[rfc] torchtitan release practices

[tianyu-l]

Release process

Currently in torchtitan, we follow a lightweight release process.

• Update the version number in assets/version.txt with a PR. The version numbering should follow https://semver.org/.
  • E.g. for a pre-release 0.y.z
    • if major features are added, increment y
    • if minor fixes are added, increment z
• Create a new release at https://github.com/pytorch/torchtitan/releases/new
  • In the release notes
    • include proper nightly versions for torch and torchao, which can be found in latest CI test log "Run script in container" section. E.g.
      • "Successfully installed ... torch-2.8.0.dev20250605+cu126"
      • "Successfully installed torchao-0.12.0.dev20250605+cu126"
    • describe the release at a high level, compared with the last release, e.g.
      • "added an experiment for multimodal LLM training"
      • or just "this is a regular release"
  • For now, choose "Set as a pre-release".
• It should trigger a GitHub action to update the torchtitan package on PyPI, which requires approval of @tianyu-l @fegin @wwwjn @wconstab @gnadathur to run.

The general instruction on managing releases can be found at https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/releasing-projects-on-github/managing-releases-in-a-repository.