Releasing starter-redis

starter-redis releases are ordinary Go module tags plus a small, independently verifiable source-artifact set. The protected organization-owned reusable workflow is the sole production builder. Repository code does not contain a second signer or release implementation.

Artifact contract

For v1.2.3, the release produces exactly:

Artifact	Contract
starter-redis_1.2.3_source.tar.gz	Exact tagged Git commit under one versioned directory
starter-redis_1.2.3_sbom.spdx.json	SPDX 2.3 packages from the consistent committed go.mod, go.sum, and vendor/modules.txt graph
checksums.txt	Canonical SHA-256 entries for the source archive and SBOM
checksums.txt.sig	Raw Ed25519 signature over the exact checksum bytes
checksums.txt.pem	X.509 SubjectPublicKeyInfo PEM matching the signer

Archive order, paths, modes, safe relative symlinks, tar/PAX and gzip metadata, and SPDX creation time derive only from sorted committed Git objects and the source commit epoch. Gitlinks, unsafe paths, stale module/vendor metadata, unsupported modes, dirty production checkouts, a mismatched tag, and partial output fail closed. Artifact construction performs no dependency resolution or network access and emits no absolute workspace path or current timestamp.

Production uses spice-framework/.github/.github/workflows/library-release.yml@9ae80e32f64b29697acd9ebe629468850b4ae9f2. Its uncredentialed candidate phase runs the repository verification contract. The signing phase renders with an immutable trusted tool and one explicitly mapped repository secret. A separately pinned verifier authenticates all artifacts before the independently protected publish phase receives them. Neither phase inherits ambient secrets.

Deterministic unsigned rehearsal

The root go.mod authorizes exact spice-dev renderer and spice-library-release-verify tool versions through standard Go tool directives. This command asks the central renderer for one inert plan and renders it twice:

make release-rehearsal

The command runs with GOWORK=off, GOPROXY=off, GOTOOLCHAIN=local, and GOFLAGS=-mod=vendor. Both renders must be byte-identical and contain only the source archive, SBOM, and checksum file. Canonical checksums, central renderer provenance, a complete SPDX document, and the absence of signature or key material are validated. Any extra artifact, nondeterministic output, malformed checksum, or provenance drift fails closed.

make verify-release executes the complete repository verification contract and then this deterministic rehearsal. The repository-local builder was retired after the protected, independently verified preview cutover proved the central path.

Signing trust

The reviewed repository-specific trust anchor is security/release/ed25519-public.pem. Its DER SubjectPublicKeyInfo SHA-256 fingerprint is:

342bf13259377a08cec8d6c5956da9ac3ff637e9b3428585738b55408d4e2636

The matching private Ed25519 key exists only as repository Actions secret SPICE_LIBRARY_RELEASE_SIGNING_KEY. The workflow caller maps exactly that secret. Protected release-signing and release-publish environments are separate approval boundaries, and immutable v* tag rules prevent moving or deleting published identities. A missing or mismatched anchor, key, environment, approval, or tag rule fails the release; there is no unsigned production fallback.

Consumer verification

Download all five assets and authenticate the emitted key against the committed anchor before trusting the adjacent signature:

cmp checksums.txt.pem security/release/ed25519-public.pem
openssl pkeyutl -verify -pubin -inkey security/release/ed25519-public.pem \
  -rawin -in checksums.txt -sigfile checksums.txt.sig
sha256sum -c checksums.txt

PowerShell users can compare each checksum with Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256. Consumers must also verify that the annotated tag peels to the expected immutable commit and that the release is classified as a prerelease whenever the SemVer tag contains a prerelease identifier.

Release ceremony

1. Confirm the committed anchor fingerprint, repository signing secret, protected environments, and immutable tag rules.
2. Run make verify-release once on the exact clean commit to be tagged.
3. Fetch origin/main and stop if it moved unexpectedly.
4. Create and push one annotated canonical SemVer tag.
5. Approve signing only after candidate verification and planning succeed.
6. Approve publishing only after signing and independent verification succeed.
7. Download the published assets and independently verify the key, signature, checksums, archive, SBOM, tag object, peeled commit, and prerelease status.

GitHub is the distribution mirror; normal consumers still use the standard Go module graph and do not need the release compiler at runtime.