#2369 fix(release): publish Electron updater manifests even when one platform fails

Problem

macOS users on v0.17.2 get a 404 on auto-update:

Cannot find channel "latest-mac.yml" update info: HttpError: 404
url: https://github.com/different-ai/openwork/releases/download/v0.17.2/latest-mac.yml

The v0.17.2 GitHub release has the mac/linux installers and .blockmap files but no latest-mac.yml / latest-linux*.yml updater feeds, even though the release notes say they should be attached.

Root cause

The v0.17.2 tag run (run 28069104797) had this job graph:

Each Electron build uploads its installers to the release and its latest*.yml as a workflow artifact. Publish Electron Assets is the job that downloads those artifacts, merges them per-arch, validates, and uploads the merged latest-mac.yml / latest-linux*.yml to the release.

That job was gated on needs.publish-electron.result == 'success'. Because the Windows leg failed, the whole publish-electron matrix is failure, so Publish Electron Assets was skipped — the mac/linux updater manifests were never attached. The draft release was then published as latest without its updater feeds, so every mac install now 404s on latest-mac.yml.

A failure in one unrelated platform (Windows) held the macOS updater feed hostage.

Fix

Two if: changes in release-macos-aarch64.yml:

1. publish-electron-assets now runs as long as resolve-release/verify-release succeeded and build_electron == 'true', even when publish-electron partially failed (success || failure). The merge script (publish-electron-assets.mjs) already only publishes manifests that were actually produced, and validateManifest() requires latest-mac.yml to contain both mac-arm64 and mac-x64 entries — so a genuinely missing mac arch still fails the job correctly rather than silently shipping a broken feed. A Windows-only failure no longer suppresses the mac/linux feeds.

2. publish-release no longer accepts publish-electron-assets being skipped when build_electron == 'true': a release can only be flipped to --latest once the updater manifests were actually published (result == 'success', or skipped only when electron builds are off). This prevents a "latest" release from ever existing without its updater feeds.

No change to the merge script was needed — it already handles missing manifests gracefully and validates the merged feeds.

Validation

Reproduced the merge locally using the actual electron-macos-arm64 / electron-macos-x64 artifacts from the failed run. With the fix, Publish Electron Assets would have succeeded and produced this valid merged feed:

version: 0.17.2
files:
  - url: openwork-mac-arm64-0.17.2.zip
    sha512: /+qUMv8o6eqUMoBs6nHPGi3XhR6eEjS8mmNaOS/PClInb3/B35LIDkV++D59ObRWhkOPK9u7OIWOnxAw8GHb9g==
    size: 237542865
  - url: openwork-mac-arm64-0.17.2.dmg
    sha512: TIt/Xm8FNjUUCXogqqYyMsXs8nwym5qA5DRnNZN/6iTXZNqkFNKW6R/OAjqQ8wK6dztQFI+ujzZCnI8bBfg1fw==
    size: 246847262
  - url: openwork-mac-x64-0.17.2.zip
    sha512: AP9mvo6HBFF/S28cmdv8PY2SFd6Axis41W7DdrArJX6BxAChHTAjEIWPuI6w6HyjVK4vR10BiHJYKzyGTWkFAg==
    size: 253271290
  - url: openwork-mac-x64-0.17.2.dmg
    sha512: VU8HQ0hDgzPQ8KXfsKyoRgi29iNx0uSnH6ELjjpqqWm3hcjBM2BBQ9xLHEZX26jSxqdQLS5ImBX6CFVMpI86kw==
    size: 262911667
releaseDate: '2026-06-24T01:43:00.413Z'

YAML validated (YAML.load_file OK). Behavior matrix:

• All platforms succeed → identical to today (manifests published, release goes latest).
• Windows fails, mac/linux succeed → manifests published, release goes latest with mac/linux feeds (no Windows installer/feed). Previously: manifests skipped, broken latest release.
• A mac arch fails → validateManifest fails publish-electron-assets → publish-release skipped → release stays draft. Safe.
• build_electron == false → unchanged (publish-release proceeds as today).

Retro-fixing v0.17.2

This PR prevents recurrence for future releases. For the already-shipped v0.17.2, a maintainer with release write access can attach the missing feed right now:

gh run download 28069104797 -R different-ai/openwork -n electron-macos-arm64 -D dist/arm64
gh run download 28069104797 -R different-ai/openwork -n electron-macos-x64  -D dist/x64
GITHUB_REPOSITORY=different-ai/openwork RUNNER_TEMP=/tmp/ow \
  node scripts/release/publish-electron-assets.mjs --manifests-only dist v0.17.2
# (same for the linux artifacts → latest-linux.yml / latest-linux-arm64.yml)

Or cut a new release once this is merged.

Out of scope (possible follow-ups)

• aur-publish still requires publish-electron.result == 'success', so a Windows failure would still skip the AUR publish. Same class of coupling; left untouched here to keep this fix surgical.
• The Windows Electron build itself failing on v0.17.2 is a separate issue.