fix(cut-release): restore the release-notes owner call, document bundle retrieval

[stozo04]

Two gaps that only showed up by actually running 1.0.52.

I dropped an owner call, and shouldn't have

Owner call 2026-08-28 (issue #158, answer 2) says this skill does draft the Play Console "What's new" text. My pipeline rewrite replaced that with a placeholder file and a comment saying it was "deliberately not auto-written" — an owner call overridden on an agent's own judgment. The reasoning wasn't worthless (a bash script can't write store copy, and auto-generated user-facing claims are a bad idea) but the correct response was to change how the requirement is met, not to delete it.

Restored, with the split that makes it work under the pipeline: the workflow emits the commit log, the agent writes the copy. The owner call is now recorded explicitly, with a line saying an agent doesn't get to drop one because the mechanics around it changed.

The workflow now writes a single notes/commits-<version>.md instead of two files named like finished notes — one of which was a bare commit log and the other empty. Both invited being uploaded as-is. The new file says outright that it isn't release notes and names the two files that are.

Nothing said how to get the bundle

Once the build moved off the owner's machine, app/build/outputs/bundle/release/app-release.aab became a stale local artifact from an earlier hand-build — wrong versionCode, wrong sha, and a live hazard at upload time. Nothing in any doc said so, and it came up immediately during 1.0.52.

New section covering both retrieval paths (gh run download, or the Artifacts section), the 30-day expiry, why the local app/build/ copy is not it, and archiving the .aab into releases/ so the manual fallback still has something to check.

Also

• The "nothing user-facing changed" case is now written down: check app/src, say so plainly, and never write "bug fixes and performance improvements" for a release containing neither.
• "Go ahead" is documented as an instruction to proceed, not a statement that the Play upload happened. That distinction cost a round trip on 1.0.52.
• Two new behavioral rules: never hand over a locally built .aab, never write notes for changes that didn't happen.

All three harness copies are byte-identical at blob 9e06d45.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01Miqsf1M14nY5TKiZHzyjNY

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Note

Low Risk
Documentation and release-workflow copy only; no app runtime or signing logic changes beyond renaming the notes artifact step.

Overview
Aligns the cut-release skill and release.yml with how releases actually run after CI builds the AAB: the workflow supplies a raw commit log; the agent retrieves the signed bundle and writes both note drafts.

Release notes split: Run 1 no longer emits github-release-notes-* / play-notes-* artifacts that looked like finished copy. It publishes a single notes/commits-<version>.md and states that Play/GitHub notes belong in gitignored docs/local/. The skill restores owner call 2026-08-28 (issue #158): agents must draft Play “What’s new,” with rules for empty app/src diffs and no generic “bug fixes” filler.

Bundle handoff: New skill section documents gh run download, artifact layout, 30-day retention, archiving under releases/, and never uploading from stale app/build/. Workflow summary steps match (download → write notes → Play upload → tag).

Gates and rules: Play-upload stop now distinguishes enthusiasm (“go ahead”, “uploading now”) from confirmed upload. Added behavioral rules against local .aab handoff and dishonest user-facing notes. Same skill text is synced across .claude, .codex, and .cursor.

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[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes using high effort and found 1 potential issue.

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[cursor]

Tag notes path no longer exists

Medium Severity

The release run now uploads notes/commits-<version>.md only. tag.yml still reads notes/github-release-notes-<version>.md when notes is true, so that option fails after Play upload. Agent drafts in docs/local/ never reach the tag job.

Additional Locations (1)

• .claude/skills/cut-release/SKILL.md#L97-L103

 

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