[Eduardo Villalpando Mello (edvilme)]

Summary

• Add optional release-branch-prefix to release-pr, defaulting to release/ so existing consumers keep their current behavior. A prefix such as stable/v produces stable/v2026.8.0; callers cannot override the calculated stable version.
• Expose branch in both modes. Plan reports the prospective stable release branch without creating it; ordinary PRs return an empty branch output.
• Validate the literal refs/heads/<prefix><stable-version> with Git before modifying the manifest or creating a commit. Keep the empty-lease, create-only push and rejection of already-identical remote branches.
• Document the contract, matching plan/release inputs, and Azure/bot branch-pattern prerequisites. No extension workflow, publishing activation, or branch-protection changes are included.

- uses: microsoft/vscode-python-ci/actions/release-pr@<reviewed-commit-sha>
  id: release
  with:
    mode: release
    release-branch-prefix: stable/v
# steps.release.outputs.branch: stable/v2026.8.0

Validation

• 12 release-action tests and 7 version-action tests passed locally.
• Git fixtures exercise default/custom plan output, read-only planning, custom branch creation, invalid prefixes in both modes before any write, and existing different/identical branch protection with both prefixes.
• Existing smoke workflow now asserts that ordinary PRs return neither a version nor a branch.
• Black, Prettier, and whitespace checks passed. Hosted Linux, Windows, and macOS tests passed on both push and PR runs; the version-action and read-only release-action smoke checks passed.

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

The configurable release-branch naming change has no active review issues.

No open issues 🎉

What changed in this PR

This PR lets consumers configure release branch names while preserving the default release/ prefix and create-only push behavior.

Changes:

• Add release-branch-prefix and a branch output for both plan and release modes.
• Validate the calculated branch ref before modifying the manifest or creating a commit.
• Expand tests and documentation for custom prefixes, invalid names, and ordinary PR outputs.

File	Description
actions/​release-pr/​tests/​test_release_pr.py	Tests custom prefixes, invalid-name rejection, and existing-branch protection.
actions/​release-pr/​README.md	Documents inputs, outputs, validation, and branch-pattern prerequisites.
actions/​release-pr/​action.yml	Adds prefix configuration, branch output, and ref validation; uses the calculated branch for pushes.
.github/​workflows/​smoke-release-pr-action.yml	Checks that ordinary PRs return an empty branch output as well as an empty version.

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[Rich Chiodo (rchiodo)]

🔒 Automated review in progress — Rich Chiodo (@rchiodo) is auto-reviewing this PR.

[Rich Chiodo (rchiodo)]

Reviewed commit: 30f5ef33388cb3fe759eca4d3264aeb49545ee0c

Result: ⚠️ partially-verified

Verification details

Verification: Automated verification is best effort. The PR author remains responsible for testing.

Summary: All 12 release-action tests and 7 version-action tests passed in the Linux container. An additional empty-prefix probe passed, including read-only planning, branch creation, manifest preservation, and identical-branch rejection. No product failures were observed; GitHub-hosted smoke execution and Windows/macOS coverage remain unverified.

Test runs: 4 passed, 2 not run

• ⚠️ Not run | GitHub Actions ordinary-PR output smoke assertion | test -z "$VERSION"
test -z "$BRANCH"
• ⚠️ Not run | Windows and macOS workflow matrix | python -m unittest discover -s actions/get-extension-version/tests -v
python -m unittest discover -s actions/release-pr/tests -v
• ✅ Passed | Release-action tests | python -m unittest discover -s actions/release-pr/tests -v
• ✅ Passed | Version-action tests | python -m unittest discover -s actions/get-extension-version/tests -v
• ✅ Passed | Dependency and test discovery | printf 'Sandbox profile: %s\n' "${AUTOMATION_SANDBOX_PROFILE:-unset}"; uname -s; python --version; git --version; bash --version | head -n 1; git status --short; git log -3 --oneline; git diff HEAD^ HEAD --stat; python - <<'PY'
import ast
from pathlib import Path
import unittest
for directory in ('actions/release-pr', 'actions/get-extension-version'):
print(f'\n{directory}:')
for path in sorted(Path(directory).rglob('*.py')):
tree = ast.parse(path.read_text(encoding='utf-8'))
imports = sorted({node.module or '' for node in ast.walk(tree) if isinstance(node, ast.ImportFrom)} | {alias.name for node in ast.walk(tree) if isinstance(node, ast.Import) for alias in node.names})
tests = [node.name for node in ast.walk(tree) if isinstance(node, ast.FunctionDef) and node.name.startswith('test_')]
print(path, 'imports=', imports, 'tests=', tests)
PY
• ✅ Passed | Explicit empty-prefix workflow probe | python - <<'PY'
import importlib.util
from pathlib import Path

path = Path('actions/release-pr/tests/test_release_pr.py').resolve()
spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location('release_pr_verification_tests', path)
module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
spec.loader.exec_module(module)
case = module.GitWorkflowTests()
try:
case.setUp()
case.environment['RELEASE_BRANCH_PREFIX'] = ''
remote = ('--git-dir', str(case.remote))
refs_before = case.git(*remote, 'show-ref')
case.assertEqual(case.run_action('plan', case.head), '1.45.0')
case.assertEqual(case.branch, '1.44.0')
case.assertEqual(case.git('rev-parse', 'HEAD'), case.head)
case.assertEqual(case.git('status', '--porcelain'), '')
case.assertEqual(case.git(*remote, 'show-ref'), refs_before)
merged = case.merge()
case.assertEqual(case.run_action('release', merged), '1.44.0')
case.assertEqual(case.branch, '1.44.0')
ref = 'refs/heads/1.44.0'
prepared = case.git('rev-parse', 'HEAD')
case.assertEqual(case.git(*remote, 'rev-parse', ref), prepared)
case.assertEqual(case.git(*remote, 'rev-parse', f'{ref}^'), merged)
case.assertEqual(case.git(*remote, 'rev-parse', 'main'), merged)
case.assertEqual(module.json.loads(case.git(*remote, 'show', f'{ref}:package.json')), {**case.package, 'version': '1.44.0'})
with case.assertRaisesRegex(RuntimeError, 'Release branch already exists'):
case.step('Push the finished release branch')
case.assertEqual(case.git(*remote, 'rev-parse', ref), prepared)
print('PASS: explicit empty prefix produces 1.44.0; plan is read-only; release creates the version-only branch with the correct manifest and parent; target is unchanged; identical retry is rejected.')
finally:
case.doCleanups()
PY

⚠️ GitHub Actions ordinary-PR output smoke assertion diagnostic output

The changed smoke job requires GitHub pull_request context and composite-action execution. The offline container did not execute that job or produce its VERSION and BRANCH outputs.

⚠️ Windows and macOS workflow matrix diagnostic output

.github/workflows/smoke-release-pr-action.yml specifies ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, and macos-latest. Discovery reported Linux; Windows and macOS execution was unavailable.

[Rich Chiodo (rchiodo)]

Approved via Review Center.