[Eduardo Villalpando Mello (edvilme)]

Summary

Adds a dedicated Release PR / Plan check to all PRs targeting main, including edited/reopened PRs. Uses contents: read, no path filters, and the shared release-pr action pinned to reviewed commit 4e0c4335bbf6b1a274673e22d9c39cd7efb93ccf in mode: plan.

Only PRs changing root package.json alone, with a different version, are release candidates. Those must be version-only JSON changes with an increasing SemVer, a positive odd development minor, supported Marketplace bounds, and lossless serialization. Mixed-file changes and unchanged versions pass as not applicable, explicitly distinguished from validated candidates in the job summary. Other manifests, including api/package.json, are outside this check's scope.

Existing CI and Azure publishing are unchanged. This does not create release branches, enable release mode, or change branch protection. Make the check required only after merging and observing it working; publishing activation remains a separate rollout.

Validation

• Prettier, whitespace, YAML contract, Bash syntax, and both summary outcomes pass.
• Real external-consumer pilot: skip vscode-black-formatter#839 (disposable; never merged).
• Valid version-only bump: passed with exact candidate output, nested stable-version action resolution, and an unchanged worktree.
• Invalid even-minor bump: failed as expected with "The development minor must be positive and odd".
• Mixed-file bump and unchanged-version manifest edit: passed with empty candidate output and an unchanged worktree.

This adoption PR changes only the workflow. Its Release PR / Plan check passed on head fa1d9b2bcd5bbdba5caabab74832e0b385a94ed9 as not applicable. This workflow-only diff does not exercise candidate authorization; shared-action tests and hosted API smoke cover that behavior.

Issue tracking: this is workflow-only maintenance from the shared CI rollout, with no separate product issue. Uses the repository's existing skip-issue-check label for that case.

Latest shared action

Updated to merged commit 4e0c4335bbf6b1a274673e22d9c39cd7efb93ccf, including microsoft/vscode-python-ci#11 and microsoft/vscode-python-ci#12. Release candidates now require the PR creator to have write/maintain/admin repository access; permission lookups fail closed. Configurable branch prefixes and the branch output are available, with the existing release/ default. This workflow remains read-only plan mode. The linked disposable pilot covers the original baseline; shared-action CI covers the added prefix/authorization behavior.