ci: retry publishing the dev prerelease before giving up

.github/workflows/dev-release.yml

@@ -65,16 +65,22 @@ jobs:
           fi
 
           # The dev tag has to move to the new commit. Editing a published release does not move its
-          # tag, so the release and its tag are deleted and recreated. This leaves a window of a few
-          # seconds with no dev release; a client that fetches during it sees "no experimental build
-          # published" and succeeds on the next attempt.
-          gh release delete dev --yes --cleanup-tag || true
-
-          gh release create dev \
-            --prerelease \
-            --target "$GITHUB_SHA" \
-            --title "Development build" \
-            --notes "Automated build of \`main\` at ${GITHUB_SHA}.
+          # tag, so the release and its tag are deleted and recreated. That leaves a window with no
+          # dev release, and a transient API failure inside it would strand the repository there
+          # until someone noticed by hand — which has happened. Each attempt therefore starts from a
+          # clean slate, so a half-finished attempt cannot wedge the next one.
+          published=
+          for attempt in 1 2 3; do
+            if [ -n "${attempt_delay:-}" ]; then sleep "$attempt_delay"; fi
+            attempt_delay=$((attempt * 15))
+
+            gh release delete dev --yes --cleanup-tag || true
+
+            if gh release create dev \
+              --prerelease \
+              --target "$GITHUB_SHA" \
+              --title "Development build" \
+              --notes "Automated build of \`main\` at ${GITHUB_SHA}.
 
           **This is not a release.** It is unreleased, unreviewed code that has not been through any
           release check, and a broken build can stop a server from starting. Do not run it on a server
@@ -87,4 +93,15 @@ jobs:
           \`\`\`
 
           Return to published releases with \`/dpm get playerlore --stable\`." \
-            "${jars[0]}"
+              "${jars[0]}"; then
+              published=1
+              break
+            fi
+
+            echo "Publishing the dev prerelease failed (attempt $attempt of 3)." >&2
+          done
+
+          if [ -z "$published" ]; then
+            echo "Could not publish the dev prerelease after 3 attempts. The dev release may be missing until this workflow is re-run." >&2
+            exit 1
+          fi

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+
+- The `Dev Release` workflow now retries publishing the `dev` prerelease before giving up. The release and its tag have to be deleted and recreated for the tag to move to the new commit, and a transient API failure inside that window previously left the repository with no `dev` release at all until the workflow was re-run by hand. Each attempt now starts from a clean slate, and an exhausted retry fails loudly.
+
 ### Added
 
 - A `Dev Release` workflow, which republishes a rolling `dev` prerelease of `main` on every non-documentation push. This is what Dan's Plugin Manager's experimental channel installs from: `/dpm get playerlore --experimental` reads `releases/tags/dev`, so without it there is nothing for that command to download. The prerelease is unreleased, unreviewed code and is marked as such.