Clarify release branch and tagging workflow

[wyli]

Summary

• Document how to cut release/X.Y.0 from a reviewed main commit.
• Explain how tags set versions for main builds and how fixes flow to release branches.
• Exclude Dependabot PRs from generated release notes.

Validation

• Repository hooks pass for .github/CI.md and .github/release.yml.

AI-assisted: Created with Codex/GPT at the user's request.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Updated release guidance for development snapshots, release branches, release candidates, and general availability.
  • Added commands for release validation, identifying release commits, creating development tags, and generating cumulative changelogs.
  • Clarified changelog filtering and cherry-pick handling.
  • Removed an outdated worked example.

• Chores

  • Configured changelog generation to exclude automated dependency updates.

[github-actions]

Dependency Review

✅ No vulnerabilities or license issues or OpenSSF Scorecard issues found.

Scanned Files

None

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 52aaa3fe-a6ed-4f7f-8d8c-3275af0670c8

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 5ccf300 and 21f75fb.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• .github/CI.md

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• .github/CI.md

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Walkthrough

This PR updates the release runbook with new snapshot versioning, branch creation, RC and GA procedures, and changelog guidance. It adds .github/release.yml to exclude Dependabot-authored changes from generated changelogs.

Changes

Release Documentation and Config Update

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Versioning scheme and branch-point workflow .github/CI.md	Documents X.Y.Za0.devN main snapshots, release-branch creation from reviewed main commits, and tagging of the next development anchor.
RC validation, iteration, and GA procedures .github/CI.md	Numbers RC and GA steps and adds commands for RC validation, tag comparison, cumulative changelogs, and cherry-pick handling.
Changelog generation and Dependabot exclusion .github/CI.md, .github/release.yml	Documents generated-note behavior, removes the obsolete worked example, and excludes dependabot[bot] from changelog generation.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~5 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• nvidia-holoscan/holoscan-cli#181: Updates to the same release runbook, including RC-to-GA workflow guidance.
• nvidia-holoscan/holoscan-cli#206: Updates the release runbook, including RC/GA workflows and changelog-generation steps.

Suggested reviewers: jcfr, tbirdso

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the documented release branch and tagging workflow changes.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 3

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In @.github/CI.md:
- Around line 162-167: Update the release command examples around the git fetch
steps to fail immediately when repository refresh commands fail, preventing
subsequent operations from using stale refs. After displaying the source SHA,
capture and compare it with the SHA resolved for the pushed release branch or
created tag, and stop with an error if they differ; apply the same validation to
both command sequences.
- Around line 229-239: Update Step 9 in CI.md to add a preflight that fetches
and prunes remote tags, then verifies both refs/tags/vPREVIOUS.GA and
refs/tags/vX.Y.Z before running the git diff and git log comparisons. Keep the
existing comparison commands and release sequencing unchanged.
- Around line 219-221: Update the “Iterate” release instructions to require that
<sha> identify a single-parent commit, or explicitly document how to select the
correct mainline parent when cherry-picking a merge commit; do not prescribe -m
1 without establishing that parent.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 36ce4d19-2a40-4994-8b69-e4bdf2ef65b5

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 0567dda and f7fbaa7.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• .github/CI.md
• .github/release.yml