This issue tracks the migration of the following Python libraries to use Librarian for releasing, instead of release-please. This means releases will no longer be triggered automatically; instead, the library maintainers will be responsible for initiating releases. For libraries containing GAPIC generated code, generation will now be performed on a weekly basis by Librarian and merged (when green) by the Cloud SDK Platform team - this can also be triggered manually by maintainers if an API change is needed more urgently.

The new release and generation processes are described at https://github.com/googleapis/librarian/blob/main/doc/library-maintainer-guide.md.

Additionally, OwlBot will no longer be configured for the repository. The only noticeable impact of this should be that maintainers need to format code with nox themselves. (This is validated by a GitHub action.)

For each library, Tony (partheniou@) will work with the maintainers of these specific libraries to ensure a smooth transition. This will involve the following steps:

1. Tony will create a PR in the library repo to remove OwlBot and release-please configuration and add Librarian configuration. (By the time this is sent for review, he will have tested both generation and releasing in his own fork.) The library maintainers will review this PR.
2. Where necessary, Tony will create a PR in the Librarian repo to enable generation and the final part of release automation (triggering a release job after a release PR is merged) for the library repo. The Librarian automation team will review this PR and consult on any other steps required.
3. Tony will merge once:
   1. Both PRs are approved.
   2. If the library contains GAPIC-generated code, either all OwlBot changes have been merged and a release is performed, or we have verified that no OwlBot-generated changes have been merged since the last release. (Any pending OwlBot-generated changes will then be discarded.) This part is necessary as the Librarian release process does not parse OwlBot PR/commit descriptions.
4. After merging, Tony will trigger a Librarian generation run and either validate that there are no changes, or (if there are changes) check with the maintainers that they're as expected.
5. If there are any pending changes to the library which are ready to be released, Tony will pair with the maintainers to perform a first Librarian-based release. Otherwise, we ask the maintainer team to pair with Tony - or any member of the Librarian team - for the next release, just to double check everything.

Each library will be ticked in the list below once it has been migrated, and this issue will be closed once everything is ticked.

Please add any questions and discussion here. If you have concerns which aren't appropriate for a public GitHub issue, please contact Tony directly.

Libraries to migrate:

• https://github.com/googleapis/python-datastore
• https://github.com/googleapis/python-firestore