Using the release: keyword

GitLab CI/CD
2

Hi,

Yes. I believe the release keyword was added purely for simplicity.
I personally use the release as a regular cli tool, e.g.

create GitLab Release:
  stage: release
  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli:latest
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == 'main'
  script:
    - echo "Creating GitLab Release"
    - TITLE=$(grep "^## " -m1 ReleaseNotes.md | sed 's/## //')
    - sed "/^## $TITLE/,/^## /!d;//d;" ReleaseNotes.md | sed 1d > notes.md
    - DESC=$(cat notes.md)
    # $VERSION comes from environment of previous job
    - |
      release-cli --additional-ca-cert-bundle $CA_CERT create \
       --name "$TITLE" \
       --description "$DESC" \
       --tag-name $VERSION

However, this tool is completely deprecated, and my advice would be just to immediately start using glab cli, specifically glab release.