From 7a9be366aea873d6b5312056b6adf7a7a19c29ba Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tom Hipkin <tomhipkin@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2024 17:04:27 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Document steps for releasing a new version of the gem
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

During the recent release we couldn’t find any documentation for releasing the gem[1].

[1] https://gds.slack.com/archives/C03D792LYJG/p1725014952375439
---
 README.md | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 203fb13e..0b036b60 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -110,6 +110,30 @@ Then at the PSQL command line:
 
 `template1=# CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";`
 
+## Releasing
+
+1. Read the CHANGELOG.md and decide on the new semantic version number
+1. Create a release branch, eg. `release-96.0.3`
+1. Update the CHANGELOG.md
+    - Declare a new version number
+    - Move all unreleased changes beneath it
+1. Update `lib/gds_api/version.rb` to match, eg
+
+    ```ruby
+      module GdsApi
+        VERSION = "96.0.3".freeze
+      end
+    ```
+
+1. Copy the lines from the CHANGELOG.md into the git commit
+1. Propose and merge the pull request into `main`
+
+Nb:
+
+- You do not need to set any git tags
+- After merging, CI will release the new version of the gem and Dependabot will
+  propose the new version of the gem to help distribute the changes to consumers
+
 ## Licence
 
 Released under the MIT Licence, a copy of which can be found in the file