Broken release step on main branch, due to us confusing Semantic Release by trying to close a Discussion

[HonkingGoose]

What would you like help with?

I think I found a bug

How are you running Renovate?

None

If you're self-hosting Renovate, tell us which platform (GitHub, GitLab, etc) and which version of Renovate.

No response

Please tell us more about your question or problem

We recently merged this PR:

• feat(pypi): support GCloud credentials for Google Artifact Registry #31262

Which "closes" a Discussion:

Closes #30109

Our release step is broken, because Semantic Release complains: Error: Could not resolve to an Issue with the number of 30109. That number links to a discussion!

The easiest fix to get our build working is probably to remove the Closes keyword before the link to the Discussion. If that does not get our build working again, we can try dropping the whole link.

Link to failed release step

• https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/actions/runs/10864509453/job/30149949240

Logs (if relevant)

Relevant bit of release step logs

AggregateError: 
    Error: Could not resolve to an Issue with the number of 30109.
        at Array.map (<anonymous>)
        at file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/lib/plugins/pipeline.js:55:13
        at async pluginsConfigAccumulator.<computed> [as success] (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/lib/plugins/index.js:87:11)
        at async run (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/index.js:218:3)
        at async Module.default (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/index.js:278:22)
        at async default (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/cli.js:55:5)
    at file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/lib/plugins/pipeline.js:55:13
    at async pluginsConfigAccumulator.<computed> [as success] (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/lib/plugins/index.js:87:11)
    at async run (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/index.js:218:3)
    at async Module.default (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/index.js:278:22)
    at async default (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/cli.js:55:5) {
  errors: [
    Error: Could not resolve to an Issue with the number of 30109.
        at file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/aggregate-error@5.0.0/node_modules/aggregate-error/index.js:23:26
        at Array.map (<anonymous>)
        at new AggregateError (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/aggregate-error@5.0.0/node_modules/aggregate-error/index.js:16:19)
        at file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/lib/plugins/pipeline.js:55:13
        at async pluginsConfigAccumulator.<computed> [as success] (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/lib/plugins/index.js:87:11)
        at async run (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/index.js:218:3)
        at async Module.default (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/index.js:278:22)
        at async default (file:///home/runner/work/renovate/renovate/node_modules/.pnpm/semantic-release@24.1.0_typescript@5.5.4/node_modules/semantic-release/cli.js:55:5) {
      type: 'NOT_FOUND',
      path: [Array],
      locations: [Array],
      pluginName: '@semantic-release/github'
    }
  ]
}
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

[rarkins]

I think this would need us to force push to rewrite our commits?

[viceice]

no, it's not in the commit message

[rarkins]

Is semantic release looking in the PR body?

[HonkingGoose]

Is semantic release looking in the PR body?

The release-notes-generator official plugin for Semantic Release is the bit that's looking into the PR body text, I think.

Why I think release-notes-generator looks in the PR body text

The list of official semantic-release plugins lists the @semantic-release/release-notes-generator.

Then release-notes-generator has a option called linkReferences, which is enabled by default.

Then the linkReferences docs says:

linkReferences

Type: boolean Default: true if (context.repository or context.repoUrl), context.commit and context.issue are truthy

Should all references be linked?

And finally, below the linkReferences docs is the linkReferences config option issue docs which says:

issue

Type: string Default: 'issues'

Issue or pull request keyword in the url if context.linkReferences === true.

Possible sequence of events that lead to problem

I suspect the problem is similar to this:

1. Semantic Release runs
2. Semantic Release uses release-notes-generator, which by way of linkReferences searches the PR body text, which looks for the magic issue close keywords, and puts the "closed URL" into the changelog.
3. PR body links to discussion.
4. Some bit of code is erroring out somewhere, that halts the processing, as we're linking to a Discussion, instead of an Issue.

What to do next?

I'm not sure!

I guess we can try editing the wrong PR body text, by dropping the magic issue closing word. Maybe when Semantic Release runs again, it will "see" the changes and try again, and maybe finish the run succesfully?