add release docs

release.md

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# Introduction
+
+This file outlines the current procedure for the release of the Kakarot-RPC. This procedure is subject to updates 
+and should be maintained in order to reflect the latest necessary steps to release.
+
+# Procedure
+
+## Staging
+
+### Deploy updated contracts
+
+- Run the `e2e pipeline` CI with the `deploy` argument, targeting staging. This will update the contracts on the 
+  staging environment and finish with a pull request on the `Kakarot` repository with the updated deployment values. 
+- Merge the PR on the `Kakarot` repository.
+
+### Prepare release
+
+- Open a PR on the RPC repository titled "Prepare RPC alpha release". This PR should: update Karnot's 
+  deployment-config.yaml file and update the `Kakarot` submodule dependency to point to the commit which contains the 
+  updated deployments file.
+- Prepare the release of the RPC by making an alpha release on the RPC repository. This will trigger the CI which 
+  will build the RPC and indexer images.
+
+### Deploy the release and test
+
+- Run the `karnot-deployment` CI, targeting staging. This will update the staging environment with the correct 
+  images and env.
+- Run the `e2e pipeline` CI with the `test` argument, targeting staging.
+- If all the above works, you can move on to the next step, which repeats the previous actions but on the production 
+  environment.
+
+## Production
+
+### Deploy updated contracts
+
+- Run the `e2e pipeline` CI with the `deploy` argument, targeting production. This will update the contracts on the
+  staging environment and finish with a pull request on the `Kakarot` repository with the updated deployment values.
+- Merge the PR on the `Kakarot` repository.
+
+### Release
+
+- Open a PR on the RPC repository titled "Prepare RPC release". This PR should: update Karnot's
+  deployment-config.yaml file, update the `Kakarot` submodule dependency to point to the commit which contains the
+  updated deployments file, update the various docker files to points to the future release version, update the 
+  manifest's (Cargo.toml) version.
+- Release on the RPC repository. This will trigger the CI which will build the RPC and indexer images.
+
+### Deploy the release
+
+- Run the `karnot-deployment` CI, targeting production. This will update the production environment with the correct
+  images and env.
+- OPTIONAL: run the `e2e pipeline` CI with the `test` argument, targeting production.