Please revert to the previous deploy strategy

[bfabio]

The new deployment process introduces unnecessary complexity and fragility.

Previously, deployment was rolling: every merge to main went live automatically, and Vercel preview URLs on PRs ensured that patches compiled and worked as expected. This setup enabled quick and safe releases, with a clear workflow for verifying changes.

The new approach makes deployments more manual and error-prone, delaying the release of fixes and features to users. It also increases the risk of inconsistencies going unnoticed.

We no longer need a long-lived branch, that made sense during the refactor phase, but now that the refactored version is live, we need a more agile and incremental release process.

Symptoms of the current state include #441 (point 5: No confusion exists if the deploy is always up to date, and consequentially no need for knowing the version).

Please consider reverting to the previous deploy model.

[valeriocomo]

Hi @bfabio. This has been a pain point I've been through. The as-is of today is just an automated reproduction of the manual process.

When I started managing the project, I had to:

• Understand the workflow ( CONTRIBUTING.md guides adopting Git Flow )
• Understand how to deploy
• Understand how to do all the automatic operation (version bumping, publiccode.yml update, changelog update)

At the time, when I faced this situation, I'd have migrate to Github flow (just main branch, no develop branch) but it wasn't the right moment because we had to deliver.

Basically, as result, I found out a way to properly deploy the app. But, I had to make some trade-off decision and that's why this solution is not the best. And, to be honest, I'm aware and I agree with you when you state that there's complexity and fragility of this solution.
Nevertheless, I'd like to change the workflow of this project as soon as possible.

thank you for sharing your idea.

[bfabio]

@valeriocomo thanks, let me help you with that.

I'll do a PR reverting it to the rolling release and if you want we can chat and I can show you how to handle updates with zero to minimal manual steps.

[valeriocomo]

@bfabio It would be great. Sound well