feat: Add experimental & nightly release channels for vsce #6997

abeatrix · 2025-02-07T06:31:09Z

CLOSE: https://linear.app/sourcegraph/issue/CODY-4777

This adds support for publishing nightly builds of the VS Code extension under a different package name and display name to avoid conflicts with the main extension.

Added 'nightly' as a new ReleaseType enum value
Added updatePackageForNightly() function to modify package.json for nightly builds
Changed package name to 'cody-ai-nightly' for nightly releases
Updated display name to 'Cody: AI Code Assistant - Nightly'
Refactored insiders build checks to include nightly builds
Updated publishing logic to handle nightly builds same as insiders
Release nightly build under pre-release channel under the new name

NOTE: The nightly build is not intended to work with the main extension and is expected to cause conflicts if both are installed.

Test plan

Run release script with CODY_RELEASE_TYPE=nightly pnpm -C vscode run release:dry-run to generate a package for the nightly
Install the nightly builld using the package you can find in vscode/dist/cody.vsix

Verify extension is installed with the updated name and display name. You might need to disable the stable release to avoid conflicts.

Expected behavior per release type

Stable (sourcegraph.cody-ai):

Builds as production release
Removes all experimental settings
Uses version directly from package.json
Published to VS Code Marketplace main channel
Triggered by git tag push

Insiders / Pre-release (sourcegraph.cody-ai):

Builds as pre-release version
Keeps experimental settings
Uses incremented version with timestamp
Published to VS Code Marketplace pre-release channel
Creates an insiders tag

Experimental (sourcegraph.cody-testing):

Changes package name to cody-testing
Changes display name to "Testing Extension"
Keeps experimental settings
Uses incremented version with timestamp
Published to VS Code Marketplace main channel under cody-testing
Creates an experimental tag

Nightly (sourcegraph.cody-testing):

Changes package name to cody-testing
Changes display name to "Testing Extension"
Keeps experimental settings
Uses incremented version with timestamp
Published to VS Code Marketplace pre-release channel under cody-testing
Creates a nightly tag
Runs automatically every night

This adds support for publishing nightly builds of the VS Code extension under a different package name and display name to avoid conflicts with the main extension. - Added 'nightly' as a new ReleaseType enum value - Added updatePackageForNightly() function to modify package.json for nightly builds - Changed package name to 'cody-ai-nightly' for nightly releases - Updated display name to 'Cody: AI Code Assistant - Nightly' - Refactored insiders build checks to include nightly builds - Updated publishing logic to handle nightly builds same as insiders ## Test plan 1. Run release script with `CODY_RELEASE_TYPE=nightly pnpm -C vscode run release:dry-run` to generate a package for the nightly 2. Install the nightly builld using the package you can find in `vscode/dist/cody.vsix` - Verify extension is installed with the updated name and display name. You might need to disable the stable release to avoid conflicts.

dominiccooney

Feedback inline, I think we should make nightlies use the prerelease channel of the testing extension.

Related question... people seem to really want to see things "straight away" on this channel. Can we simply make this build continuously? Like every commit that passes the tests, we pop out a version?

dominiccooney · 2025-02-12T07:53:42Z

.github/workflows/release-vscode-experimental.yml

+          service_account: "[email protected]"
+          create_credentials_file: true
+          export_environment_variables: true
+      - run: CODY_RELEASE_TYPE=experimental pnpm -C vscode run release


Like I mentioned in chat, I think should use the prerelease channel of the testing extension for nightlies so that if we cut an experimental build it is not immediately hidden by nightlies. Think it through... if we wanted to distribute an experimental build (say, to a customer or to teammates for testing something like the merged network requests I'm working on) and we use the release channel of the testing extension for nightlies, then:

We will make the experimental build on the prerelease channel

That night, the nightly build will run and do a build on the release channel

Then the experimental build is hidden on the prerelease channel by the nightly, confusion reigns.

You know the thing we see where we have to cut the prerelease build after the stable release? Same thing is happening here. Does that make sense?

Slack message for context:

https://sourcegraph.slack.com/archives/C05AGQYD528/p1738920451420479?thread_ts=1738897284.665109&cid=C05AGQYD528

I think should use the prerelease channel of the testing extension for nightlies
@dominiccooney See https://github.com/sourcegraph/cody/pull/6997/files#r1953839488

dominiccooney · 2025-02-12T07:54:42Z

vscode/scripts/release.ts

+function updatePackageForTestingExtension(): void {
+    if (releaseType === ReleaseType.Nightly || releaseType === ReleaseType.Experimental) {
+        packageJSON.name = 'cody-testing'
+        packageJSON.displayName = 'Testing Extension'


dominiccooney · 2025-02-12T07:55:49Z

vscode/scripts/release.ts

@@ -124,7 +140,7 @@ if (!insidersVersion) {
 }

 const githubOutputPath = process.env.GITHUB_OUTPUT
-if (releaseType === ReleaseType.Insiders && githubOutputPath) {
+if (isInsiderBuild && githubOutputPath) {


Oh this is interesting, "insider" means something different from "prerelease" now... Prerelease and Nightly are "insiders."

abeatrix · 2025-02-13T05:33:58Z

vscode/scripts/release.ts


 // Package (build and bundle) the extension.
 console.error(`Packaging ${releaseType} release at version ${version}...`)
 execFileSync(
    'vsce',
    [
        'package',
-        ...(releaseType === ReleaseType.Insiders
+        ...(isInsiderBuild


@dominiccooney nightly is actually using the pre-release channel. You can see const isInsiderBuild = releaseType === ReleaseType.Insiders || releaseType === ReleaseType.Nightly, so we would add the --pre-release` flag here

Great! To summarize:

We want to have four "channels":

Stable

Prerelease

Nightly

Experimental

We have to map them to two extensions, I'll just call them Cody and Test for now. And they each have two channels:

Release

Prerelease

You see those labels on the IDE extensions page:

Most important fact here is that 🌵 Release "overwrites" Prerelease until there is another prerelease. This is why we wait to do the stable build before we make the next milestone's prerelease. If we did it the other way, then both channels would show the stable version and nobody would dogfood the prerelease. This is a quirk of VSCode Marketplace.

We're going to split the channels between the extensions this way:
Cody: Stable and Prerelease ⬅️ most people here
Test: Nightly and Experimental ⬅️ some teammates and customers trying bleeding-edge things here

Within each extension, there's a "fast" one that gets produced more and a "slow" one that gets produced less often. Because of 🌵 , we need the "fast" one to be on the pre-release channel.

So we need this:
Cody - Release - Stable
Cody - Prerelease - Prerelease
Test - Release - Experimental
Test - Prerelease - Nightly

Could we add something like the above to Notion, on the branching and releasing page?

julialeex · 2025-02-13T15:00:08Z

.github/workflows/release-vscode-nightly.yml

+          service_account: "[email protected]"
+          create_credentials_file: true
+          export_environment_variables: true
+      - run: CODY_RELEASE_TYPE=nightly pnpm -C vscode run release


@dominiccooney here we are adding nightly so we would add --pre-release later

dominiccooney

OK, got it... it is the environment variable set to nightly that puts these on the test extension prerelease channel. Perfect!

dominiccooney · 2025-02-17T03:09:48Z

vscode/scripts/release.ts


 // Package (build and bundle) the extension.
 console.error(`Packaging ${releaseType} release at version ${version}...`)
 execFileSync(
    'vsce',
    [
        'package',
-        ...(releaseType === ReleaseType.Insiders
+        ...(isInsiderBuild


Great! To summarize:

We want to have four "channels":

Stable

Prerelease

Nightly

Experimental

We have to map them to two extensions, I'll just call them Cody and Test for now. And they each have two channels:

Release

Prerelease

You see those labels on the IDE extensions page:

Most important fact here is that 🌵 Release "overwrites" Prerelease until there is another prerelease. This is why we wait to do the stable build before we make the next milestone's prerelease. If we did it the other way, then both channels would show the stable version and nobody would dogfood the prerelease. This is a quirk of VSCode Marketplace.

We're going to split the channels between the extensions this way:
Cody: Stable and Prerelease ⬅️ most people here
Test: Nightly and Experimental ⬅️ some teammates and customers trying bleeding-edge things here

Within each extension, there's a "fast" one that gets produced more and a "slow" one that gets produced less often. Because of 🌵 , we need the "fast" one to be on the pre-release channel.

So we need this:
Cody - Release - Stable
Cody - Prerelease - Prerelease
Test - Release - Experimental
Test - Prerelease - Nightly

Could we add something like the above to Notion, on the branching and releasing page?

abeatrix · 2025-02-17T21:06:38Z

@dominiccooney Thanks for the review! I've created a issue to add that to Notion release handbook: https://linear.app/sourcegraph/issue/CODY-5050/update-release-handbook-to-include-cody-test-release

abeatrix requested review from dominiccooney and a team February 7, 2025 06:31

add experimental channel for cody-testing

067b50f

abeatrix changed the title ~~feat: Add nightly release type for extension release~~ feat: Add experimental & nightly release channels for vsce Feb 7, 2025

dominiccooney requested changes Feb 12, 2025

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abeatrix commented Feb 13, 2025

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julialeex reviewed Feb 13, 2025

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dominiccooney approved these changes Feb 17, 2025

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abeatrix merged commit 3027810 into main Feb 17, 2025
25 checks passed

abeatrix deleted the bee/nightly branch February 17, 2025 21:06

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feat: Add experimental & nightly release channels for vsce #6997

feat: Add experimental & nightly release channels for vsce #6997

abeatrix commented Feb 7, 2025 •

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abeatrix commented Feb 17, 2025

feat: Add experimental & nightly release channels for vsce #6997

feat: Add experimental & nightly release channels for vsce #6997

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abeatrix commented Feb 7, 2025 • edited Loading

Test plan

Expected behavior per release type

Stable (sourcegraph.cody-ai):

Insiders / Pre-release (sourcegraph.cody-ai):

Experimental (sourcegraph.cody-testing):

Nightly (sourcegraph.cody-testing):

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abeatrix commented Feb 17, 2025

abeatrix commented Feb 7, 2025 •

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