Release Process

This document describes the end-to-end process for publishing a new kcp-operator release.

Prerequisites

• Push access to the kcp-dev/kcp-operator repository.
• All desired changes merged (and cherry-picked for patch releases).

1. Bump the Default KCP Image Tag

Update the compiled-in default image tag in internal/resources/resources.go:

const (
    ImageRepository = "ghcr.io/kcp-dev/kcp"
    ImageTag        = "v0.XX.Y" // <-- update this
)

Commit and merge the change before tagging.

2. Tag the Release

Minor release (v0.X.0)

git checkout main
git tag -m "version 0.X" v0.X.0
git tag -m "SDK version 0.X" sdk/v0.X.0
git push upstream v0.X.0 sdk/v0.X.0

# Create the release branch
git checkout -B release-0.X
git push -u upstream release-0.X

Patch release (v0.X.Y)

git checkout release-0.X
git tag -m "version 0.X.Y" v0.X.Y
git tag -m "SDK version 0.X.Y" sdk/v0.X.Y
git push upstream v0.X.Y sdk/v0.X.Y

3. Publish Documentation

1. Go to the docs-gen-and-push workflow.
2. Run the workflow manually on the release branch.
3. Verify the new version appears on docs.kcp.io/kcp-operator.