feat: automate npm publish to npmjs on version bump via GitHub Actions

[qa-ashutosh]

Summary

Right now publishing to npm is a manual step. Any version bump should automatically trigger a release and publish to npmjs, no manual npm publish needed.

Proposed flow

1. Dev bumps version locally: npm version patch | minor | major
2. That creates a git tag (e.g. v1.1.0) and a commit
3. git push --follow-tags pushes both
4. GitHub Actions detects the new tag, runs CI, and publishes to npm

Implementation

Add a new workflow file .github/workflows/release.yml:

name: Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*.*.*'

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20.x'
          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'

      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build
      - run: npm test

      - run: npm publish --access public
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

Secret to add

In GitHub repo Settings → Secrets → Actions, add:

• NPM_TOKEN — generate from npmjs.com under Access Tokens (choose Automation type)

Usage after setup

npm version patch   # bumps 1.0.0 → 1.0.1, creates tag v1.0.1
git push --follow-tags
# GitHub Actions takes it from here

Acceptance criteria

• .github/workflows/release.yml added
• NPM_TOKEN secret documented in CONTRIBUTING.md
• Publish only runs after build and tests pass (no broken releases)
• Works for patch, minor, and major bumps