Replace the build-counter version scheme (every alpha push monotonically
bumps the patch number, producing immutable :0.0.X tags that look
indistinguishable from stable releases) with proper semver pre-release
suffixes. Stable owns clean vX.Y.Z; alpha and beta carry
vX.Y.Z-{alpha,beta}[.N] indicating the next-stable target.
The next-stable target is the patch-bump of the latest clean
<prefix>-vX.Y.Z tag. Counter N is per-channel (alpha and beta count
separately) and resets when a new stable advances next-patch. Used
only for zddc-server image tags, where every release is git-tagged;
HTML tools omit the counter since alpha/beta cuts there don't tag.
release-image.sh:
- New CLI: sh release-image.sh [alpha|beta|stable] [<version>].
- Default channel alpha. Version arg only valid (and only optional)
for stable.
- Auto-derives the version via next_prerelease for alpha/beta, and
patch-bump for unspecified stable.
- Now creates the git tag itself (the auto-derived version is no
longer something the operator can predict in advance), but does
not push — operator finishes with `git push --tags`.
shared/build-lib.sh:
- Add next_prerelease(channel, tag_prefix) helper.
- compute_build_label embeds v<next-stable>-{alpha,beta} in the
on-page label for plain and --release alpha|beta builds.
- Plain builds: v<next-stable>-alpha · <ts> · <sha>[-dirty]
--release alpha: v<next-stable>-alpha · <date> · <sha>
--release beta: v<next-stable>-beta · <date> · <sha>
--release [<version>]: v<X.Y.Z> (clean stable, unchanged shape).
Pre-release semver ordering (vX.Y.Z-alpha.1 < vX.Y.Z-alpha.2 <
vX.Y.Z-beta.1 < vX.Y.Z) is honored by registry tag sorting,
git tag --sort=-v:refname, sort -V, npm, cargo — so consumers can
pin or compare versions without surprises.
Existing zddc-server-v0.0.{3..7} git tags and registry tags are
audit history; not rewritten. Going forward, alpha/beta cuts produce
v0.0.8-{alpha,beta}.N format, and clean v0.0.8 is reserved for a
deliberate stable promotion.
freshen-channel needs no code change. It runs --release <channel>
inside a worktree at the latest stable tag, where the build-lib.sh
at that tag is still the old version producing old-format labels;
the first stable cut after this commit will propagate the new format
to subsequent freshens (per the existing "build pipeline at the tag"
reproducibility policy).
AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md updated.
ZDDC
94591397cf
