Make a dirty checkout a deliberate release decision
A teammate prepared a release with an uncommitted dependency change and could not reproduce the resulting versions. Capture the base revision and refuse preparation when tracked files differ.
- Focused work estimate
- 1h 30m + prerequisites
- Priority in the scenario
- High
- Engineering practice
- Git · Integrity checks · Failure handling
Estimated field mix
- Developer tooling100%
Field percentages are editorial estimates of the ticket's engineering focus. They total 100%; they are not measured time, proficiency scores, or ownership evidence.
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Project context
A team maintains six related packages. Release notes, version changes, and tags are copied between a spreadsheet and a terminal; a failed upload recently left two packages ahead of their dependents. The exercise uses temporary repositories and a fake registry.
Setup prerequisites
- Create a temporary Git repository with three related fixture packages.
- Use a local registry double; no publishing credentials are required.
Preceding work
Complete these dependencies, or supply their agreed outputs before taking this ticket.
Acceptance criteria
- The plan records the full base commit and a digest of release inputs.
- Preparation rejects staged or unstaged tracked changes with a list of affected paths.
- A plan whose base commit or input digest changed is rejected even when the checkout is clean.
Implementation constraints
- Use Git argument arrays rather than composing shell commands.
- Document whether untracked files participate in the release input set.
Verification to include
- Prepare a clean fixture checkout successfully.
- Stage one manifest change and separately advance HEAD; the old plan must be rejected in each case.
Deliverables
- Stale-plan guard and reproducibility note
Rollout and recovery
Enable guards before any write command; disable preparation if repository state cannot be determined.
Value of the work
For the engineer: Practice CLI contracts, graph reasoning, filesystem safety, and recovery from partial work.
For the team: Review how an engineer makes release changes inspectable and recoverable before they affect consumers.
Evidence boundaries
Outcome Evidence: Tests, patches, and runbooks are requested deliverables. They become Outcome Evidence only through a qualified Mission and immutable Evidence IDs.
Ownership Evidence: Independent adaptation must be observed under a declared verification policy and cite immutable Evidence IDs. Completing a planning ticket establishes no Ownership Evidence.