chore: migrate to NX Release with programmatic API for alpha builds

[Copilot]

Overview

Migrated from Lerna to NX Release. Production releases use Version Plans via nx.json configuration. Alpha releases use NX Release programmatic API to bypass version plans and apply prerelease versioning without git operations.

Changes:

• script/release-alpha.mjs: New script using releaseVersion() and releasePublish() from nx/release API

  • Applies prerelease specifier with custom preid (e.g., alpha.abc123)
  • Disables git operations (gitCommit: false, gitTag: false, stageChanges: false)
  • Publishes with alpha tag to npm

• publish-alpha.yml: Replaced bash workaround (moving .nx/version-plans) with single command:

  node script/release-alpha.mjs --preid="alpha.${SHORT_SHA}"

• publish-production.yml: Uses nx release -y (removed --dry-run flag)

• nx.json: Configured for production with version plans, git operations, and GitHub releases

Why programmatic API for alpha:
Version plans cannot be used with specifier arguments. The programmatic API allows direct control over versioning parameters, cleanly separating alpha (prerelease with no git ops) from production (version plans with git ops) workflows.

PR Checklist

• Related to designs: N/A
• Related to JIRA ticket: N/A
• I have run this code to verify it works
• This PR includes unit tests for the code change (N/A - infrastructure change)
• This PR includes testing instructions tests for the code change
• The alpha package of this PR is passing end-to-end tests in all relevant Codecademy repositories

Testing Instructions

Test alpha script locally:

# Dry run to verify versioning logic
node script/release-alpha.mjs --preid=alpha.test123 --dryRun

# Should version all packages as prerelease with correct dependencies

Test production release (dry run):

# Create a test version plan
echo -e "---\ngamut: patch\n---\n\nTest" > .nx/version-plans/test.md

# Verify it works
npx nx release --dry-run

# Clean up
rm .nx/version-plans/test.md

In CI:

• Alpha builds will publish on PR open/sync with tag alpha.{SHORT_SHA}
• Production releases will publish on merge to main using version plans

PR Links and Envs

N/A - Infrastructure change, no application changes

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• https://storage.googleapis.com/prod-north-america/62ebf733004c864a372a0e81/8a2df9ef-4f67-44d5-9858-c9e0e3dcef19-logs
  • Triggering command: /usr/local/bin/node node script/release-alpha.mjs --preid=alpha.test123 --dryRun (http block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)

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All committers have signed the CLA.

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[nx-cloud]

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☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2026-01-30 14:56:11 UTC

[jakemhiller]

@copilot there are problems with the CLI usage of nx release. --skipPublish and --yes are not valid options. make sure you are using the nx mcp and documentation https://nx.dev/docs/features/manage-releases to know exactly how to use nx release.

[Copilot]

@copilot there are problems with the CLI usage of nx release. --skipPublish and --yes are not valid options. make sure you are using the nx mcp and documentation https://nx.dev/docs/features/manag...

Fixed in commit 49904d3. Changes made:

Production workflow:

• Changed --yes to -y (the correct short form)

Alpha workflow:

• Removed invalid --skipPublish flag (correct flag is --skip-publish and only works on nx release, not nx release version)
• Removed --yes from nx release publish (not a valid flag for the publish subcommand)
• Changed to use nx release --skip-publish prerelease --preid="alpha.{SHA}" followed by nx release publish --tag="alpha.{SHA}"
• Added workaround to temporarily move .nx/version-plans directory during alpha builds (since version plans can't be used with a specifier argument)

Both workflows now use the correct NX Release CLI syntax per the official documentation.

[github-actions]

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