release-checklist.md

Release Checklist

Use this checklist before tagging a LAC release. The format and API are still experimental, so release review should make compatibility and known risks explicit.

Pre-Release

• Confirm the release commit is on main.
• Confirm GitHub Actions CI is green for the release commit.
• Run the local Debug test suite.
• Run the local Release build.
• Run ./build/lac_cli selftest.
• Review open correctness, security, fuzzing, and release-readiness issues.

Version Metadata

• Confirm README.md lists the intended current release.
• Confirm CMakeLists.txt uses the intended project version.
• Confirm public version headers match the release version once the public API is populated.
• Confirm CHANGELOG.md has release notes for the version being tagged.
• Confirm the Git tag matches the documented release version.

Format And API

• Confirm any .lac bitstream behavior changes are documented in docs/format.md.
• Confirm unsupported WAV/PCM behavior is documented.
• Confirm public API changes are documented or explicitly marked experimental.
• Confirm compatibility-breaking changes are called out in release notes.

Security And Hardening

• Review parser, decoder, and CLI hardening issues fixed in the release.
• Confirm security-sensitive fixes do not expose private crash inputs or exploit details.
• Confirm malformed-input regression tests were added for fixed decoder/parser bugs where practical.
• Confirm known unresolved risk areas are tracked in public issues or private advisories as appropriate.

Release Notes

Release notes should include:

• user-visible codec or CLI changes
• format or compatibility changes
• correctness fixes
• security or hardening fixes
• test, fuzzing, and CI improvements
• known limitations

After Tagging

• Verify the GitHub release points to the intended commit.
• Verify the release page links to relevant documentation.
• Open follow-up issues for deferred release-readiness work.