Your first release#
Process-PSModule is driven entirely by pull requests. There is no manual publish step, no version file to edit, and no tag to push by hand.
The flow#
- Clone the repository, create a branch, and make your changes.
- Push the branch and open a pull request against
main. - The workflow builds the module, runs tests on Windows, Linux, and macOS, lints the repository, and reports back on the pull request.
- Apply a version label to declare release intent (see below). Without a label, the change releases as a patch.
- Merge the pull request. The workflow publishes the module to the PowerShell Gallery, creates a GitHub Release and tag, and deploys the documentation site to GitHub Pages.
Version labels#
| Label | Effect |
|---|---|
major / breaking |
Bump MAJOR. |
minor / feature |
Bump MINOR. |
patch / fix |
Bump PATCH. This is the default when no label is applied. |
Prerelease |
Publish a prerelease version from the pull request, before it is merged. |
NoRelease |
Run the pipeline but skip publication. |
Conflicting labels (for example major together with NoRelease) are rejected and block the merge. The label names are
configurable — see Settings.
For the full model, including prerelease promotion and what a release produces, see Versioning and releases.
Testing before you merge#
Add the Prerelease label to publish a prerelease version from the open pull request. The prerelease is installable
from the PowerShell Gallery but is not promoted as the latest stable version, so it can be validated before the pull
request is merged. When the pull request is closed without merging, the prerelease versions and tags created for it are
cleaned up automatically.
When nothing is released#
If a pull request only touches files outside the configured important-file patterns — documentation, CI tweaks, comment typos — the build, test, and publish stages are skipped and no release is created. A comment on the pull request explains why. See important-file change detection to change which paths trigger a release.
What runs when#
Not every job runs for every trigger. See the scenario matrix for the full table.