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, committed metadata, release PRs/tags, draft inspection and guarded npm OIDC publication. A manual main build allocates and stamps the next version. A version PR uses committed release metadata. Both CI paths create 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, its build version is not 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.