Document release process in CONTRIBUTING

Signed-off-by: Marvin Froeder <velo.br@gmail.com>

Author: velo

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -75,3 +75,62 @@ docs/
 2. Make your changes and add tests where appropriate.
 3. Run `./mvnw -Pdev verify` to make sure tests pass.
 4. Open a pull request against `master`.
+
+## Releasing
+
+Releases are cut with the `scripts/release.sh` helper. **Never create a release
+tag by hand** — manual tagging is how a release ends up pointing at a
+`-SNAPSHOT` pom, which CircleCI happily builds while `central-publishing`
+silently skips the upload (a green build that publishes nothing to Maven
+Central).
+
+### Prerequisites
+
+- A clean working tree on the branch you are releasing (usually `master`).
+- The pom version is the `-SNAPSHOT` you intend to release. The release version
+  is derived by stripping `-SNAPSHOT`, so set it deliberately beforehand:
+  - `7.3-SNAPSHOT` → releases `7.3`
+  - `7.3.0-SNAPSHOT` → releases `7.3.0`
+
+### Cut the release
+
+```bash
+./scripts/release.sh
+```
+
+The script:
+
+1. Reads `project.version` and strips `-SNAPSHOT` to get the release version.
+2. Runs `versions:set -DremoveSnapshot` across all modules and commits
+   `prepare release <version>`, then tags that commit.
+3. Bumps the poms to the next development iteration (`<next>-SNAPSHOT`) and
+   commits `[ci skip] updating versions to next development iteration`.
+
+Because the version bump happens *before* the tag, the tag always points at a
+non-SNAPSHOT pom.
+
+### Push
+
+The script keeps the changes local (`-DpushChanges=false`). Review, then push —
+**pushing the tag is what triggers the release**:
+
+```bash
+git log --oneline -3      # confirm the two commits and the new tag
+git push origin master    # the prepare-release + next-snapshot commits
+git push origin <tag>      # e.g. git push origin 7.3 — triggers deployRelease on CircleCI
+```
+
+### Verify it actually published
+
+A green CircleCI job is not proof — confirm all three:
+
+```bash
+# 1. The tagged commit must NOT be a snapshot
+git show <tag>:pom.xml | grep -m1 '<version>'   # must not contain -SNAPSHOT
+
+# 2. Watch the release workflow to green
+#    https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/gh/OpenFeign/querydsl
+
+# 3. Confirm artifacts landed (allow a few minutes for indexing)
+#    https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/io.github.openfeign.querydsl/querydsl-core
+```