Dim alpha release

Rust alphas use dimcode-alpha@alpha, install only dima, and default to ~/.dimcode-alpha. The legacy dimcode package installs dim; its stable/beta channels are not Rust release targets. The six platform packages and dimcode-web are shared names pinned to the exact release version.

Choose the route

• Version PR, GitHub CI or an unspecified alpha release: follow dim-release. It owns version selection, the release PR that commits the version, the dispatch from main, draft inspection and guarded npm OIDC publication. The release PR carries the number; the dispatch checks that main already says it before building, and refuses otherwise. Every CI path creates a GitHub prerelease draft before the separate npm publication.
• Explicit local Mac build/publication: use scripts/publish-alpha.mjs below. It changes versions temporarily and restores them; it does not prepare a version PR or push a GitHub release tag. This alternative publishes only alpha: it does not align the wrapper's latest, sync the mirror or provide CI's dual-entry installation acceptance. Use the CI route for the dual-tag nightly contract; do not report a local alpha-only publish as equivalent.
• Do not switch routes to bypass a failure or missing npm authorization. Check the user's existing authorization once and complete only the requested stage.

The human walkthrough is Rust alpha release; CI/npm setup is alpha npm publication.

Local Mac command

This route runs the same catalog step from dim-release first, on the same clean main checkout.

node scripts/publish-alpha.mjs                # build and publish next alpha
node scripts/publish-alpha.mjs 0.1.0-alpha.3  # build and publish an explicit version
node scripts/publish-alpha.mjs --dry-run      # build and validate without publishing
node scripts/publish-alpha.mjs --platform darwin-arm64  # explicit platform subset

• Read-only version review and skill/configuration work use registry/Git inspection through dim-release, not this command. Even --dry-run performs real builds and staging cleanup; run it only when local build verification is requested or authorized.
• The script reads versions across the alpha wrapper, Web, six platforms and legacy dimcode; it chooses the next alpha unless an explicit version is supplied. It refuses reused npm versions, an alpha above the newest legacy beta, a dirty publication checkout and less than 8 GiB free disk. A partial publication reserves the version. Never weaken these guards.
• The script temporarily updates Cargo.toml, Cargo.lock, the npm wrapper and exact optional dependencies, and the runtime package/lock root versions. It restores those files on success or failure. Unlike the CI route, whose release PR commits the version it publishes, this route's build version is never committed. Published packages record the source HEAD.
• Every release build uses DIM_RELEASE_BUILD=1. macOS targets use Cargo; Linux uses the glibc 2.28 Zig target and Windows uses GNU/gnullvm cross targets. Read the local prerequisites before starting. Default plugins are staged once with --portable, then reused across platforms.
• With both DIM_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID_CN and DIM_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID_GLOBAL, the script builds the Dim-account variant. Without both, it is API-key-only; a partial configuration fails. Never commit the IDs.
• Real local publication uses the user's npm login and per-package OTP prompts. By default give the user the local publish command to run in their terminal. Run it yourself only when explicitly asked and already logged in (npm whoami); an existing end-to-end authorization need not be requested again.
• Six platform packages and dimcode-web publish before dimcode-alpha, all on alpha. A subset is allowed only when requested with --platform; other platforms cannot install that release.

Local cleanup and recovery

The script removes staging/alpha-* at startup, keeps one target build at a time and removes its staging/target intermediates on exit. Only a dry run retains its packages for inspection. When installed, mbx gc runs at the end. Do not add manual deletion of development build directories; the script owns its cleanup.

A new local invocation rebuilds and chooses the next unused version unless one is specified. After a partial local publish, abandon that version when using this command again. CI publication retries instead reuse their existing immutable Release archives under dim-release; the two recovery paths are different.

After an authorized local publish, verify the eight packages (or the requested subset plus Web/wrapper), dimcode-alpha's alpha dist-tag, the unchanged legacy dimcode tags and the restored working tree. Do not turn that check into an unrequested install or model/TUI run against the product home.