### Possible Blockers
- [ ] https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/pull/5365
- [ ] https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/pull/5391#pullrequestreview-1880036069
- [x] https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/issues/5368
- [ ] https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/pull/5367
- [ ] https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/pull/5373

This issue can be closed when we have completed the following steps (in order).
Please ensure all artifacts (PRs, workflow runs, Tweets, etc) are linked from
this issue for posterity. Refer to this prior release issue for
examples of each step, assuming release vX.Y.0 is being cut.

Code Freeze

• [In Crossplane Runtime]: Prepared the release branch release-X.Y:
  • Created the release branch using the GitHub UI.
  • (On the Master Branch) Created and merged an empty commit with git commit --allow-empty -s -m "Empty commit after release-X.Y"
  • (On the Master Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the next release vX.Y+1.0-rc.0. => cut https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/releases/tag/v1.16.0-rc.1 too in the end, some time had passed since we cut rc.0 already
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the next release vX.Y.0-rc.1 (assuming the latest rc tag for vX.Y.0 is vX.Y.0-rc.0). => cut https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/releases/tag/v1.15.0-rc.1 too in the end, some time had passed since we cut rc.0 already
• [In Core Crossplane]: Prepared the release branch release-X.Y:
  • Created the release branch using the GitHub UI.
  • (On the Master Branch) created and merged a PR bumping the Crossplane Runtime dependency to the release candidate tag from master, vX.Y+1.0-rc.0. => Bump crossplane-runtime to v1.16.0-rc.1 crossplane#5345
  • (On the Release Branch) created and merged a PR bumping the Crossplane Runtime dependency to the release candidate tag on the release branch, vX.Y.0-rc.1. => Bump crossplane-runtime to v1.15.0-rc.1 crossplane#5344
  • (On the Master Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the next release, vX.Y+1.0-rc.0. => https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v1.16.0-rc.0
• [In Core Crossplane]: Cut a Crossplane release candidate from the release branch release-X.Y:
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the release candidate tag for the release vX.Y.0-rc.1 (assuming the latest rc tag for vX.Y.0 is vX.Y.0-rc.0). => https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v1.15.0-rc.1
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the CI workflow and verified that the tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io build channel, e.g. build/release-X.Y/vX.Y.0-rc.1/... should contain all the relevant binaries. => https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/actions/runs/7813193800
  • (On the Release Branch) Run the Promote workflow with channel stable, remember to tick the pre-release box, and verify:
    • The tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io stable channel at stable/vX.Y.0-rc.1/....
    • The tagged build is NOT marked as "current" in stable/current/version.
    • Ensured that the release candidate is visible on the stable helm repo with: helm repo add crossplane-stable https://charts.crossplane.io/stable --force-update && helm search repo crossplane-stable --devel.
  • Published a new release for the tagged version as pre-release, with the same name as the version, taking care of generating the changes list selecting as "Previous tag" vX.<Y-1>.0, so the first of the releases for the previous minor.
    • Select the Set as a pre-release and Create a discussion for this release checkboxes.
    • Do NOT select the Set as the latest release checkbox.
  • Ensured that users have been notified about the release candidate on the #announcement channel of the Crossplane's Slack workspace.

Release

• Opened a docs release issue
• Checked that the GitHub milestone for this release only contains closed issues.
  • @jbw976 skipping this for now in the anticipation of patch releases over the next few weeks
• Cut a Crossplane Runtime version and consume it from Crossplane.
  • [In Crossplane Runtime]: Run the Tag workflow on the release-X.Y branch with the proper release version, vX.Y.0. Message suggested, but not required: Release vX.Y.0.
  • [In Core Crossplane]: (On the Release Branch) Update the Crossplane Runtime dependency to vX.Y.0.
• (On the Release Branch) Run the Tag workflow with the proper release version, vX.Y.0. Message suggested, but not required: Release vX.Y.0.
• (On the Release Branch) Run the CI workflow and verified that the tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io build channel, e.g. build/release-X.Y/vX.Y.0/... should contain all the relevant binaries.
• (On the Release Branch) Run the Promote workflow with channel stable and verified that the tagged build version exists on the releases.crossplane.io stable channel at stable/vX.Y.0/....
• Published a new release for the tagged version, with the same name as the version and descriptive release notes, taking care of generating the changes list selecting as "Previous tag" vX.<Y-1>.0, so the first of the releases for the previous minor. Before publishing the release notes, set them as Draft and ask the rest of the team to double check them.
• Checked that the docs release issue created previously has been completed.
• Updated, in a single PR, the following on master:
  • The releases table in the README.md, removing the now old unsupported release and adding the new one.
  • The baseBranches list in .github/renovate.json5, removing the now old unsupported release and adding the new one.
• Closed the GitHub milestone for this release.
  • @jbw976 skipping this for now in the anticipation of patch releases over the next few weeks
• Publish a blog post about the release to the crossplane blog
  • https://blog.crossplane.io/crossplane-v1-15/
  • https://blog.crossplane.io/new-default-crossplane-registry-in-crossplane-1-15/
• Ensured that users have been notified of the release on all communication channels:
  • Slack: #announcements channel on Crossplane's Slack workspace.
    • https://crossplane.slack.com/archives/CEFQCGW1H/p1708018552402609
  • Twitter: reach out to a Crossplane maintainer or steering committee member, see OWNERS.md.
    • https://twitter.com/crossplane_io/status/1758187078733742485
  • LinkedIn: same as Twitter
    • https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7163953112095842305/
• Request @jbw976 to remove all old docs versions from Google Search
• Remove any extra permissions given to release team members for this release