Branch model and release flow

LOTA uses a two-branch model: a stable storefront and an integration branch.

features (PR) --> lota-next (1) --> PR (merge commit) --> main (2)

(1) - v*-rc tags (pre-releases)
(2) - v* tags (stable releases)

main as the storefront

  • The default branch: it is what visitors see first.

  • Holds only fully stable, released code.

  • No direct pushes. Changes enter only through a pull request from lota-next, merged as a merge commit (no squash, no rebase) so the integration history is preserved. Done only by maintainers.

  • Stable releases are tagged here.

See reproducible-builds for how a tag is built and signed.

lota-next as the integration branch

  • The permanent integration branch where all new work lands first.

  • Release candidates are tagged here (v*-rc(x)). Release workflow marks any 0.x or --suffixed tag as a GitHub pre-release, so these show up under Releases as pre-releases.

  • The fuzzers and long-running CI (Syzkaller, configured separately) run against this branch.

  • The developer and testing policy lives in development/index; README-NEXT.rst is a short pointer to it, identical on both branches, so an integration merge never touches it.

Documentation hosting

The documentation site mirrors the branch model as two channels, both published to GitHub Pages from a single deploy (.github/workflows/docs-deploy.yml):

  • stable -- built from main and served at the site root. This is the released documentation; its source links resolve against main.

  • development -- built from lota-next and served under /lota-next/. It carries a banner, is labelled lota-next (<short-sha>), and is marked noindex so it does not compete with the stable pages in search.

Push to either branch rebuilds both channels and redeploys the whole site, so a change to one channel never overwrites the other. A switcher under the sidebar title moves between them.

Contributing

Open pull requests against lota-next, never main.

Because main is the default branch, a PR opened against it by an outside contributor is automatically retargeted to lota-next with an explanatory comment (.github/workflows/pr-router.yml).