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Release and build notes

This page is a placeholder for Phase 2 README cleanup. Keep operational release details here or in a focused contributor page instead of expanding the public README.

Current rule​

Do not duplicate release flow, command reference, or long installer notes across public pages. The canonical docs site should own user-facing documentation; the README should remain a gateway to docs, releases, and source.

Use Release QA protocol for the manual pre-publish compatibility pass across Glyphs 3.5 and Glyphs 4.

Prepared version​

Version 1.3.0 is the Glyphs 4 safe-compatibility release. It preserves the unified Glyphs 3.5/4 bundle introduced in 1.2.24 while adding format-aware, metadata-preserving outline inspection and editing. It also ships the repository Codex marketplace plug-in, embedded feedback panel, guarded preview/apply plans, and the fail-closed local publishing workflow.

Release highlights:

  • Pin the official GlyphsSDK Glyphs4 source at 0f5422db727b78cb42abfb386f33ae0b382b0c4d.
  • Bundle the official version 3/4 specifications and regular .glyphs and fontinfo.plist schemas with stable source metadata.
  • Add formatVersion and lastSavedAppVersion to font summaries and report the format before and after save_font without requesting conversion.
  • Introduce pathDataVersion: 2 while retaining legacy payload input.
  • Preserve mixed shape order, grouping, styling, user data, higher-order interpolation attributes, raw node enums, and unknown properties during path edits.
  • Reject unsafe rewrites before mutation and restore the original layer after failed writes or verification.
  • Add richer shape, component, grouping, attribute, and compatibility diagnostics.
  • Add the Codex marketplace plug-in, synchronize its six skills from canonical repository sources, and expose bounded feedback-panel tools for status, font, glyph, OpenType, spacing, kerning, and handle review.
  • Require local tests, exact remote/tag alignment, Developer ID signatures, notarization, Gatekeeper acceptance, checksums, and draft-asset review before publishing installer artifacts.

The compatibility boundary is intentional: dedicated authoring for Glyphs 4-only gradients, palettes, shape groups, contextual kerning, smart-glyph axes, and higher-order interpolation remains deferred. Glyphs continues to own file-format upgrades.

This prep includes an undo-safety hardening pass after live Glyphs 4 testing showed the recovery dialog after a disposable glyph create/path/delete probe. Glyphs font/layer mutations now route through shared public-API helpers and the manual QA protocol isolates mutating smoke tests. Version 1.2.15 superseded 1.2.14, which exposed a repeated Objective-C helper-class registration error during the first isolated live mutation probe. Version 1.2.16 superseded 1.2.15 after live testing found an empty kerning parent key left behind after pair removal and an over-constrained metrics update that needed explicit readback warnings. Version 1.2.17 superseded 1.2.16 after Glyphs 3 live testing found get_glyph_details could hang on component transform conversion. Version 1.2.18 superseded 1.2.17 after the Glyphs 3 live retest showed the same path could still hang when a Glyphs 3 transform proxy was indexed. Version 1.2.19 superseded 1.2.18 after the Glyphs 3 live retest showed layer.components itself can hang in read-only component payloads. Version 1.2.20 superseded 1.2.19 after a macOS process sample showed the remaining Glyphs 3 hang was GSLayer LSB on the MCP background thread. Version 1.2.21 superseded 1.2.20 after the follow-up sample showed Glyphs 3 can also hang inside GSLayer LSB on the main thread; sidebearing reads now return an explicit unknown value under Glyphs 3 instead of calling the unsafe getter. Version 1.2.22 superseded 1.2.21 after the Glyphs 3 live retest showed sidebearing setters can also hang after component edits; sidebearing writes are skipped under Glyphs 3 and surfaced through structured readback warnings instead of blocking the server. Version 1.2.23 superseded 1.2.22 after the restart-forced retest showed the component fallback path could still reach Glyphs 3's unsafe layer.components proxy; Glyphs 3 now refuses that fallback and returns structured verification failures instead of risking an app freeze. Version 1.2.24 documents the live Glyphs 3 compatibility limits as both a public docs page and a bundled MCP resource (glyphs://glyphs-mcp/glyphs3-compatibility) while preserving the Glyphs 4 behavior validated in 1.2.23.

Local verification for this prep:

/usr/local/bin/python3.12 -m unittest discover -s src/glyphs-mcp/tests

Result: 354 Python tests passed, 1 skipped; 78 macOS installer tests passed; the unsigned Debug installer build completed successfully.

Future cleanup targets​

  • Move long release-package instructions out of README when Phase 2 starts.
  • Keep version-sensitive release steps close to the scripts they describe.
  • Link public users to the latest GitHub release instead of copying release asset URLs in multiple places.

Verification​

Before publishing documentation updates:

cd website
npm run build

Then check that public docs links still point to:

https://thierryc.github.io/Glyphs-mcp/