Release Runbook — 2026.Q3

This is the step-by-step procedure for cutting the first quarterly release of the Free eVTOL Corpus.

Step 1: Create the GitHub repo

Either via the GitHub CLI:

gh repo create openie-dev/free-evtol-corpus \
  --public \
  --description "Public-domain prior art commons for eVTOL and eVTOL-adjacent aircraft. CC0." \
  --homepage "https://openie-dev.github.io/free-evtol-corpus"

Or via the web UI at https://github.com/organizations/openie-dev/repositories/new with the same name, public, no README/license/gitignore (those are in the directory already).

Step 2: Push the prepared directory

From your local copy of this directory:

git init -b main
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit: free-evtol-corpus seed

Schema v0.1. CC0-1.0.
See SCHEMA.md and README.md for context."

git remote add origin git@github.com:openie-dev/free-evtol-corpus.git
git push -u origin main

Step 3: Install OpenTimestamps client

The release script needs ots for Bitcoin anchoring. Install it once:

pip install opentimestamps-client
# or
pipx install opentimestamps-client

Confirm:

ots --version

Step 4: Run a dry-run release 

./release.sh 2026.Q3 --dry-run

This validates the corpus, regenerates derived artifacts, and builds the deterministic tarball without any TSA submissions or git tagging. Inspect releases/2026.Q3/ to confirm the tarball contents and SHA-256.

Step 5: Run the actual release 

rm -rf releases/2026.Q3
./release.sh 2026.Q3

The script will:

  1. Validate the corpus passes strict mode
  2. Regenerate CORPUS_INDEX.md, lineage.json, per-corpus mirrors, cross-cuts
  3. Build the deterministic tarball
  4. Submit the hash to FreeTSA (RFC 3161, free)
  5. Submit the hash to DigiCert (RFC 3161, free)
  6. Submit to OpenTimestamps (Bitcoin anchoring, free)
  7. Write MANIFEST.md documenting the release
  8. Commit the release directory and tag the commit 2026.Q3

If FreeTSA or DigiCert is temporarily down, the script will warn and continue — as long as at least one RFC 3161 layer succeeds plus OpenTimestamps, the release is valid.

Step 6: Push the release 

git push origin main
git push origin 2026.Q3

Step 7: Upgrade the OpenTimestamps proof (in ~6 hours) 

ots upgrade releases/2026.Q3/corpus-2026.Q3.tar.gz.ots
git add releases/2026.Q3/corpus-2026.Q3.tar.gz.ots
git commit -m "release: upgrade 2026.Q3 OpenTimestamps proof"
git push

Step 8: Discoverability submissions

After the release tag is pushed and the OTS proof upgraded, the corpus exists publicly with cryptographic proof of pre-existence. The remaining work is making sure examiners and invalidity-contention attorneys actually find it.

In rough priority order:

8a. Zenodo for DOI assignment

  1. Go to https://zenodo.org/account/settings/github/
  2. Sign in with GitHub
  3. Find openie-dev/free-evtol-corpus and toggle it on
  4. Trigger a Zenodo deposit by creating a GitHub release pointing at the 2026.Q3 tag
  5. Zenodo automatically mints a DOI and archives the release tarball

Once the DOI is assigned, add it to the README and to MANIFEST.md.

8b. arXiv preprint

A 2-3 page methods paper is sufficient: schema, quality bar, timestamping ceremony, intended use as defensive publication. Submit to cs.RO or eess.SY.

8c. Google Patents non-patent literature

Google Patents indexes a subset of the open web. To accelerate:

  1. Add the repo URL to openie-dev.github.io with descriptive anchor text
  2. Submit the URL to Google Search Console
  3. If you’ve gone the arXiv route, the arXiv URL is already in Google Patents’ NPL corpus

8d. Internet Archive / Wayback Machine

Submit the GitHub repo URL and the release tarball URL to the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/save/https://github.com/openie-dev/free-evtol-corpus
https://web.archive.org/save/https://github.com/openie-dev/free-evtol-corpus/releases/tag/2026.Q3

8e. Strategic announcements

  • Blog post on openie.dev or openie-dev.github.io
  • Posts to relevant communities (r/eVTOL, r/aviation, Hacker News, AIAA mailing lists, Vertical Flight Society)
  • Direct outreach to academic labs working on eVTOL (NASA Langley/Glenn, Georgia Tech rotorcraft, TU Delft, DLR) — they are likely contributors and benefit from the commons existing
  • Direct outreach to patent attorneys working invalidity contention in aerospace — they are the consumers of the cross-cuts

Quarterly cadence

After 2026.Q3 ships, the cadence is:

  • 2026.Q4 in early October 2026
  • 2027.Q1 in early January 2027
  • 2027.Q2 in early April 2027

Each quarter captures the corpus state at that moment with full timestamping.

If something goes wrong

The release script is idempotent within a version. If a step fails, fix the underlying issue and re-run — the deterministic tarball means the hash stays stable.

The one thing that can’t be retried: once a git tag is pushed to the public remote, deleting and re-tagging is bad form. So don’t push the tag until you’re confident the release directory is correct.

If you need to fix something after the tag is pushed, cut a new tag (2026.Q3.1 or move on to 2026.Q4) rather than rewriting history.

Public domain (CC0 1.0). The corpus IS the prior art commons.

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