the `main` branch.)


## Steps for Point Release (if necessary)
-   [ ] checkout to `main` on your local machine and run `git fetch` to ensure your local is up to date with the remote repo.
-   [ ] checkout to the `release/YYY.minor` and check to make sure all necessary changes for the point release have been cherry-picked into the release branch. If not, contact the owner of the changes to do so.
-   [ ] Create a branch against  **`release/YYYY.minor`** called **`release-[YYYY.minor.point]`**.
-   [ ] Bump the point version number in the `package.json` to the next `YYYY.minor.point`
-   [ ] Run `npm install` to make sure `package-lock.json` is up-to-date _(you should now see changes to the `package.json` and `package-lock.json` only relating to the new version number)_ . (🤖)
-   [ ] If Point Release is due to an issue in `pet`. Update `build\azure-pipeline.stable.yml` to point to the branch `release/YYYY.minor` for `python-environment-tools` with the fix or decided by the team.
-   [ ] Create a PR from this branch against `release/YYYY.minor`
-   [ ]  **Rebase** and merge this PR into the release branch
-   [ ] Create a draft GitHub release for the release notes (🤖) ❄️
    -   [ ] Create a new [GitHub release](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/releases/new).
    -   [ ] Specify a new tag called `vYYYY.minor.point`.
    -   [ ] Have the `target` for the github release be your release branch called **`release/YYYY.minor`**.
    -   [ ] Create the release notes by specifying the previous tag as the previous version of stable, so the minor release **`vYYYY.minor`** for the last stable release and click `Generate release notes`.
    -   [ ] Check the generated notes to ensure that all PRs for the point release are included so users know these new changes.
    -   [ ] Click `Save draft`.
-   [ ] Publish the point release
    -   [ ] Make sure CI is passing for **`release/YYYY.minor`** release branch (🤖).
    -   [ ] Run the [CD](https://dev.azure.com/monacotools/Monaco/_build?definitionId=299) pipeline on the **`release/YYYY.minor`** branch.
    -   [ ] Click `run pipeline`.
    -   [ ] for `branch/tag` select the release branch which is **`release/YYYY.minor`**.
    -   [ ] 🧍🧍 Get approval on the release on the [CD](https://dev.azure.com/monacotools/Monaco/_build?definitionId=299) and publish the release to the marketplace.  🎉
    -   [ ] Take the Github release out of draft.

## Steps for contributing to a point release
-   [ ] Work with team to decide if point release is necessary
-   [ ] Work with team or users to verify the fix is correct and solves the problem without creating any new ones
-   [ ] Create PR/PRs and merge then each into main as usual
-   [ ] Make sure to still mark if the change is "bug" or "no-changelog"
-   [ ] Cherry-pick all PRs to the release branch and check that the changes are in before the package is bumped
-   [ ] Notify the release champ that your changes are in so they can trigger a point-release


## Prep for the _next_ release

-   [ ] Create a new [release plan](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/vscode-python/main/.github/release_plan.md). (🤖)
-   [ ] [(Un-)pin](https://help.github.com/en/articles/pinning-an-issue-to-your-repository) [release plan issues](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/labels/release-plan) (🤖)
