rc-manager

What This Skill Does

The rc-manager skill is an essential tool for engineering teams and developers who need to formalize their release lifecycle. It provides a standardized framework for handling pre-release versions, including alpha, beta, and release candidate (RC) tagging. By enforcing the semantic versioning convention (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH-PRERELEASE.ITERATION), the tool ensures that version history remains clear and immutable. The skill automates the tracking of the software lifecycle, moving from early alpha development where features and APIs are volatile, through the feature-complete beta stage, and finally into the strictly controlled RC stage where only critical bug fixes are permitted before final production deployment. This ensures that every deployment is traceable, validated, and follows the agreed-upon stability criteria.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your environment, run the following command in your terminal within the OpenClaw interface: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/anton-abyzov/sw-rc-manager Ensure that you have sufficient permissions in your repository to create tags and manage release workflows, as this tool interacts directly with versioning systems.

Use Cases

This skill is perfect for teams practicing Continuous Deployment (CD) who need to gate their production releases with manual or automated validation steps. It is ideal for open-source project maintainers managing public alpha/beta testing, enterprise software teams deploying to staging environments, or any scenario where production stability is paramount. Use this tool when you need to prevent "version fatigue" or accidental production pushes of unfinished code.

Example Prompts

1. "rc-manager: Initialize a new alpha release for version 1.2.0 and update the status to reflect that we are in early API exploration."
2. "rc-manager: We've patched the critical bug reported in our staging environment; please increment the tag from v2.0.0-rc.1 to v2.0.0-rc.2 and document the change."
3. "rc-manager: Check if v1.5.0-beta.2 meets the exit criteria for promotion to RC. Provide a summary of the current versioning state and identify if any blockers remain."

Tips & Limitations

Always treat RC tags as immutable; once a tag is pushed, do not attempt to retroactively modify it. If a build fails or a bug is found, always increment the iteration number (e.g., rc.1 to rc.2). The skill is designed to prevent "feature creep" by enforcing clear transition rules between stages—ensure your team aligns on these definitions before starting the cycle. Note that this skill manages the metadata and workflow logic; ensure your CI/CD pipeline is configured to listen for these specific tag formats to trigger the appropriate deployment environments automatically.