Release Checklist

Steps to publish a new Karate release. Replace X.Y.Z with the version being released.

1. Prepare the Release

Verify main is green on CI
Update version in pom.xml (remove any -SNAPSHOT or .RC* suffix):
bash
```
mvn versions:set -DnewVersion=X.Y.Z -DgenerateBackupPoms=false
```
Commit and push (the vX.Y.Z tag is created later via the GitHub release UI, not from the CLI):
bash
```
git add -A && git commit -m "release X.Y.Z"
git push
```

Go to https://github.com/karatelabs/karate/releases/new and create tag vX.Y.Z on the release form (target: main) — this creates the tag as part of publishing the release
Set the release title to vX.Y.Z explicitly (must match the tag) — if left blank, the GitHub UI defaults the title to the most recent commit message
Write release notes:
- Summary of important fixes / features
- Link to the milestone: https://github.com/karatelabs/karate/milestone/NN?closed=1
- Full changelog link: https://github.com/karatelabs/karate/compare/vPREVIOUS...vX.Y.Z
- Reference to the 2.0.0 migration guide if applicable
Upload release assets:
- karate-X.Y.Z.jar (fat jar)
- cve-sbom-report.html
See v2.0.1 for reference

Close each fixed issue on the X.Y.Z milestone via the GitHub UI, leaving a comment vX.Y.Z released on each (issues labeled fixed typically just need to be closed)
Move any remaining open issues to the next milestone
Close the GitHub milestone for X.Y.Z

This is critical — the CLI installer pulls versions from this manifest.

Go to the karate-sh repo (sibling directory ../karate-sh)
Edit public/manifest.json:
- Add a new version entry under the karate artifact
- Set url to the fat jar download URL on GitHub Releases
- Set sha256 from the release asset or compute locally:
  bash
```
shasum -a 256 karate-X.Y.Z.jar
```
- Move the stable channel from the previous version to the new one
- Update channel_defaults.stable to point to X.Y.Z
- Update generated_at timestamp
Commit and push to main (Netlify auto-deploys)
Verify: curl -s https://karate.sh/manifest.json | jq '.channel_defaults.stable'
Refer to ../karate-sh/README.md for full manifest schema details

TODO: Automate this step with CI/CD — a workflow that bumps the Karate version across all example projects and runs their tests.

Update ../karate-examples — bump Karate version to X.Y.Z in all example pom.xml / build.gradle files
Build and test all examples to catch any breaking changes
Commit and push

Update pom.xml to the next RC version:

bash

mvn versions:set -DnewVersion=X.Y.Z+1.RC1 -DgenerateBackupPoms=false

Commit and push (use [no ci] to skip the CI build for this bump):

bash

git add -A && git commit -m "prepare for next development iteration [no ci]"
git push