# Development and releases

Released applications should use a public Git tag. While changing DFTE with a sibling library, select a local `symlink://` or `file://` dependency from an ignored PlatformIO override rather than changing tracked application dependencies.

Before a release, update `library.json`, `CHANGELOG.md`, and the relevant guides, then run:

```bash
./scripts/check-docs.sh
./scripts/test.sh compile --platform esp8266
./scripts/test.sh compile --platform esp32
./scripts/prepare-release.sh vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH --tag
```

Push the branch and annotated tag. GitHub Actions repeats the board-free compile checks, validates the package, and creates a GitHub Release from that version’s changelog section. It does not publish to the PlatformIO Registry.

Back to [documentation](README.md) · [project overview](../README.md).