ADR-0205: A maintainer publishes releases to Maven Central

• Status: accepted; amends ADR-0126 (Central gets a release when its inputs changed) and ADR-0151 (every release publishes the Java client)
• Date: 2026-10-20
• Deciders: Mahdi Amirabdollahi

Context

Every push to main that changes the image cuts a release, which is dozens a month. Each one published the Java client to Maven Central, and the plugin API too whenever the backend changed, which is nearly every release. Central limits how much a namespace publishes, and io.github.sudoitir is shared with other projects, so these uploads used up the allowance. A plugin author or a Java client user needs a release on Central now and then, not every one.

Decision

Maven Central gets a release only when a maintainer publishes it.

• The two Central jobs leave the release in ci.yml and become publish-central.yml, a workflow_dispatch workflow. A maintainer runs it with a release's version (Actions → Publish to Maven Central → Run workflow, or gh workflow run publish-central.yml -f version=YYYY.MM.N).
• One run publishes that release's plugin API (io.github.sudoitir:rahdar) and its Java client (io.github.sudoitir:rahdar-client). The API still publishes only when the backend changed since the newest version on Central, and japicmp still gates it on Contract.VERSION (ADR-0102, ADR-0112).
• The run refuses a version that is not a release tag. Runs do not overlap. Only people with write access to the repository can start one.
• Docker Hub, the GitHub release, its attached jar and OpenAPI document, and npm (the plugin SDK and the TypeScript client) still come from every release.

Consequences

• Central holds the releases a maintainer chose, not every release. The plugin API's japicmp baseline is the newest version on Central, so a break is still caught against what plugin authors build on.
• A plugin built against a Rahdar release needs that release on Central first: its maintainer publishes it, or the plugin's author builds the release from its tag into ~/.m2.
• The Java client on Central can lag the server. Its version still names the release it was generated from, and every release attaches the OpenAPI document to generate one locally.

Alternatives considered

• Publish on a schedule (weekly). Bounded, but it publishes when nobody needs it and makes someone who does wait.
• Publish only when Contract.VERSION changes. Fewer uploads, but a plugin author who needs a fix that keeps the contract would get nothing.
• Keep publishing every release. It exceeds the allowance.