### Problem to solve Now that we have a releases page (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/41766), there should be a straightforward way to create a release from the `.gitlab-ci.yml` without making curls to the [Releases API](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/api/releases/index.html). ### Target audience Automation engineers who are working on releases and want a native way to add releases without using `script:` elements to curl an API ### Further details This is good polish for the releases feature in that it makes the integration feel better integrated into the product. Also, this provides better overall experience once features like https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/56023 are implemented. ### Proposal Introduce a new job syntax that can create a release automatically using `POST /projects/:id/releases` behind the scenes: ```yaml stages: - build - test - release release: stage: release only: tags script: - make changelog | tee release_changelog.txt release: name: Release $CI_TAG_NAME description: ./release_changelog.txt assets: links: - name: cool-app.zip url: http://my.awesome.download.site/1.0-$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA.zip - name: cool-app.exe url: http://my.awesome.download.site/1.0-$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA.exe ``` - `release` indicates that the job produces release asset(s). It is active only if git reference is tag - `release:name` specifies the release name. If it's not created yet, then create a new entry. - `release:description` specifies a file containing the description of the release (can point to changelog) These keys will be built in this iteration and exposed via the API. Assets will be supported in a follow-up issue https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/36133 - `release:assets` adds assets to the release. - `release:assets:links` an array of link-type assets - `release:assets:links:name` (optional) specifies the asset name. This will be used when downloading the asset if provided. - `release:assets:links:url` specified the link of an asset.