Mac, Windows, and Linux share one number. Each platform is built and published on its own machine, and that machine publishes only its own file. A client already installed only accepts a tag that is exactly build- or testing- plus a whole number, and only when its own file is attached. It moves only to a higher number on its own line. A local test build is not a release: it does not take the next number, and it does not move the README buttons.
The version is 0.3.N. N is the number on the tag. testing-42 is 0.3.42. build-58 is 0.3.58. The number is read from the tag that file is going on. It is the same number on every machine. A machine pulls testing before it publishes, and it publishes from a checkout where the version is that tag number. Counting older titles, or keeping a local next version, writes a different number on the same tag.
Testing tags are testing-N. The first shared testing release is testing-39. Testing clients still running are at Linux 38, Windows 34, and Mac 33, so a testing number of 38 or lower is ignored by at least one of them. Deleted testing tags stay unused.
A main release is the testing release you decide to ship. Its tag is build-N with that same N, and its version is the 0.3.N already used on that testing tag. If testing has moved through several numbers since the last main release, the main tag is the testing release you are shipping, not one higher than the old build- tag.
Windows clients are at 30, Mac clients at 52, and Linux clients at 58, so a main number of 58 or lower is ignored by at least one of them. build-30, build-52, and build-58 stay as they are. build-79, build-80, build-81, build-82, and build-84 are old tags and are not releases. They stay as they are, and a promotion does not move them.
Each tag carries all three of these files:
OpenCE-macos-arm64.dmghalo-windows-release.ziphalo-linux-release.zip
Before a machine uploads, it looks up the highest testing- tag. When that tag is missing this machine's file, the file is added to that tag. The build is stamped with that same number. The next testing tag is opened only when the highest tag already has all three files, and it is one higher. A tag missing a file is invisible to that platform.
Adding a file leaves the tag on its current commit. Mac writes the title when it opens the tag. That title names Mac, Windows, and Linux, in that order, with the version and the tag. A later machine adds its file and leaves the title as Mac wrote it.
The notes stay with the tag. Mac writes them when it opens the tag, and those notes already cover Mac, Windows, and Linux. A later machine adds its file and leaves the notes as Mac wrote them.
A main release is a normal release and is marked Latest. A testing release is a prerelease and is not marked Latest. Android stays where it is unless halo-android-release.zip is attached on purpose.
The title is the version, Mac, Windows, and Linux, and the tag. The version in the title is the same N as the tag. Mac writes it when it opens the tag, while only the Mac file is attached. A testing release is 0.3.54 Mac, Windows, Linux testing-54. A main release is 0.3.53 Mac, Windows, Linux build-53. A later machine leaves that title as Mac wrote it. Android is named only when its zip is attached, after Linux. An installed client does not read the title. It reads the tag and its own file name.
Windows and Linux release builds set HALO_BUILD_NUMBER to that tag's number, HALO_BUILD_CHANNEL to main or testing, and HALO_UPDATE_REPOSITORY to mastercheese-dev/OpenCE. Those zip names come from a release build. A debug build looks for a different zip and is not a published update.
A Mac release passes that same number to --build-number and --update-build, and passes main or testing to --update-channel.
Publishing a main release updates the three download buttons in README.md on main, and the sentence under them, so Mac, Windows, and Linux all download that build-N tag. That README change is committed and pushed to main with the release. Testing releases leave the buttons where they are. Do not merge testing into main to move the buttons.
Release notes name the tag, the network protocol, and what changed. A Mac release writes them once, for Mac, Windows, and Linux together, including how each one is installed. Windows and Linux leave that text alone when they add their files. They do not use em or en dashes, and they do not put a hyphen where a dash would have been. They do not credit Cursor.