fix: reduce release bundle to only necessary files

[allenhutchison]

Summary

• Switch from exclusion-based to inclusion-based archive creation
• Use node directly instead of npm (no package.json needed at runtime)
• Add validation for JSON structure before modification

Files included in release

Path	Purpose
dist/	Compiled JavaScript
commands/	CLI commands
node_modules/	Runtime dependencies
gemini-extension.json	Extension config (modified to use node dist/index.js)
deep-research-GEMINI.md	Documentation

Changes from development config

The release gemini-extension.json uses node dist/index.js instead of npm start, eliminating the need for package.json in the bundle.

Test plan

• Create a test release to verify archive contents

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores

  • Improved release workflow to stage artifacts, install production dependencies, and create a focused release archive with validation and progress messages.
  • Updated version management so the release version drives all packaged config files.
  • Added .gitignore rules to exclude release artifacts.

• New Features

  • Added a Gemini extension configuration enabling MCP server integration.

_{✏️ Tip: You can customize this high-level summary in your review settings.}

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

Reworks the release GitHub Actions workflow to stage artifacts into release/staging, install production dependencies there, robustly update JSON version fields, validate staging contents, and create a focused tarball containing only runtime files (dist, commands, node_modules, gemini-extension.json, deep-research-GEMINI.md). Adds release/gemini-extension.json and .gitignore entries for release outputs.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Release workflow .github/workflows/release.yml	Adds staging preparation step (creates release/staging, copies dist, commands, release assets, package files), introduces update_json_version helper using VERSION, installs production deps in staging (npm ci --omit=dev), validates required files/dirs, and tars only staging contents into a focused archive.
Release manifest release/gemini-extension.json	New release manifest defining name, version, contextFileName, and mcpServers entry running node with args ["dist/index.js"] in ${extensionPath}.
VCS ignores .gitignore	Adds rules to ignore release/staging/ and release/*.tar.gz artifacts.

Sequence Diagram(s)

(No sequence diagram generated.)

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• ci: add GitHub Actions workflows for CI and releases #8 — Prior changes to the release workflow; directly related to workflow/versioning/packaging behavior.

Poem

🐰 I hopped through staging, careful and spry,

Packed only the bits that must fly,
A manifest placed, versions set right,
Tarred up tidy, ready for flight. 🥕✨

Pre-merge checks

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title directly aligns with the main objective: optimizing the release bundle to include only necessary files by switching from exclusion-based to inclusion-based archive creation.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

---

📜 Recent review details

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 1042582 and 4030143.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• .github/workflows/release.yml
• .gitignore

🧰 Additional context used

🧠 Learnings (1)

📚 Learning: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z

Learnt from: CR
Repo: allenhutchison/gemini-cli-deep-research PR: 0
File: GEMINI.md:0-0
Timestamp: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z
Learning: Applies to gemini-extension.json : Define extension metadata and MCP server configuration in `gemini-extension.json`

Applied to files:

• .github/workflows/release.yml

🔇 Additional comments (5)

.gitignore (1)

36-38: LGTM!

The ignore patterns correctly exclude the staging directory and archive artifacts generated by the release workflow, preventing accidental commits of build outputs.

.github/workflows/release.yml (4)

37-75: Well-structured JSON update with proper validation.

The helper function correctly validates file existence, captures jq exit codes, validates the output JSON, and cleans up temp files on failure. Using jq --arg v "$VERSION" properly escapes the version string.

---

77-94: Clean staging workflow preparation.

The staging approach isolates release artifacts and enables production-only dependency installation. The set -e ensures failures propagate correctly. This addresses the previous feedback about including only runtime dependencies.

---

96-100: Correctly installs production dependencies only.

Using npm ci --omit=dev ensures the release bundle excludes dev dependencies, significantly reducing bundle size. This properly addresses the previous feedback about pruning dev dependencies.

---

102-140: Robust archive creation with comprehensive validation.

The validation loop collects all missing items before failing, providing a complete error report rather than failing on the first issue. Using -C "$STAGING" creates clean archive paths directly from the staging directory containing only production dependencies.

---

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

.github/workflows/release.yml (1)

51-57: Consider using production-only dependencies to reduce bundle size.

Including the entire node_modules directory can significantly increase the bundle size, potentially defeating the purpose of this PR (reducing release bundle size). Development dependencies are not needed at runtime.

🔎 Proposed optimization

Add a step before creating the release archive to prune development dependencies:

+      - name: Prepare production dependencies
+        run: |
+          # Create a clean production node_modules
+          rm -rf node_modules
+          npm ci --production
+
       - name: Create release archive
         run: |
           mkdir -p release

This ensures only production dependencies are included in the release bundle, reducing its size.

📜 Review details

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between a943d57 and 233c49b.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• .github/workflows/release.yml

🧰 Additional context used

🧠 Learnings (2)

📓 Common learnings

Learnt from: CR
Repo: allenhutchison/gemini-cli-deep-research PR: 0
File: GEMINI.md:0-0
Timestamp: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z
Learning: Applies to gemini-extension.json : Define extension metadata and MCP server configuration in `gemini-extension.json`

Learnt from: CR
Repo: allenhutchison/gemini-cli-deep-research PR: 0
File: GEMINI.md:0-0
Timestamp: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z
Learning: The project is structured as a Gemini CLI extension using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) with logic residing in `src/` and commands in `commands/`

📚 Learning: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z

Learnt from: CR
Repo: allenhutchison/gemini-cli-deep-research PR: 0
File: GEMINI.md:0-0
Timestamp: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z
Learning: Applies to gemini-extension.json : Define extension metadata and MCP server configuration in `gemini-extension.json`

Applied to files:

• .github/workflows/release.yml

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 3

📜 Review details

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 233c49b and 1042582.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• .github/workflows/release.yml
• release/gemini-extension.json

✅ Files skipped from review due to trivial changes (1)

• release/gemini-extension.json

🧰 Additional context used

🧠 Learnings (2)

📓 Common learnings

Learnt from: CR
Repo: allenhutchison/gemini-cli-deep-research PR: 0
File: GEMINI.md:0-0
Timestamp: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z
Learning: Applies to gemini-extension.json : Define extension metadata and MCP server configuration in `gemini-extension.json`

Learnt from: CR
Repo: allenhutchison/gemini-cli-deep-research PR: 0
File: GEMINI.md:0-0
Timestamp: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z
Learning: The project is structured as a Gemini CLI extension using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) with logic residing in `src/` and commands in `commands/`

📚 Learning: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z

Learnt from: CR
Repo: allenhutchison/gemini-cli-deep-research PR: 0
File: GEMINI.md:0-0
Timestamp: 2025-12-22T02:36:16.011Z
Learning: Applies to gemini-extension.json : Define extension metadata and MCP server configuration in `gemini-extension.json`

Applied to files:

• .github/workflows/release.yml