update and automate release notes

[aslam-quad]

Draft Release Notes

Automatically creates a draft GitHub Release with generated release notes when the RC → main or hotfix → main pull request is ready for review.

Publish Release Notes

Automatically creates the release tag and publishes the GitHub Release with generated release notes when the release-candidate-* or hotfix-* PR is merged into the main.

Updated release-candidate branch naming:

Changed the release-candidate branch from a fixed name (release-candidate) to a versioned format (release-candidate-vX.Y.Z). This allows each release to have its own dedicated release branch and enables the draft and publish release workflows to identify the release version directly from the branch name.

Submission Checklist

NOTE: Community submissions can take up to 2 weeks to be reviewed.

Please take the following actions before submitting this pull request.

• Fork your PR branch from the Toolkit "develop" branch (not main)
• Test all changes with pre-commit in a local branch #
• Confirm that "make tests" passes all tests
• Add or modify unit tests to cover code changes
• Ensure that unit test coverage remains above 80%
• Update all applicable documentation
• Follow Cluster Toolkit Contribution guidelines #

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request introduces automation for the release management lifecycle, specifically targeting the creation and publication of GitHub releases. By standardizing branch naming conventions for release candidates and hotfixes, the system can now automatically detect release versions and streamline the deployment process.

Highlights

• Release Automation: Implemented automated workflows to create draft GitHub releases on pull requests and publish them upon merging to the main branch.
• Branch Naming Conventions: Updated release-candidate and hotfix branch naming patterns to use a versioned format, enabling better identification for automation scripts.

Ignored Files

• Ignored by pattern: .github/workflows/** (4)
  • .github/workflows/draft-release-notes.yml
  • .github/workflows/pr-label-validation.yml
  • .github/workflows/pr-precommit.yml
  • .github/workflows/publish-release-notes.yml

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request updates release and hotfix branch naming conventions, changing the release candidate branch to include the version tag and updating the hotfix branch prefix from 'hotfix-' to 'hotfix/'. Feedback suggests renaming the release candidate branch prefix to 'release-candidates/' to avoid Git Directory/File conflicts with existing branches, and simplifying the bash regex prefix check in the hotfix script to a standard glob match for better portability.

[aslam-quad]

/gemini review

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request updates the tools/create-release-candidate.sh script to append the new release tag to the release candidate branch name (RC_BRANCH), changing it from a static release-candidate to a dynamic release-candidate-${NEW_TAG}. There are no review comments, and I have no additional feedback to provide.