The original title "Green CI working software" is vague and doesn't capture the key facts. Let me rewrite it based on the summary.

Short summary

A developer shares two real-world CI failures where green checks masked untested release paths: a no-op release that skipped the push step entirely, and a build command that didn't stage artifacts. The root cause is that CI verifies exit codes, not the effects you assumed. The author recommends asserting actual outcomes (e.g., tag exists), forcing real paths with dry-runs, and keeping whole-branch reviews to catch bugs CI structurally cannot see.

• •Green CI only means exit code 0, not that the intended work happened
• •No-op releases and unstaged build artifacts both passed per-task checks
• •Assert effects not exit codes, force real paths in dry-runs, keep whole-branch review

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