Description

Implements comprehensive release automation based on docs/infra/automation-plan.md, reducing manual release work from ~4 hours to ~30 minutes while eliminating version synchronization errors across repositories.

Workflows Added

• release.yml - Tag-triggered draft release creation with auto-generated notes
• release-coordinator.yml - Orchestrates all release tasks with selective execution
• post-release-version-bump.yml - Creates PR to update PackageValidationBaselineVersion
• update-samples.yml - Creates PR to sync aspire-samples package references
• update-docker.yml - Creates PR to update dotnet-docker dashboard image refs

Scripts Added

• bump-baseline-version.ps1 - Adds/updates PackageValidationBaselineVersion in eng/Versions.props
• update-sample-versions.ps1 - Updates Aspire.* package references in .csproj files (preserves non-Aspire packages)

Azure Pipelines Modified

Added publish_vscode_extension stage to eng/pipelines/azure-pipelines.yml:

• Publishes to VS Code Marketplace on release branches only
• Requires VSCE_PAT secret in Azure DevOps variable group

Usage

Primary method via coordinator:

# Actions → Release Coordinator → Run workflow
# Input: version (e.g., 13.1.0)
# Select: tasks to execute (tag, samples, docker, baseline, checklist)

Tag-based release:

git tag v13.1.0 && git push origin v13.1.0
# Auto-triggers release.yml → creates draft with notes

Prerequisites

GitHub Secrets:

• ASPIRE_BOT_APP_ID - GitHub App ID for cross-repo PRs
• ASPIRE_BOT_PRIVATE_KEY - GitHub App private key

Azure DevOps:

• VSCE_PAT - VS Code Marketplace token

Architecture

Release Coordinator
├── Create Tag → Triggers release.yml (draft + notes)
├── Update Samples → Creates PR to aspire-samples
├── Update Docker → Creates PR to dotnet-docker
├── Bump Baseline → Creates PR to main
└── Create Checklist → Issue for manual tasks

Manual tasks remain: blog posts, compliance, validation coordination, marketing.

Checklist

• Is this feature complete?
  • Yes. Ready to ship.
  • No. Follow-up changes expected.
• Are you including unit tests for the changes and scenario tests if relevant?
  • Yes
  • No (infrastructure automation - scripts tested manually with validation scenarios)
• Did you add public API?
  • Yes
  • No
• Does the change make any security assumptions or guarantees?
  • Yes
    • If yes, have you done a threat model and had a security review?
      • Yes (cross-repo updates use GitHub App auth, secrets in GitHub/Azure DevOps, workflows restricted to repository_owner == 'dotnet')
      • No
  • No
• Does the change require an update in our Aspire docs?
  • Yes
  • No (internal release automation tooling)

Created from VS Code.

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