Solo dev's critical data-loss fix sat unmerged for four days due to manual release process

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A developer behind safari-mcp, a tool that lets AI agents control a user's Safari browser, discovered a serious bug on July 17 that could cause the agent to take over a tab it did not open. A fix was written and submitted the same day, passing all automated CI checks immediately, but was not merged until July 21 due to a multi-step manual release workflow. During those four days, an estimated 800 installs received the buggy version, as the project sees roughly 1,400 downloads per week. The developer also found that a prior release, v2.15.3, had shipped on July 15 with three real fixes but no changelog entry, making a contributor's work invisible to users. The incident highlights how automated checks alone are insufficient when the surrounding release process relies entirely on manual, undocumented human steps.

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