Publish chart and docker image for rc.0 tags (#8658)

Signed-off-by: jukie <10012479+jukie@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: jukie

.github/workflows/release.yaml

@@ -8,9 +8,6 @@ on:
     # Sequence of patterns matched against refs/tags
     tags:
       - "v*.*.*"
-      # Exclude rc.0 tags — they’re not real release candidates but markers for main
-      # See: https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/issues/7248
-      - "!v*.*.*-rc.0"
 
 
 jobs:
@@ -52,8 +49,11 @@ jobs:
 
   # For push event, we run benchmark test here because we need to
   # include benchmark report in the release.
+  # rc.0 tags are branch markers, not real releases — skip the benchmark
+  # so we can still publish the Docker image and Helm chart without a full release run.
   benchmark-test:
     needs: [verify-build-and-test]
+    if: ${{ !contains(github.ref, '-rc.0') }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@8e8c483db84b4bee98b60c0593521ed34d9990e8  # v6.0.1
@@ -85,7 +85,11 @@ jobs:
 
   release:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    needs: [benchmark-test]
+    needs: [verify-build-and-test, benchmark-test]
+    # always() prevents GitHub from auto-skipping this job when benchmark-test is skipped (rc.0).
+    # We explicitly require verify-build-and-test to succeed, and allow benchmark-test to be
+    # either successful (normal release) or skipped (rc.0).
+    if: ${{ always() && needs.verify-build-and-test.result == 'success' && (needs.benchmark-test.result == 'success' || needs.benchmark-test.result == 'skipped') }}
     permissions:
       contents: write
     steps:
@@ -121,7 +125,10 @@ jobs:
           IMAGE_PULL_POLICY=IfNotPresent OCI_REGISTRY=oci://docker.io/envoyproxy CHART_VERSION=${{ env.release_tag }} IMAGE=docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway TAG=${{ env.release_tag }} make helm-package helm-push
           IMAGE_PULL_POLICY=IfNotPresent OCI_REGISTRY=oci://docker.io/envoyproxy CHART_VERSION=${{ env.without_v_release_tag }} IMAGE=docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway TAG=${{ env.release_tag }} make helm-package helm-push
 
+      # The following steps (benchmark report + GitHub release) are skipped for rc.0 tags.
+      # Docker image and Helm chart (above) still publish for all tags including rc.0.
       - name: Download Benchmark Report
+        if: ${{ !contains(github.ref, '-rc.0') }}
         uses: actions/download-artifact@3e5f45b2cfb9172054b4087a40e8e0b5a5461e7c  # v8.0.1
         with:
           name: benchmark_report
@@ -130,6 +137,7 @@ jobs:
       # Make the JSON report be part of the release, so it would be easy to integrate with
       # Performance Benchmark Report Explorer
       - name: Unzip Benchmark Report
+        if: ${{ !contains(github.ref, '-rc.0') }}
         run: |
           cd release-artifacts && unzip benchmark_report.zip
 
@@ -146,6 +154,7 @@ jobs:
           zip -r egctl_${{ env.release_tag }}_windows_amd64.zip bin/windows/amd64/egctl
 
       - name: Upload Release Manifests
+        if: ${{ !contains(github.ref, '-rc.0') }}
         uses: softprops/action-gh-release@153bb8e04406b158c6c84fc1615b65b24149a1fe  # v2.6.1
         with:
           files: |