Releasing

This document is the runbook for cutting a go-redis release. It is intended for maintainers with write/tag access to the repository.

For the format and style of the release notes themselves, see .github/RELEASE_NOTES_TEMPLATE.md.

Versioning

go-redis follows Semantic Versioning:

• Patch (vX.Y.Z+1) — bug fixes, no API changes.
• Minor (vX.Y+1.0) — backwards-compatible new features, deprecations.
• Major (vX+1.0.0) — breaking changes. Coordinate with the team first.

Pre-releases use vX.Y.Z-beta.N / vX.Y.Z-rc.N.

Pre-release checklist

• Target branch is master and CI is green on the latest commit.
• All PRs intended for this release are merged.
• There are no open issues in the release milestone (if used).
• CHANGELOG / release notes have been considered; dependabot-only and doc-only changes are excluded per the template.
• Confirm the next version number and decide if it's a patch / minor / major.

1. Draft the release notes

1. Open the draft release auto-generated by release-drafter on GitHub.
2. Prepend a new section to RELEASE-NOTES.md using .github/RELEASE_NOTES_TEMPLATE.md as the format. Keep the file in chronological order (newest first).
3. Pick 3–5 Highlights — the most user-facing, impactful changes.
4. Remove dependabot bumps and doc-only typo fixes from the lists.
5. Verify every PR has a contributor attribution and link.
6. Open a PR with just the release-notes change if you want review before bumping versions, otherwise include it in the release PR below.

2. Bump versions and open the release PR

Create a release branch from master:

git checkout master && git pull --ff-only
git checkout -b release/vX.Y.Z

Run the release script on that branch:

TAG=vX.Y.Z ./scripts/release.sh

What the script does (and explicitly does not do):

• ✅ Validates TAG matches the semver regex and isn't already a git tag.
• ✅ Rewrites every redis/go-redis* line in every sub-module go.mod to point at the new TAG. Trailing // indirect markers are preserved.
• ✅ Runs go mod tidy -compat=1.24 in each sub-module.
• ✅ Updates the return value in version.go.
• ❌ Does not switch branches (runs in your current branch).
• ❌ Does not require a clean working tree (so you can mix it with release-notes edits in the same branch).
• ❌ Does not commit, tag, or push anything.

Review and commit the changes yourself:

git diff                 # sanity-check the bumps
git add -u
git commit -m "chore: release vX.Y.Z"
git push origin release/vX.Y.Z

Then on GitHub:

• Open a PR from release/vX.Y.Z into master.
• Wait for all required CI checks (build, golangci-lint, spellcheck, doctests, e2e where applicable) to pass.
• Get at least one maintainer approval.
• Merge the PR (use a merge commit — the tag will point at the merge SHA).

3. Tag the release

After the release PR is merged, pull the latest master and dry-run the tagger:

git checkout master && git pull --ff-only
TAG=vX.Y.Z ./scripts/tag.sh vX.Y.Z

The script defaults to dry-run and prints the commands it would run. Verify the output, then apply for real with -t:

./scripts/tag.sh vX.Y.Z -t

This creates and pushes:

• The top-level tag vX.Y.Z.
• A per-module tag <module>/vX.Y.Z for each public sub-module (skipping example/* and internal/*).

4. Publish the GitHub release

1. On GitHub, open the draft release created by release-drafter.
2. Set the tag to vX.Y.Z and the target to master.
3. Replace the auto-generated body with the curated notes from RELEASE-NOTES.md for this version.
4. For pre-releases, check "Set as a pre-release".
5. Publish.

5. Post-release

• Verify the release appears on pkg.go.dev within a few minutes (trigger a fetch by visiting the version URL if needed).
• Announce on Discord (see the link in CONTRIBUTING.md).
• Close the release milestone if one was used.
• Open follow-up issues for anything deferred from this release.

Hotfix / patch release

For an urgent fix on top of the latest release:

1. Branch from the latest release tag: git checkout -b hotfix/vX.Y.Z+1 vX.Y.Z.
2. Cherry-pick (or re-apply) only the required fix commits.
3. Follow the normal release flow above with TAG=vX.Y.Z+1.
4. Make sure the fix is also present on master (forward-port if necessary).

Troubleshooting

• release.sh fails with "tag already exists" — the tag has already been created. Pick the next version, or delete the local tag first if it was created by mistake.
• tag.sh reports version mismatch in a go.mod — a sub-module was not updated by release.sh. Fix the go.mod manually (or re-run release.sh), amend the release PR, and re-run the tagger.
• version.go does not contain the tag — release.sh did not run or the bump was reverted. Re-run release.sh on the release branch.
• pkg.go.dev does not show the new version — visit https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/redis/go-redis/[email protected] once to trigger a fetch from the module proxy.