Release Model

Varion builds the supported developer server as a single package and distributes the client through a signed CDN manifest. Both flows record package hashes and the protocol version.

Developer Server Package

tools/package-developer-server.ps1 builds varion-server.exe and lays out the supported JavaScript developer server under dist/Varion-Server-Developer-MVP/ (the output must stay inside dist/). From there it creates the zip Varion-Server-Developer-MVP.zip next to a sha256 sidecar ...zip.sha256 (format <hash> <filename>).

The package contains:

• varion-server.exe
• host/varion-host.cjs (the Node host)
• server.toml (from server.example.toml)
• start-varion-server.ps1
• README.md (from MVP_HANDOFF.md)
• resources/my-gamemode — a starter resource (scaffolded)
• developer/ — README, MVP_HANDOFF.md, server.example.toml, sdk/templates/js-full-resource, the @varion/server and @varion/client npm packages, and a subset of the docs (js/README, scripting/EVENTS_RPC, configuration/SERVER_CONFIG, configuration/RESOURCE_CONFIG plus en/)
• build-info.json — release metadata

Before packaging, the script runs node --check over the host and starter resource and calls tools/verify-platform-trust.ps1 so it will not package a build with broken trust boundaries.

build-info.json

build-info.json contains:

• product
• engineCommit — the short commit hash
• engineDirty — whether there were uncommitted changes
• protocol — protocol version (11)
• gtaBuild — supported GTA build (3788)
• runtime — the runtime pair (server-js/client-js)
• serverSha256 — the hash of varion-server.exe

Client / CDN Distribution

tools/publish.ps1 builds the client (and optionally the server), regenerates the client update manifest manifest.sha256.json, signs it with Ed25519 (manifest.sha256.json.sig) and uploads it to the CDN. The client manifest is signed, so a launcher with the key rejects an unsigned or tampered manifest.

Channels: release, rc, dev. release publishes to the root client path, while rc/dev go to separate subdirectories the launcher selects from its branch setting. The same script can optionally publish varion-server.exe.

Source Backing

This page is derived from tools/package-developer-server.ps1, tools/publish.ps1 and tools/verify-platform-trust.ps1.