The release command

Run dispat release to plan your release and print the graph. The command runs version, build, and publish steps for every changed package, then records releases and tags. Running a bare dispat does exactly the same thing.

Releasing part of the graph

Pass --package, --space, or --group to dispat release and dispat status to read the same selection every other command uses. You can also run the command from a package or space folder to select it.

dispat computes the plan for the whole repository and narrows it afterwards, so a selection decides what is released and never at which version. Running dispat release -p core releases core at exactly the version a full release would give it.

Selections follow one specific rule based on publish order. A selected package is withheld if its provider is releasing in the same plan and is not selected. Releasing the package first would ship release notes crediting a provider version that does not exist yet (§19.2).

dispat reports this as W230 alongside the providers it waits for. The rest of the selection still releases, and the next run releases the withheld package. This rule is transitive, and a provider that is unchanged or held is nothing to wait for.

A versioning group is a softer case. A selection that takes only part of a group releases and prints a warning (W231). Nothing goes out of order, and the members left behind ride up to the group's version on the next run (W234), so the split is temporary and needs no operator.

Pass the group name directly with dispat release -g platform to select every member at once and avoid splitting it.

Pass --strict to refuse both cases before anything is built, published, or tagged. Either the selection goes out exactly as written, or nothing does. Running status with this flag exits 1 for the same selections, making it a useful gate to put in front of a release job.

dispat prints the graph either way, so a refusal always comes with the plan that explains it.

Read Partial releases for the full guide and worked output.

The release lock

dispat release claims the repository before it plans anything by pushing a dispat-release-lock tag to the remote (commit.remote, by default origin). It deletes this tag when the run ends, no matter how the run ends. If a second release starts while the first is running, it cannot push the tag and fails with exit 1 before building, publishing, or tagging anything.

dispat takes the lock on every release, whether or not commit.push is enabled, so your release job needs write access to the remote either way. Set unsafeDisableLock: true in the config or DISPAT_UNSAFE_DISABLE_LOCK=true in the environment to switch the lock off. A repository with no remote to coordinate through needs this setting, and no other command takes the lock.

Read The release lock for the full guide, including how to clear a lock left behind by a killed run.

Flags

Beside the global flags:

Flag	Default	Effect
--package, -p		Narrows the eleven package-selecting commands (release, status, run, preview, changelog, autoversion, autowriter, autoreplacer, commit, github, compute) to the named packages. This flag is repeatable, comma-separated, matches case-insensitively, and accepts * globs, where -p '*' is every package. Read Choosing the packages.
--space, -s		Narrows the same eleven commands to every package in the named spaces using the same spellings. A standalone package belongs to no space. Read Choosing the packages.
--group, -g		Narrows the same eleven commands to every package in the named versioning groups using the same spellings. A group is a versionGroups entry or a space that versions as one, so it can cross spaces. Read Choosing the packages.
--strict		Turns a tolerated finding into a failure. For release and status, this refuses a selection the plan cannot release as it stands, like a package waiting for its providers or a split versioning group. The command fails before anything is published; read Releasing part of the graph.
--require-release		Exits release and status with 3 when the plan releases nothing, which helps gate a CI stage that exists purely to publish something. dispat computes the plan before taking the release lock, so a run that publishes nothing never takes the tag and never runs beforeAll. Only packages this run actually publishes count, so held, withheld, or unselected packages do not; see Gating a pipeline on the plan.