Write down how to cut a release

Six months from now none of this will be obvious: which of the two version
numbers has to go up, that the changelog file is named after the
versionCode rather than the version name, and that the tag has to keep its
v prefix — checkupdates takes the tag name verbatim as the commit to
build, so a tag named 1.1 would quietly break the automation.

Also records the two things that make the screenshots reproducible, both
of which cost time to find: a headless capture lands whenever the
virtual-time budget runs out rather than when the script finishes, and
CSS transitions don't advance under it, so a panel caught mid-transition
photographs in its old colour.

States the part that is easy to get wrong in the other direction too:
after the first submission there is nothing to do in fdroiddata. The bot
watches the tags here.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

RELEASING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+# Releasing a new version
+
+The clock lives in two places: the web app in `public_html/`, which you host
+yourself, and the Android app on F-Droid, which is built from a git tag.
+
+**Everything F-Droid needs comes from a tag in this repository.** After the first
+release was accepted there is nothing to do in F-Droid's own repo — their bot
+watches the tags here and writes the build entry itself. Don't open a merge
+request against `fdroiddata` for a new version.
+
+Worked example below bumps 1.0 to 1.1. Substitute your own numbers.
+
+## 1. Make the change
+
+Both versions share one copy of the app. Edit `public_html/index.html` and the
+Android build picks it up automatically — the Gradle build reads `public_html/`
+directly rather than keeping a second copy, so the two can't drift.
+
+If you changed anything visible, bump the service worker cache or installed web
+users will keep the old page:
+
+```
+# public_html/sw.js
+const CACHE = "bgclock-v18";     # any new value; it only has to differ
+```
+
+## 2. Bump the version
+
+In `android/app/build.gradle.kts`:
+
+```kotlin
+versionCode = 2          // an integer, +1 every release, never reused
+versionName = "1.1"      // what people see
+```
+
+`versionCode` is what Android uses to decide one version is newer than another.
+It must go up every single release, even for a one-character fix.
+
+## 3. Write the changelog
+
+A new file named after the **versionCode**, not the version name:
+
+```
+fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/changelogs/2.txt
+```
+
+Maximum 500 characters. This is what shows up in F-Droid's "What's New".
+
+## 4. Build it and put it on your phone
+
+```bash
+export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Android/Sdk"     # already in ~/.bashrc
+cd android
+./gradlew assembleDebug
+adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk
+./gradlew --stop                            # the daemon holds ~500 MB otherwise
+```
+
+Play a real game before tagging. Worth checking specifically: start a match,
+make some moves, force-quit from the task switcher and reopen — everything
+should come back, paused. That is the check that proves the app's storage is
+working, and it fails silently rather than loudly.
+
+## 5. Commit, tag, push
+
+```bash
+git add -A
+git commit -m "…"
+git tag -a v1.1 -m "Backgammon Clock 1.1"
+git push
+git push origin v1.1
+```
+
+**The tag must keep the `v` prefix.** F-Droid's `checkupdates` takes the tag name
+verbatim as the commit to build, so `v1.1` here means `commit: v1.1` in their
+metadata. A tag named `1.1` would break the automation.
+
+Never move or delete a tag that has been pushed — F-Droid may already have built
+it. If a release is wrong, bump the version and release again.
+
+## 6. Wait
+
+Their bot notices the new tag, adds a build entry, and the build server picks it
+up on its next cycle. Expect a day or two. Nothing to do.
+
+## Deploying the web version
+
+Separate from all of the above, and manual: upload the six files in
+`public_html/` — `index.html`, `manifest.webmanifest`, `sw.js`, `icon-192.png`,
+`icon-512.png`, `icon-maskable-512.png` — to the web host. `README.md` and
+`RELEASING.md` stay out of it; they live in the repo root for that reason.
+
+## If the screenshots need redoing
+
+`fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/` holds five shots at
+1170×2532. They are generated from `public_html/index.html` itself with headless
+Chromium, not taken on a phone, so they can be regenerated exactly. Two traps if
+you do it by hand:
+
+- The capture lands whenever the virtual-time budget runs out, not when your
+  script finishes — so freeze the render loop (`requestAnimationFrame = () => 0`)
+  once the frame you want is on screen.
+- CSS transitions don't advance under `--virtual-time-budget`, so a panel caught
+  mid-transition photographs in its *old* colour. Disable transitions in the
+  screenshot build.
+
+## Reference
+
+- App ID: `nl.hansdezwart.bgclock` — fixed forever; changing it makes a new app.
+- F-Droid listing text: `fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/` (title ≤50 chars,
+  summary ≤80, description ≤4000, changelog ≤500). Only these HTML tags work in
+  the description: `b big blockquote br cite em i li ol small strike strong sub
+  sup tt u ul`.
+- The original submission: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/45478
+- F-Droid signs the APK with their key, not yours. Reproducible builds were
+  declined at submission and can't be enabled later for this app ID.