gitlub pipeline optimization - overcome release-cli problems - automation

Question

I've trying to continuously improve our gitlab pipeline for a small project, add more automation and speed up deployment time. Currently, there's several challenges I've faced.
We are using release-cli in order to create specific tags for every environment - prod, stage and dev. Because of its nature, it's changed the stages form the new one after every run. So after every job we need to manually trigger "package" stage from the new workflow (see attached screenshot). I wonder how can we use release-cli more effectively and what should I add into pipeline in order to fully automate its run, at least for production environment?
Here's the code:
stages:
- install
- release
- package
- deploy
### FOR MAIN BRANCH
.main-branch:
only:
- main
.using-cache:
cache:
key: main
paths:
- node_modules
policy: pull
install prod:
extends: .main-branch
tags:
- canary
stage: install
script:
- echo "Install"
### RELEASE
patch release prod:
tags:
- canary
extends: .main-branch
needs: [ "install prod" ]
stage: release
before_script:
- TAG=$(git describe origin/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME --abbrev=0 --tags )
- NEW_VERSION=${TAG%.${TAG##*.}}.$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
script:
- echo "Running the release job. Set tag $NEW_VERSION"
- release-cli create
--name "Auto-release v$NEW_VERSION"
--description "Auto-release v$NEW_VERSION"
--tag-name "$NEW_VERSION"
package prod:
extends: .main-branch
tags:
- canary
stage: package
when: manual
script:
- docker-compose build
- docker-compose push
only:
- tags
deploy production:
tags:
- canary
only:
- tags
needs: [ "package prod" ]
extends: .main-branch
stage: deploy
environment:
name: production
url: https://saharok.store/
action: start
script:
- kubectl config use-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
- kubectl create secret generic server-stable --from-env-file=$PROD_ENV_FILE -o yaml --dry-run=client | kubectl apply -f -
- helm upgrade client-stable ./.helm/client -i --set image.tag=$CI_COMMIT_TAG --kube-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
- helm upgrade server-stable ./.helm/server -i --set image.tag=$CI_COMMIT_TAG --kube-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
### FOR STAGE BRANCH
.stage-branch:
only:
- stage
.using-cache stage:
cache:
key: stage
paths:
- node_modules
policy: pull
install stage:
extends: .stage-branch
tags:
- canary
stage: install
script:
- echo "Install"
patch release stage:
tags:
- canary
extends: .stage-branch
stage: release
needs: [ "install stage" ]
before_script:
- TAG=$(git describe origin/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME --abbrev=0 --tags )
- NEW_VERSION=${TAG%.${TAG##*.}}.$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
script:
- echo "Running the release job. Set tag $NEW_VERSION"
- release-cli create
--name "Auto-release v$NEW_VERSION"
--description "Auto-release v$NEW_VERSION"
--tag-name "$NEW_VERSION"
package stage:
extends: .stage-branch
tags:
- canary
stage: package
when: manual
script:
- docker-compose build
- docker-compose push
only:
- tags
deploy staging:
tags:
- canary
only:
- tags
needs: [ "package stage" ]
extends: .stage-branch
stage: deploy
when: manual
environment:
name: staging
url: https://staging.saharok.store/
action: start
script:
- kubectl config use-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
- kubectl create secret generic server-staging --from-env-file=$STAGE_ENV_FILE -o yaml --dry-run=client | kubectl apply -f -
- helm upgrade client-staging ./.helm/client -i --set image.tag=$CI_COMMIT_TAG -f ./.helm/client/values.staging.yaml --kube-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
- helm upgrade server-staging ./.helm/server -i --set image.tag=$CI_COMMIT_TAG -f ./.helm/server/values.staging.yaml --kube-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
### FOR DEV BRANCH
install dev:
tags:
- canary
stage: install
when: manual
script:
- echo "Install"
patch release dev:
tags:
- canary
stage: release
needs: [ "install dev" ]
before_script:
- TAG=$(git describe origin/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME --abbrev=0 --tags --always )
- NEW_VERSION=${TAG%.${TAG##*.}}.$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
script:
- echo "Running the release job. Set tag $NEW_VERSION"
- release-cli create
--name "Auto-release v$NEW_VERSION for dev"
--description "Auto-release v$NEW_VERSION for dev"
--tag-name "$NEW_VERSION"
package dev:
tags:
- canary
stage: package
when: manual
script:
- docker-compose build
- docker-compose push
only:
- tags
deploy dev:
tags:
- canary
only:
- tags
stage: deploy
needs: [ "package dev" ]
environment:
name: dev
url: https://dev.saharok.store/
action: start
script:
- kubectl config use-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
- kubectl create secret generic server-dev --from-env-file=$DEV_ENV_FILE -o yaml --dry-run=client | kubectl apply -f -
- helm upgrade --install client-dev ./.helm/client -i --set image.tag=$CI_COMMIT_TAG -f ./.helm/client/values.dev.yaml --kube-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok
- helm upgrade --install server-dev ./.helm/server -i --set image.tag=$CI_COMMIT_TAG -f ./.helm/server/values.dev.yaml --kube-context zefir-projects/saharok-monorepo:saharok