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
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