Add release workflow to main (dispatch-only)

[umair-ably]

What

Brings exactly two files from #225 (pubsub-split/release-tooling) onto main:

• .github/workflows/release.yml — the workflow_dispatch-only release workflow that publishes ably/pubsub-server through the distribution mirror
• scripts/release-preflight.php — the dependency-free pre-flight it calls

Nothing else from #225 comes with it: no release-dry-run job in check.yml, no CONTRIBUTING.md release section, no .gitattributes export-ignore line. Those belong with the restructured tree, not with the legacy layout on main.

Both files are byte-identical to #225's versions — the diff between the two refs over those paths is empty:

$ git diff origin/pubsub-split/release-tooling -- .github/workflows/release.yml scripts/release-preflight.php
$ echo $?
0

Why

GitHub only registers a workflow_dispatch workflow once its file exists on the repository's default branch. The split work merges to integration/v2 and will not reach main until GA, so without this copy release.yml cannot be dispatched against any ref — not even the branch that defines it. This is plan step 15b, row 3 of the PR stack in step 10b.

Once on main, the workflow becomes dispatchable against any ref that carries the split layout:

gh workflow run release.yml --ref integration/v2 -f version=2.0.0-rc1

That unblocks, in order:

• the mirror seed — the first dispatch is what creates ably/ably-pubsub-php-dist's history and its first plain <version> tag (plan step 15c);
• Packagist registration of ably/pubsub-server against the mirror URL, which is what makes the README badges and composer require resolve at all (step 15c);
• the 2.0.0-rc1 prerelease as a real Packagist install rather than a VCS stanza (step 21), and the deliberate guardrail tests from a throwaway branch (step 15b).

None of those can wait for integration/v2 to merge, which is the whole point of decoupling them.

Inert on main

The workflow has no push or pull_request trigger, so only an explicit dispatch can start it. Dispatched at main, the pre-flight refuses the legacy layout and nothing is pushed:

$ php scripts/release-preflight.php --version 2.0.0 --skip-remote
Release pre-flight for 2.0.0

  ok   no Composer-valid tag at or above 2.0.0 in this repository (21 tag(s) inspected, local only)
  ok   tag pubsub-server/2.0.0 in this repository does not exist yet
  ok   skipped the mirror tag check for ably/ably-pubsub-php-dist (--skip-remote)

4 pre-flight failure(s):
  FAIL Defaults::LIB_VERSION is '1.1.12', expected '2.0.0'
  FAIL the top CHANGELOG.md heading is '1.1.12', expected '2.0.0'
  FAIL composer.json name is 'ably/ably-php', expected 'ably/pubsub-server' — this ref does not carry the ably/pubsub-server package, so there is nothing to release from it
  FAIL composer validate --strict failed:
        ./composer.json is valid, but with a few warnings
        - require.rybakit/msgpack : unbound version constraints (>=0.9.1) should be avoided

Nothing has been pushed. Fix all of the above and dispatch again.

Exit 1. The pre-flight reports every failure rather than aborting on the first, so the decisive one — this ref is not the ably/pubsub-server package — is always in the output even though the version-site mismatches are listed above it. No editing of the script was needed to make the refusal legible here.

Belt and braces beyond the gate: the mirror repository ably/ably-pubsub-php-dist and the MIRROR_PUSH_TOKEN secret do not exist yet, so no publishing step could succeed even if the pre-flight were passed.

For information (the dry-run job is deliberately not added to main), --dry-run on this ref reports version sites agreeing at 1.1.12 and then the same two composer.json failures, exit 1.

actionlint .github/workflows/release.yml is clean, and php -l scripts/release-preflight.php reports no syntax errors.

⚠️ Merge precondition

Per plan step 24, the 1.x maintenance branch (maintenance/1.x, name TBC org-wide) must be cut from the last 1.x release, 1.1.12, before this merges.

For PHP nothing on main actually breaks legacy releases: 1.x publishing is a manual tag-and-release process and Packagist indexes tags, so there is no tag-triggered workflow for this file to displace. The precondition is kept anyway, so the rule is uniform across the SDKs and so a future 1.x fix never has to be untangled from split tooling.

While the branch is being cut, note the tag rule this workflow exists to enforce: 1.x tags must stay plain 1.x.y (the ably/ably-php package is supposed to index them) and 2.x tags must never be plain in this repository — only pubsub-server/<version>, which Composer skips as an invalid version name. #225 sets out why in full: a plain 2.0.0 tag here becomes ably/ably-php version 2.0.0 and is served as latest to every consumer, and deleting the tag afterwards does not undo it.

Keep in sync

If #225 changes either file before it merges, re-copy both here so the two copies cannot drift. The intent is that main's copy is a mirror of #225's, never a fork of it.

Siblings

• ably-python#685
• ably-ruby#455

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