Add a New Plugin Package (payload-plugins)

How it works

semantic-release decides what version to publish by finding the last git tag for the package. For new packages, you publish 1.0.0 manually once, then create the matching git tag — this anchors semantic-release's history. After that, all future releases are fully automated by CI.

Prerequisites

• gh CLI authenticated (gh auth status)
• npm logged in (npm whoami)
• bun installed

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Steps

1. Create the package

In packages/your-plugin-name/, create package.json with these required fields:

{
  "name": "@focus-reactive/your-plugin-name",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "private": false,
  "publishConfig": { "access": "public" },
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "https://github.com/focusreactive/payload-plugins",
    "directory": "packages/your-plugin-name"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsup"
  }
}

Critical — repository.url must be exactly:

https://github.com/focusreactive/payload-plugins

No .git suffix. Wrong URL → semantic-release fails with git error 128.

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2. Build locally

cd packages/your-plugin-name
bun run build

Verify dist/ exists before publishing.

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3. First manual publish

From inside the package directory:

npm publish --access public

This creates 1.0.0 on npm. npm may warn about normalizing repository.url — that's fine, not an error.

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4. Link repo as trusted publisher on npm

Required so CI can publish with provenance ("provenance": true in .releaserc.json).

1. Go to npmjs.com → your package → Settings
2. Under Publishing → Trusted Publishers
3. Add GitHub Actions: repo focusreactive/payload-plugins, workflow release.yml

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5. Create the git tag + GitHub release

This is the critical step. Without it, semantic-release thinks 1.0.0 was never released, tries to publish it again, and CI fails.

Find the full SHA of the commit that represents your 1.0.0 state (the last commit before any docs/fix commits you intend to be the first automated release):

git log --oneline | head -10   # find the right commit
git rev-parse <short-sha>       # get full SHA — required, short SHA causes HTTP 422

Create the release:

gh release create "@focus-reactive/your-plugin-name@1.0.0" \
  --target <full-sha> \
  --title "your-plugin-name v1.0.0" \
  --notes "Initial release" \
  --repo focusreactive/payload-plugins

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6. Trigger the first automated release

The release workflow only runs on push to main — it cannot be triggered manually (workflow_dispatch is not configured). Push a docs: or fix: commit touching a file inside the package:

# e.g. edit packages/your-plugin-name/README.md
git commit -m "docs(your-plugin-name): trigger first automated release"
git push

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7. Verify

• GitHub Actions → Release workflow → should show 1.0.1 published
• npm view @focus-reactive/your-plugin-name versions → should list ["1.0.0", "1.0.1"]
• GitHub Releases → new release @focus-reactive/your-plugin-name@1.0.1 should appear

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Common Mistakes

Mistake	Error	Fix
Missing git tag before CI	"cannot publish over previously published versions: 1.0.0"	Run step 5 (gh release create)
Short SHA in gh release create	HTTP 422: target_commitish invalid	Use full SHA: git rev-parse <short-sha>
Re-running failed workflow job	"Local branch is behind remote — 0 packages released"	Push a new commit instead (step 6)
Wrong repository.url	semantic-release git error 128	Must match exactly, no .git suffix
chore: commit to test release	No release triggered	Use docs:, fix:, or feat:
Trusted publisher not set up	CI publish fails with 401/403	Complete step 4 on npmjs.com