[Mikola Lysenko (mikolalysenko)]

Why

The 5.1.0 Release run (43055050241) failed in one second on both macOS legs with:

The configuration 'macos-14-arm64-us-default' is not supported

GitHub retired the macos-14 runner image on 2026-11-02 (changelog). release.yml was the only workflow still pinned to it, and the last release (5.0.1, 2026-10-13) predates the retirement. The run was cancelled before the tag job, so nothing was tagged or published.

What changes

Both macOS legs of the Release build matrix (aarch64-apple-darwin, x86_64-apple-darwin) move from macos-14 to macos-latest. That is the label ci.yml uses and the same -latest convention as the Linux and Windows legs of this matrix. The x86_64-apple-darwin leg still cross-compiles from the arm64 runner.

Verification

A dry-run: true dispatch of this branch's release.yml (version gate and build matrix only; tag, github-release, cargo-publish and npm-publish are skipped): run 43057194305. It ran on the first commit; the second commit only shortens a YAML comment. Result: success. All 14 targets built, including aarch64-apple-darwin and x86_64-apple-darwin on macos-latest, and the four publish jobs were skipped.

Review findings not fixed here

/code-review high found no correctness bug. Three findings are left for a decision outside this unblock:

• No canary for the release matrix. The matrix, and the x86_64-apple-darwin cross-compile in particular, runs only on release day, so a runner image change is found mid-release. A scheduled dry-run dispatch would catch it earlier. Not added here: it is a new recurring CI cost and belongs in its own PR.
• Floating image for shipped binaries. macos-latest can change Xcode and SDK without a commit here. Kept because the other 12 targets already build on ubuntu-latest / windows-latest, and the minimum macOS version of the binaries comes from rustc's per-target default, not from the runner. The alternative is to pin macos-15 and bump it before each retirement.
• Other pinned labels. The compatibility workflows pin ubuntu-22.04 on purpose for old-distro coverage. They will need the same bump when that image is retired; nothing lints for it today.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[cursor]

PR Summary

Low Risk
Workflow-only runner label change; no application code or release packaging logic is modified.

Overview
Unblocks the Release workflow after GitHub retired the macos-14 runner image (which caused macOS legs to fail immediately with an unsupported configuration error).

Both Apple matrix entries (aarch64-apple-darwin and x86_64-apple-darwin) now use macos-latest, matching ci.yml and the other matrix legs’ -latest pattern. A short YAML comment documents why pinned macOS labels are avoided.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 58edfb3. Configure here.}