How to prepare a release

A release is a chore: mark v<next-patch> commit whose PR body is the release notes. Example: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli/pull/367.

Steps

1. Bump the patch version in package.json (e.g. 0.1.7 → 0.1.8), then npm install to sync package-lock.json. This is the entry point — everything else (branch name, PR title, release notes filename) keys off the new version.

2. Find the baseline. The previous release is the last chore: mark v... commit on main. Read the Playwright version pinned at that commit — that's the baseline for the diff.

   bash

   git log --oneline | grep "mark v" | head -1git show <sha>:package.json | grep '"playwright"'

3. Figure out the playwright commit window. Convert the baseline's alpha timestamp to a UTC date, and use the new alpha's date as the upper bound. Alphas are either 1.X.0-alpha-<ms-epoch> or 1.X.0-alpha-<YYYY-MM-DD>.

   bash

   date -u -d @<seconds> '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S UTC'   # for ms-epoch, divide by 1000 first

4. List Playwright commits in the window. Run from ~/code/playwright (a local Playwright checkout). --after / --before work on any ref regardless of what origin/main currently points at; --since / --until can silently return empty if the branch is behind.

   bash

   cd ~/code/playwright && git log --after='<baseline-date>' --before='<new-date>' --pretty=format:'%h %ci %s'

5. Filter to CLI-relevant commits. Keep anything touching the CLI surface or its runtime; drop internal/unrelated churn.

   • Keep: src/tools/cli-client/**, src/tools/cli-daemon/**, src/tools/mcp/**, remote/playwrightConnection, CDP-attach paths, tracing/video APIs the CLI exposes, and anything with a fix(cli) / feat(cli) / fix(mcp) / feat(mcp) prefix.
   • Drop: test-runner rolls, firefox/chromium/webkit version bumps, docs-only, test infra, unrelated refactors.
   • Use git show --stat <sha> to sanity-check whether a commit's files touch the CLI.

6. Pull issue context for each kept PR. The PR's linked issue often has better user-facing wording than the PR/commit title.

   bash

   gh pr view <pr> --repo microsoft/playwright --json title,body,closingIssuesReferencesgh issue view <issue> --repo microsoft/playwright-cli --json title,body,state

7. Write the release notes to RELEASE_NOTES_v<version>.md. Use this exact shape — no top-level # header, the PR title is the heading:

   markdown

   ## ✨ Highlights
   - **<emoji> <issue wording, not commit wording>** ([microsoft/playwright#<issue>](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/<issue>)) — the user-facing effect, naming the new commands / flags / config options. ([microsoft/playwright#<pr>](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/pull/<pr>))
   ## 🐛 Fixes
   - `<commit subject>` — what changed and why it matters. ([#<pr>](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/pull/<pr>))
   ## 📦 Upgrading
   ```bashnpm install -g @playwright/cli@<version>

   
   Example highlight titles: `**🎬 Smooth 60 fps, styleable videos**`, `**🧰 WebMCP tools show up in the snapshot**`, `**🌗 Switch between light and dark color scheme**`, `**📁 Absolute paths in results**`.
   Wording rules:- **Section headings carry their emoji** (`✨ Highlights`, `🐛 Fixes`, `📦 Upgrading`), and **every highlight title starts with one unicode emoji** that fits the feature. No emojis in the Fixes bullets.- **Order highlights by how exciting they are to a user, not chronologically.** Showy features (video, new commands, new agent capabilities) go first; config knobs go last.- **Advertise the benefit, not the mechanism**: `video-start --fps=60` records smooth 60 fps videos, not "`--fps <n>` sets a custom frame rate". Use a concrete, copy-pasteable invocation.- **Don't carry caveats over from the upstream PR description** (browser limitations, "still capped at…"). They are often stale by the time the PR merges — leave them out unless verified.- **Highlights lead with the user-reported problem from the linked issue**, not the commit subject. Drop internal terms (`cdpPort`, `tombstones`) from highlight bullets.- Only list things that change user-visible behavior. Skip internal cleanups unless they have a user-facing effect — check that the CLI actually exercises the fixed path (e.g. `state-save` does not pass `indexedDB`, so an IndexedDB snapshot fix is not a CLI fix).- Reference both the issue (if any — it may live in `microsoft/playwright-cli` or `microsoft/playwright`, link whichever) and the microsoft/playwright PR. A highlight without an issue just omits the issue link.

8. Commit, push, open PR. The PR body is the contents of the release notes file (no # header, no filename).

   bash

   git checkout -b mark-v<version>git add package.json package-lock.jsongit commit -m "chore: mark v<version>"git push -u origin mark-v<version>gh pr create --repo microsoft/playwright-cli \  --head pavelfeldman:mark-v<version> \  --base main \  --title "chore: mark v<version>" \  --body "$(cat RELEASE_NOTES_v<version>.md)"

Pitfalls

• Don't use --since / --until when diffing Playwright — if origin/main in the local checkout is behind, they return empty. --after / --before against the local ref work.
• Don't include a # playwright-cli vX.Y.Z header in the PR body — GitHub already renders the PR title.
• Don't paraphrase the commit subject as the highlight. A user who filed an issue described the pain; reuse their framing.
• Don't include test-runner / browser-version-roll commits in release notes — they're noise for CLI users.