ci: replace auto minor tagging with release-please

.github/workflows/ci.yaml

@@ -169,10 +169,3 @@ jobs:
       - name: Dependency barrier
         if: contains(needs.*.result, 'failure') || contains(needs.*.result, 'cancelled')
         run: exit 1
-
-  tag-minor-release:
-    if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/master' }}
-    needs:
-      - all
-    uses: ./.github/workflows/tag-minor-release.yaml
-    secrets: inherit

.github/workflows/release-please.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, RWTH Aachen University
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+name: Release Please
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [master]
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+permissions:
+  actions: write
+  contents: write
+  pull-requests: write
+
+jobs:
+  release-please:
+    name: Prepare Release
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - id: release
+        uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
+        with:
+          token: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_PLEASE_TOKEN || secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          target-branch: master
+
+      # A tag pushed with GITHUB_TOKEN starts no workflow, but a dispatch always does.
+      - name: Start the release pipeline
+        if: steps.release.outputs.release_created == 'true'
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          TAG: ${{ steps.release.outputs.tag_name }}
+        run: gh workflow run ci.yaml --repo "${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}" --ref "${TAG}"

.pre-commit-config.yaml

@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ repos:
     rev: "v0.13.0"
     hooks:
       - id: markdownlint
-        exclude: ^paper\.md$
+        exclude: ^paper\.md$|^CHANGELOG\.md$
         args: [-r, "~MD013,~MD033,~MD024"]
 
   - repo: local

.release-please-manifest.json

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  ".": "1.0.1"
+}

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
 
 project(villas-node
-    VERSION 1.1.0
+    VERSION 1.1.0 # x-release-please-version
     DESCRIPTION "Open-Source Real-time Multi-protocol Gateway"
     HOMEPAGE_URL "https://www.fein-aachen.org/projects/villas-node/"
     LANGUAGES C CXX

REUSE.toml

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ SPDX-PackageDownloadLocation = "https://fein-aachen.org/en/projects/villas-node/
 
 [[annotations]]
 path = [
+    "CHANGELOG.md",
     "**.prefs",
     "**.vi",
     "**.opal",

release-please-config.json

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
+  "release-type": "simple",
+  "packages": {
+    ".": {
+      "extra-files": [
+        "CMakeLists.txt",
+        {
+          "type": "toml",
+          "path": "python/pyproject.toml",
+          "jsonpath": "$.project.version"
+        },
+        {
+          "type": "json",
+          "path": "doc/package.json",
+          "jsonpath": "$.version"
+        }
+      ]
+    }
+  }
+}