draft-release: handle first-release repos and fail fast on required files

[Copilot]

fixes #37

draft-release failed on repositories with no prior releases because version discovery could return blank values, and required file checks were not explicit. This update adds a first-release path and immediate, actionable failures for missing release artifacts.

• Version resolution for first release

  • get_release_version() now handles blank current_version as a valid first-release case.
  • If no next version can be derived, it raises a clear error instructing maintainers to provide version-tag.

• Fail-fast required file validation

  • prepare_draft_release() now explicitly validates required files (CHANGELOG, VERSION, CITATION) up front.
  • Missing files now produce a FileNotFoundError with file-specific guidance instead of failing later in the flow.

• No-release-history workflow behavior

  • draft-release/action.yml now marks the semver step with continue-on-error: true so first-release repos can proceed when no prior release metadata exists.

• Docs and release tests alignment

  • Draft-release docs now call out first-release version-tag usage and required file expectations.
  • Release tests were updated/added for blank current version, missing manual version, missing required files, and first-release changelog extraction behavior.

- name: Get current and next versions
  id: semver
  uses: ietf-tools/semver-action@v1
  continue-on-error: true

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 94.44444% with 1 line in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 97.52%. Comparing base (51aec38) to head (ee2d5b7).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
src/ccbr_actions/release.py	94.44%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #179      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   97.81%   97.52%   -0.29%     
==========================================
  Files          11       11              
  Lines         595      607      +12     
==========================================
+ Hits          582      592      +10     
- Misses         13       15       +2     

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates the draft-release composite action and supporting Python helpers/tests to support repositories with no prior release history and to fail early with actionable errors when required release artifacts are missing.

Changes:

• Add fail-fast validation for required release files (CHANGELOG, VERSION/DESCRIPTION, CITATION) in prepare_draft_release().
• Support “first release” scenarios where the semver step returns blank current_version, and require an explicit manual version-tag when no next version can be derived.
• Update the composite action, docs, and tests to align with first-release behavior and required-file expectations.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
src/ccbr_actions/release.py	Adds required-file validation and first-release version/changelog handling changes
tests/test_release.py	Adds/updates tests for first-release version resolution, required-file failures, and changelog extraction
draft-release/action.yml	Allows the semver discovery step to fail without stopping the workflow (first-release support)
draft-release/README.md / draft-release/README.qmd	Documents first-release version-tag usage and required input files

[kelly-sovacool]

@copilot ensure that these changes will also work for R package repos, which use NEWS.md instead of CHANGELOG.md and have the version in DESCRIPTION instead of VERSION.

[Copilot]

@copilot ensure that these changes will also work for R package repos, which use NEWS.md instead of CHANGELOG.md and have the version in DESCRIPTION instead of VERSION.

Added in the latest commit. Two new tests cover the R package paths introduced by this PR:

• test_prepare_draft_release_r_package_missing_news – verifies that a missing NEWS.md raises FileNotFoundError with a clear message naming the file.
• test_prepare_draft_release_r_package_first_release – verifies the first-release path (current_version="") works end-to-end for R packages using NEWS.md and DESCRIPTION.