Improve release workflow (#13518)

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -188,13 +188,15 @@ jobs:
           echo "version=$VERSION" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
           echo "prior-version=$PRIOR_VERSION" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
 
-  merge-change-log-to-main:
+  update-apidiff-baseline-to-released-version:
     permissions:
       contents: write # for git push to PR branch
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     needs:
       - release
     steps:
+      # add change log sync (if any) into this PR since the apidiff update
+      # is required before any other PR can be merged anyway
       - uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.2.2
 
       - name: Copy change log section from release branch
@@ -216,53 +218,6 @@ jobs:
           release_date=$(gh release view v$VERSION --json publishedAt --jq .publishedAt | sed 's/T.*//')
           RELEASE_DATE=$release_date .github/scripts/merge-change-log-after-release.sh
 
-      - name: Use CLA approved bot
-        run: .github/scripts/use-cla-approved-bot.sh
-
-      - uses: actions/create-github-app-token@21cfef2b496dd8ef5b904c159339626a10ad380e # v1.11.6
-        id: otelbot-token
-        with:
-          app-id: ${{ vars.OTELBOT_APP_ID }}
-          private-key: ${{ secrets.OTELBOT_PRIVATE_KEY }}
-
-      - name: Create pull request against main
-        env:
-          VERSION: ${{ needs.release.outputs.version }}
-          # not using secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN since pull requests from that token do not run workflows
-          GH_TOKEN: ${{ steps.otelbot-token.outputs.token }}
-        run: |
-          if git diff --quiet; then
-            if [[ $VERSION == *.0 ]]; then
-              echo there are no updates to merge, not creating pull request
-              exit 0 # success
-            else
-              echo patch release notes did not get applied for some reason
-              exit 1 # failure
-            fi
-          fi
-
-          message="Merge change log updates from $GITHUB_REF_NAME"
-          body="Merge change log updates from \`$GITHUB_REF_NAME\`."
-          branch="otelbot/merge-change-log-updates-from-${GITHUB_REF_NAME//\//-}"
-
-          git checkout -b $branch
-          git commit -a -m "$message"
-          git push --set-upstream origin $branch
-          gh pr create --title "$message" \
-                       --body "$body" \
-                       --base main
-
-  update-apidiff-baseline-to-released-version:
-    permissions:
-      contents: write # for git push to PR branch
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    needs:
-      - release
-    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.2.2
-        with:
-          ref: main
-
       - name: Wait for release to be available in maven central
         env:
           VERSION: ${{ needs.release.outputs.version }}