feat(error-tracking): pass the release id into the django image

[ablaszkiewicz]

Problem

• An exception captured by the deployed Django app cannot be linked to the release it came from. Frontend exceptions already link, because the sourcemap stage injects the release id into the JS bundles.
• The Python SDK now reads POSTHOG_RELEASE_ID and sends it as $release_id on every event (posthog-python#975). Nothing creates the release before the image build or hands the id to the running app.

Changes

• Backend exceptions from the deployed app will resolve to the same posthog@<commit> release as the frontend bundles, once the SDK version with the change is picked up.
• The CD workflow runs posthog-cli release resolve before the image build and passes the printed id in as a build argument. The step never fails the build. The script turns the expected failures (no secret, a download, checksum, or API error) into an empty id with a warning, and continue-on-error plus a five-minute step timeout cover anything else, such as a hung API call.
• The Dockerfile bakes the id into the runtime image as POSTHOG_RELEASE_ID. It is empty in PR and local builds, which the SDK treats as unset.
• Both workflows call one composite action, .github/actions/resolve-error-tracking-release, which installs a pinned, checksum-verified CLI and resolves the release. The action pins its own CLI version. It does not have to match the Dockerfile's pin, because both sides find the release by its name and version. The Depot outage build uses the byte-identical mirror under .depot/actions/, which the shadow-drift check keeps in sync.
• The outage build on Depot CI (.depot/workflows/actions-outage-image-build.yml) runs the same step, so an image built during a GitHub Actions outage carries the id too.
• The sourcemap stage is unchanged. It resolves the release by the same name and version, so it finds the one the workflow created, and still creates it when that step could not.
• Resolving inside the sourcemap stage was rejected: a Docker ENV cannot take its value from a file in a build stage, so the runtime would need an entrypoint or Python shim to export it. A build argument gives every process type the variable with no code change.

Note

The pinned posthoganalytics==7.58.0 predates the SDK change, so the app ignores the variable until the next SDK release is bumped in. This PR prepares the deployment. The bump is a follow-up.

Before:

flowchart LR
    W{{CD workflow}} --> B[Image build]
    B --> S[Sourcemap stage: creates the release, injects its id into the JS bundles]
    B --> I[Runtime image: no release id]
    classDef phBlue fill:#1d4aff,stroke:#1d4aff,color:#fff;
    classDef phGray fill:#e5e7eb,stroke:#c7ccd1,color:#000;
    class W,B,S phBlue;
    class I phGray;

Loading

After:

flowchart LR
    W{{CD workflow}} --> R[release resolve: creates the release, prints its id]
    R --> B[Image build with POSTHOG_RELEASE_ID]
    B --> S[Sourcemap stage: finds the release, injects its id into the JS bundles]
    B --> I[Runtime image: ENV POSTHOG_RELEASE_ID]
    classDef phBlue fill:#1d4aff,stroke:#1d4aff,color:#fff;
    classDef phRed fill:#f54e00,stroke:#f54e00,color:#fff;
    classDef phGray fill:#e5e7eb,stroke:#c7ccd1,color:#000;
    class W,B,S phBlue;
    class R phRed;
    class I phGray;

Loading

How did you test this code?

• hogli lint:workflows passes, and the pre-push preflight ran the workflow lint again.
• hadolint over the Dockerfile reports only warnings that exist on master.
• The release step's script, extracted from the YAML, passes bash -n.
• On Linux Bash 5.2 in Docker, the action's script ran against a wrong installer checksum: it stops before the installer and leaves the id empty. The same run showed that a set -e inside the ||-guarded substitution did not stop it, which is why the script chains with && instead.
• The pinned CLI installer (0.18.2) ran locally into a scratch directory with POSTHOG_CLI_INSTALL_DIR. The checksum matches, the binary lands at <dir>/posthog-cli, and release resolve exists in that version.
• The same step shape ran end to end in a private test repository on GitHub Actions: the CLI created the release, the image carried its id, and the app sent one plain event and one $exception with that $release_id. The assignee confirmed in PostHog that the events arrived with the release.
• Not run: this workflow itself and a full image build of this repository. The first master push after merge shows either the resolved id or the warning in the job log.

Automatic notifications

• Publish to changelog?

Docs update

None. No doc under docs/ describes the sourcemap or release flow.

🤖 Agent context

Autonomy: Human-driven (agent-assisted)

Agent: Claude Code, Claude Fable 5.1

• Skills invoked: /authoring-ci-workflows, /writing-code-comments, /writing-pr-descriptions, /reviewing-with-coderabbit.
• CodeRabbit CLI pass: skipped. The CLI was signed out in this unattended session, so the PR opened without a local pass.
• Duplicate search: gh pr list --state open --search "POSTHOG_RELEASE_ID OR release id" found no open PR for this change.
• The session started from the SDK PR and the existing sourcemap stage. The Dockerfile-only design was dropped for the reason given under Changes.

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[trunk-io]

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🤖 CI report

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⚠️ Playwright — 2 flaky

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⚠️ 2 flaky tests:

• Add a new person property (chromium)
• Remove an insight from a notebook and verify text persists (chromium)

These issues are not necessarily caused by your changes.
Annoyed by this section? Help fix flakies and failures and it will go green!

✅ Hobby preview — passed

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_{Run 35755702395}

[greptile-apps]

The new changes appear safe to merge, with only the existing non-blocking outage-build coverage gap remaining.

_{Reviews (2) · Last reviewed commit: "fix(error-tracking): never let the relea..."}

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The container workflows resolve an error-tracking release ID before building when required. They verify and install the Dockerfile-pinned CLI, use an empty value when credentials are missing or resolution fails, and pass the value to the Docker builds. The Dockerfile accepts POSTHOG_RELEASE_ID and exposes it at runtime.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to c10d6

The change optionally propagates release metadata into runtime images without altering builds when resolution is unavailable. It is ready to merge with normal checks.

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✅ Passed checks (1 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is complete and follows the repository template. It explains the problem, user-visible changes, workflow design, testing performed and not performed, notifications, docs status, agent …

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• 🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR

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Inline comments:
In @.depot/workflows/actions-outage-image-build.yml:
- Line 95: Update the installer command substitution guarded by the release_id
assignment so every prerequisite step explicitly exits on failure: validate
version and checksum, make the curl download, sha256sum verification, and
installer execution use || exit 1. Preserve the existing release_id fallback
while ensuring a failed download or verification cannot reach sh "$installer".

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[rnegron]

thanks for also handling the .depot side

[deployment-status-posthog]

Deploy status

Environment	Status	Deployed At	Workflow
dev	✅ Deployed	2026-09-23 12:42 UTC	Run
prod-us	✅ Deployed	2026-09-23 12:53 UTC	Run
prod-eu	✅ Deployed	2026-09-23 12:55 UTC	Run