Company: Protocol Labs
Protocol Labs is a research, development, and deployment lab for network protocols. Their mission is to drive breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. During our collaboration, the Kubo team at Protocol Labs started considering offering users more visibility into the release process to improve Kubo's user experience.
Goals of the project
- Make Kubo's ambitious monthly release cycle possible and sustainable
- Improve visibility and predictability of the release process for users
- Reduce the strain on maintainers caused by the release process
Rough Timeline
- Embedded with the team to understand the current release process and challenges
- Rewrote the release instructions and paired with the team to identify gaps
- Designed and implemented the KuboReleaser tool based on the gathered requirements
- Released KuboReleaser and continued to iterate and improve
IPDX Special Expertise Benefits
Our deep understanding of developer experience allowed us to quickly identify pain points and inefficiencies in the release process. By embedding with the team, we gained valuable insights into the unwritten, "between the lines" knowledge that is critical for improving developer experience.
Our expertise in building specialized tooling enabled us to design and implement KuboReleaser, a tool that streamlined the release process and made it more manageable for the team.
The Results
- Kubo's monthly release cycle became possible and sustainable
- The release process is now more predictable and visible to users
- Maintainers can focus more on developing Kubo instead of babysitting the release process
- The release process is now repeatable, self-documenting, and easy to extend
The Deliverables
- KuboReleaser: A CLI tool written in Go that streamlines the release process
- Improved release instructions and documentation
- Migration of some workflows from CircleCI to GitHub Actions
Links and references
- Kuboreleaser Repository
- Example of a Kubo release before KuboReleaser
- Piotr’s Conference at IPFS Thing 2023
