Bumping the Dart SDK Version Constraint

Important Rules

1. Never Update Dependencies to 'any': The skill must never change or update any dependency version constraint to any in order to resolve version conflicts.
2. Pause and Ask on Issues: If you run into any issues executing the task (e.g., version resolution failures, checksum mismatches, test failures, or analyzer errors), do not attempt to fix them by modifying other dependencies. Pause immediately, report the exact error details, and ask the user for instructions.
3. Handle Language Feature Version Discrepancies: If static analysis fails because a package uses language features from a newer SDK version than the requested target (e.g., private-named-parameters in widget_preview_scaffold requiring 3.12.0), ask the user if that specific package should be targeted at the higher SDK version while the rest of the repository remains at the requested target.

Step-by-Step Workflow

Follow these steps carefully to perform the bump, resolve dependencies, and verify the changes.

Step 1: Pre-flight Checks

1. Verify target version suffix: Ensure the version constraint specified by the user includes the -0 pre-release suffix (e.g., ^3.13.0-0 instead of ^3.13.0).
   • Why: Standard caret constraints like ^3.13.0 exclude pre-release versions of that major/minor release. Since active development and CI run on pre-releases, omitting the -0 suffix will cause package resolution to fail. If the user provided a version without -0, append it or ask the user for confirmation.
2. Ensure SDK is already rolled: The target Dart SDK version must already have rolled into the repository (e.g. the local Dart SDK from the Engine stamp is at least that version). Otherwise, package resolution and analysis will fail.

Step 2: Update pubspec.yaml Files

Run the repository's Dart tool script to update matching pubspec.yaml files cross-platform:

dart dev/tools/bin/bump_version_constraints.dart <OLD_VERSION_CONSTRAINT> <NEW_VERSION_CONSTRAINT>

Example: dart dev/tools/bin/bump_version_constraints.dart ^3.10.0-0 ^3.11.0-0

• The script only updates packages whose current SDK constraint matches <OLD_VERSION_CONSTRAINT>. If it encounters packages with deviating constraints (e.g. higher SDK versions like ^3.12.0 or custom ranges), it leaves them untouched and prints a message flagging them to the user.

Step 3: Update Dependency Checksums and Hashes

Flutter enforces dependency integrity via checksums. Run the update-packages tool to re-solve the package workspace, generate updated pubspec.lock files, and update the checksums:

flutter update-packages --force-upgrade --update-hashes

Step 4: Run Static Analysis

Verify the new constraints solve correctly and do not introduce any analyzer errors, warnings, lints (infos), or deprecations.

Run static analysis:

flutter analyze --flutter-repo

• Treat any non-zero exit code from flutter analyze as a failure. Do not ignore info (lint) or warning diagnostics, as the Flutter repository requires all analysis issues to be clean. Pay close attention to newly firing lints or deprecated lint rule warnings.

Step 5: Report Status, Write Results File, and Prepare Pull Request

1. Write Results File in Workspace Root: Always write a detailed report of the bump execution to a file named bump_results.md in the workspace root (e.g., <flutter_root>/bump_results.md). The file must include:
   • Target SDK version and current Engine SDK version.
   • The exact bump command run.
   • Count/details of updated pubspec.yaml files.
   • List of skipped/flagged packages with their constraints.
   • Results of the update-packages and static analysis runs (highlighting any failures, warnings, or newly firing lints).
2. Handle Failure/Success:
   • If static analysis fails (even if it only contains info or warning diagnostics like prefer_initializing_formals or deprecated_lint), list the failures/warnings in bump_results.md, report them to the user, and ask for guidance (or proceed to fix them if instructed).
   • If static analysis passes, point the user to bump_results.md in the workspace root, show a summary of modified files (git status), and prompt the user to commit the changes and prepare a pull request.