Release notes: skip Insiders draft on stable builds

[RajeshKumar11]

Fixes #292861

Problem

When a new stable release ships, code.visualstudio.com/raw/v{major}_{minor}.md may still serve the Insiders draft until the stable release notes are published. Stable users would see incorrect "Insiders" release notes.

Confirmed live — fetching v1_110.md today returns:

# February 2026 Insiders (version 1.110)

Fix

Insiders drafts always contain Insiders in the first heading. After fetching, on quality === 'stable' builds, reject the content if the heading matches and let the release notes panel stay closed silently (same behaviour as a 404).

Changed files:

• releaseNotesEditor.ts — adds isInsidersReleaseNotes() helper (exported for testability) and calls it in fetchReleaseNotes()
• releaseNotesRenderer.test.ts — adds 4 unit tests for the helper covering Insiders heading, stable heading, "Insiders" in body only, and empty string

Test plan

• Build stable VS Code — release notes panel should not appear while v{version}.md returns an Insiders heading
• Build insider VS Code — release notes panel shows normally (guard is quality === 'stable' only)
• Existing Release notes renderer snapshot tests still pass

[vs-code-engineering]

📬 CODENOTIFY

The following users are being notified based on files changed in this PR:

@alexr00

Matched files:

• src/vs/workbench/contrib/update/browser/releaseNotesEditor.ts

@joaomoreno

Matched files:

• src/vs/workbench/contrib/update/browser/releaseNotesEditor.ts

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request fixes an issue where stable VS Code builds incorrectly display Insiders release notes. This occurs when a new stable release ships before the final stable release notes are published to code.visualstudio.com, causing the API to serve the Insiders draft instead.

Changes:

• Added detection logic to identify Insiders release notes by checking if the first heading contains "Insiders"
• Stable builds now reject Insiders release notes and silently skip displaying them (same behavior as a 404)
• Added comprehensive unit tests for the detection logic

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
src/vs/workbench/contrib/update/browser/releaseNotesEditor.ts	Adds isInsidersReleaseNotes() helper function with regex-based detection and integrates it into the release notes fetch logic to reject Insiders drafts on stable builds
src/vs/workbench/contrib/update/test/browser/releaseNotesRenderer.test.ts	Adds 4 unit tests covering Insiders heading detection, stable heading, Insiders in body only, and empty string edge cases

[alexr00]

@ntrogh is this the best way to check if the release notes are insiders?

[ntrogh]

@RajeshKumar11 @alexr00 We have added a ProductEdition frontmatter field to the release notes to differentiate between Insiders and Stable.

It's an Insiders release note if this field equals Insiders, in all other cases, it's Stable.

---
Order: 119
TOCTitle: Insiders
PageTitle: "Visual Studio Code February 2026 (Insiders)"
MetaDescription: Learn what is new in the Visual Studio Code February 2026 Release (1.110).
MetaSocialImage: 1_110/vscode-insiders-header.webp
Date: 2026-03-04
DownloadVersion: 1.110.0
Milestone: February 2026
ProductEdition: Insiders
---

[ntrogh]

@RajeshKumar11 See comment about frontmatter field ProductEdition

[RajeshKumar11]

Thanks @ntrogh! Updated in the latest commit to use ProductEdition: Insiders as the canonical signal.

The isInsidersReleaseNotes() function now:

1. Parses front-matter first — if a --- block is present, it checks ProductEdition: Insiders exclusively (no heading fallback within front-matter content).
2. Falls back to heading heuristic — for endpoints like code.visualstudio.com/raw/ that strip front-matter before serving, it checks whether the first heading contains the word Insiders.

This way the stable build correctly filters out Insiders notes regardless of which endpoint serves them. Tests updated to cover both paths.

[alexr00]

Falls back to heading heuristic — for endpoints like code.visualstudio.com/raw/ that strip front-matter before serving, it checks whether the first heading contains the word Insiders.

Why do we need this? I would expect that we're always using the same endpoint, and so can expect the front matter to be there.

[RajeshKumar11]

@alexr00 The endpoint used is https://code.visualstudio.com/raw/v{version}.md, and it strips front-matter before serving the content. This is actually proven by the existing validation just above the isInsidersReleaseNotes call (line 231):

if (!text || (!/^#\s/.test(text) && !useCurrentFile)) {
    throw new Error('Invalid release notes');
}

If front-matter were present, the fetched text would start with ---, which would immediately fail this check and never reach isInsidersReleaseNotes(). So for this endpoint the ProductEdition front-matter check is effectively dead code — the heading fallback is the only signal that can fire.

If the intent is to rely solely on ProductEdition, the fix would need to either use a different endpoint that preserves front-matter (e.g. the GitHub raw URL), or relax/remove the !/^#\s/ validation so front-matter can pass through. Happy to make that change if preferred — just let me know which direction to take.

[RajeshKumar11]

Updated — the heading fallback is removed. isInsidersReleaseNotes() now exclusively checks the ProductEdition: Insiders front-matter field. Also updated the format validation to accept content starting with --- (front-matter) in addition to # (heading).