✨ feat: add pre-release validation tests to release workflow

[codekiln]

Summary

Add comprehensive pre-release validation job that runs full lifecycle deployment test before creating releases. This quality gate ensures the complete deployment workflow (create, update, delete) works correctly before publishing releases.

Changes

• Added pre-release-validation job to .github/workflows/release.yml

  • Runs before create-release job as a quality gate
  • Executes test_deployment_workflow_full_lifecycle from SDK tests
  • Has 45-minute timeout (test takes ~20-30 minutes)
  • Requires secrets: LANGSMITH_API_KEY and LANGSMITH_WORKSPACE_ID
  • Blocks release if validation fails

• Updated job dependencies

  • create-release now depends on both verify-ci and pre-release-validation
  • Ensures deployment lifecycle is validated before release creation

• Updated CI/CD documentation (docs/dev/ci-cd.md)

  • Documented new pre-release validation step
  • Added details about timeout, duration, and required secrets

What the Test Validates

The full lifecycle test validates the complete deployment workflow:

1. ✅ Creates fresh deployment with unique timestamp-based name
2. ✅ Waits for deployment to be READY (~20-30 minutes)
3. ✅ Patches deployment (triggers new revision)
4. ✅ Waits for new revision to be DEPLOYED
5. ✅ Deletes deployment (cleanup via DeploymentGuard RAII pattern)

Workflow Flow

Tag pushed (v*) 
    ↓
verify-ci (waits for CI jobs)
    ↓
pre-release-validation (20-30 min, quality gate)
    ↓
create-release (only if validation passes)
    ↓
build-release

Related Issues

Fixes #207

Part of epic #195 (new-release-ci milestone)

Test Plan

• Review existing test implementation in sdk/tests/integration_deployment_workflow.rs
• Verify workflow YAML syntax
• Update CI/CD documentation
• Confirm job dependencies are correct

Next Steps

Before release, verify:

• LANGSMITH_API_KEY secret is configured in repository
• LANGSMITH_WORKSPACE_ID secret is configured in repository
• Test with pre-release tag (e.g., v0.4.4-alpha.1) to verify end-to-end

Benefits

• 🛡️ Quality gate prevents broken releases
• ✅ Validates complete deployment lifecycle
• 🔍 Catches integration issues before release
• 🧹 Ensures cleanup functionality works

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR adds a comprehensive pre-release validation step to the release workflow that runs a full deployment lifecycle test before creating releases. This quality gate ensures the SDK's deployment functionality (create, update, delete) works correctly before publishing any release.

• Added a pre-release-validation job that runs a ~20-30 minute integration test
• Updated job dependencies so releases only proceed after validation passes
• Documented the new validation step in CI/CD documentation

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
.github/workflows/release.yml	Added pre-release-validation job with 45-minute timeout that runs full lifecycle deployment test; updated create-release job to depend on validation
docs/dev/ci-cd.md	Documented new pre-release validation step including timeout, duration, required secrets, and its role as a quality gate

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[codekiln]

@copilot what does --ignored --nocapture do here?

[Copilot]

@codekiln I've opened a new pull request, #269, to work on those changes. Once the pull request is ready, I'll request review from you.