Flex internal releases

Internal Flex builds for Opentrons staff and early validation. App tags use an ot3@ prefix in opentrons.

Stack repos

Robot-stack tooling

just go, just track-builds, and just invalidate-cloudfront are advisory: they sync local clones under this workspace, print tables and analysis, and emit copy-paste commands. A human (or agent) runs git tag -a, git push, and aws cloudfront create-invalidation elsewhere. Nothing here pushes tags, triggers CI, or invalidates CloudFront by itself.

robot-stack-infra is always cloned for reference; it is not included in release tagging tables.

Plan a release non-interactively, for example:

just go --non-interactive --skip-assumptions --path flex --release-type external --stability stable

Release branch

Flex internal tags default-branch HEAD. No chore_release branch is used.

Default version inference: highest ot3@X.Y.Z base merged into edge.

When does just go say a new tag is needed?

For each repo, automation/go.py uses the release branch described above, finds the newest annotated tag for the selected channel on that branch (sorted by creator date, merged into the branch), and compares the branch tip commit.

Tags must be annotated (git tag -a … -m 'chore(release): …') so git tag -l --sort=-creatordate reflects real release order. Stack repo tag messages often reference the monorepo release version.

Pushing a tag triggers CI builds in the tagged repo. The app monorepo tag drives app artifacts; stack repo tags drive robot OS and firmware builds.

How the next tag is chosen

In just go, Flex uses Stability: stable or unstable (unstable means alpha builds).

App (opentrons)

• Stable: ot3@X.Y.Z if not already on the branch; otherwise patch bump (e.g. ot3@8.5.0 → ot3@8.5.1).
• Alpha (unstable): increment ot3@X.Y.Z-alpha.N from existing tags on the branch (first alpha is ot3@8.5.0-alpha.0).

Robot OS (oe-core)

Internal tags use the internal@ prefix without a leading v. The base X.Y.Z comes from the same version you enter at the just go prompt (not from the newest oe-core tag alone).

• Alpha (unstable): internal@X.Y.Z-alpha.N. The alpha number N is coordinated with the app: go reads the next ot3@X.Y.Z-alpha.N from opentrons and reuses that N for oe-core.
• Stable: internal@X.Y.Z if that exact tag is not on the branch; otherwise patch bump (e.g. internal@8.5.0 → internal@8.5.1).

Firmware (ot3-firmware)

Internal tags look like internal@v26, internal@v27. When needed, go suggests one higher than the max merged tag number.

Tag push order

Push annotated tags in this order. Dependent stack repos first, app monorepo last. just go prints this reminder at the end of a release run.

Flex stack repos only get a new tag when their release branch tip is ahead of the latest channel tag on that branch.

Track release builds

After pushing the app tag, run (non-interactive form):

just track-builds --non-interactive --path flex --tag ot3@8.5.0-alpha.0 --wait

automation/track_builds.py locates GitHub Actions runs for:

1. App workflow on the monorepo (App test, build, and deploy)
2. Kickoff cross-repo dispatch (Start Flex build)
3. Robot OS build in oe-core

The Rich table lists key jobs (deploy, desktop builds, dispatch spawn, robot image build). The Slack copy block includes only two links:

Flex release `ot3@8.5.0-alpha.0`

- app: <app workflow run URL>
- flex: <robot OS workflow run URL>

--wait polls every 15 seconds until app, kickoff, and robot OS workflow runs all appear (default timeout 900 seconds). Polling checks workflow runs only; job details are fetched afterward with retries for transient GitHub 404s. Exit code 2 if a run is still missing after the timeout.

CloudFront invalidation

CI does not invalidate CloudFront automatically. After builds finish, print a copy-paste command (it does not run invalidation):

just invalidate-cloudfront --non-interactive --path flex --tag ot3@8.5.0-alpha.0

Invalidates /app/* and /ot3-oe/* on the channel host. Uses AWS profile robotics_robot_stack_prod-admin when credentials allow distribution lookup; otherwise the script prints a lookup command and placeholder ID.

Validate published artifacts

Optionally regenerate live manifest inventories:

just assets-pages

Or per-platform reports: just flex-assets / just ot2-assets. Pages: external assets, internal assets.

Where to find published releases

Internal Flex artifacts live on ot3-development.builds.opentrons.com.

Robot releases.json is the source of truth for on-robot updates. Desktop app updates use channel YAMLs (latest.yml, prerelease YAMLs) via electron-updater; those YAMLs are authoritative. App releases.json is parsed by a CloudFront edge function to pick the latest stable semver from production and route latest* requests accordingly.

Electron-updater YAMLs for internal app builds use the same filenames under the internal host:

• alpha.yml
• alpha-mac.yml
• alpha-linux.yml
• beta.yml
• beta-mac.yml
• beta-linux.yml
• latest.yml
• latest-mac.yml
• latest-linux.yml

See also: Flex internal assets.