OSS Release Preparation

Systematic workflow to prepare a repository for open-source publishing. Covers code quality, licensing, documentation, CI, and release readiness.

Key Principle: Convention Reuse

Before creating any file from scratch, check the user's sibling repositories for existing conventions. Users maintain consistency across their repos — reuse their LICENSE text, .golangci.yml, .gitignore, .github/workflows, .goreleaser.yaml, etc. from a recent, well-maintained repo.

How to find conventions:

1. Look at sibling directories (e.g., ls ../) for other repos by the same user
2. Pick a recently-updated repo with similar characteristics (same language, similar type)
3. Copy config files, adapting only what's project-specific (binary name, module path)

Step 0: Classify the Project

Before starting, determine the project type — this affects which steps apply: