From 0bb441ad678ac94e5ddbe0e82b54c9e5ce977b91 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pieter Viljoen <ptr727@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:09:35 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Fix: skip validate-release in smoke builds + probe

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .github/workflows/build-release-task.yml |  8 ++++++
 .github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml  | 31 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 39 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 .github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml

diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml b/.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml
index 3d1049d..f5b056a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml
@@ -64,8 +64,16 @@ jobs:
         env:
           SEMVER2: ${{ needs.get-version.outputs.SemVer2 }}
           BRANCH: ${{ inputs.branch }}
+          SMOKE: ${{ inputs.smoke }}
         run: |
           set -euo pipefail
+          # This gate guards real publishes. A smoke build checks out the PR head in detached HEAD, so NBGV always
+          # yields a prerelease version; on a main-base PR that would trip the public-release check and fail every
+          # develop->main promotion that carries a build target. Skip the gate for smoke builds (they never publish).
+          if [[ "$SMOKE" == "true" ]]; then
+            echo "Smoke build; skipping release version validation."
+            exit 0
+          fi
           CORE_AND_PRE="${SEMVER2%%+*}"
           if [[ "$BRANCH" == "main" ]]; then
             if [[ "$CORE_AND_PRE" == *-* ]]; then
diff --git a/.github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml b/.github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8f3864
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+name: validate-release smoke probe
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [ fix/validate-release-skip-smoke ]
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  smoke-main:
+    name: Smoke probe main base
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml
+    secrets: inherit
+    with:
+      smoke: true
+      github: false
+      nuget: false
+      ref: fix/validate-release-skip-smoke
+      branch: main
+
+  smoke-develop:
+    name: Smoke probe develop base
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml
+    secrets: inherit
+    with:
+      smoke: true
+      github: false
+      nuget: false
+      ref: fix/validate-release-skip-smoke
+      branch: develop

From 200109980b40d73488fda47f19e82ba847f76770 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Pieter Viljoen <ptr727@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:12:33 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Remove probe (validation complete)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml | 31 -------------------------
 1 file changed, 31 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 .github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml

diff --git a/.github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml b/.github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index c8f3864..0000000
--- a/.github/workflows/zz-vrelease-probe.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
-name: validate-release smoke probe
-
-on:
-  push:
-    branches: [ fix/validate-release-skip-smoke ]
-
-permissions:
-  contents: read
-
-jobs:
-  smoke-main:
-    name: Smoke probe main base
-    uses: ./.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml
-    secrets: inherit
-    with:
-      smoke: true
-      github: false
-      nuget: false
-      ref: fix/validate-release-skip-smoke
-      branch: main
-
-  smoke-develop:
-    name: Smoke probe develop base
-    uses: ./.github/workflows/build-release-task.yml
-    secrets: inherit
-    with:
-      smoke: true
-      github: false
-      nuget: false
-      ref: fix/validate-release-skip-smoke
-      branch: develop