chore(protobuf-4.x-rc): release 1.76.0-rc1

[diegomarquezp]

🤖 I have created a release beepboop

1.76.0-rc1

1.76.0-rc1 (2025-12-17)

Features

• [vertexai] Upgrade to protobuf 4.33.0 gencode (#11840) (e9c2bbe)

Dependencies

• update sdk-platform-java-config to 3.55.0-rc1 (#11836) (65af7bd)
• update the Java code generator (gapic-generator-java) to 2.65.0-rc1 (5bd22f9)

---

[diegomarquezp]

Created using the following script that confirms that every snapshot version was a minor bump of the previously released version:

defmain() ->None:
versions=defaultdict(dict)
withopen('versions.txt') asfile:
skip=0forlineinfile:
ifskip<3:
skip+=1continuemodule, released_version, current_version=line.rstrip().split(':')
released_major=int(released_version.split('.')[0])
current_major=int(current_version.split('.')[0])
released_minor=int(released_version.split('.')[1])
current_minor=int(current_version.split('.')[1])
current_patch=current_version.split('.')[2]
assertcurrent_minor==released_minor+1, line.rstrip()
assertcurrent_major==released_major, line.rstrip()
assertcurrent_patch=='0-SNAPSHOT'orcurrent_patch=='0-beta-SNAPSHOT', line.rstrip()

After that I modified all poms and the 4 READMES from this query to remove snapshot from the versions where there is a x-version-update: string in the line, using the following script:

defmain() ->None:
forfiletypein ['poms']:
withopen('poms') asfile:
forentryin [line.rstrip() forlineinfile]:
process_file(entry)
defprocess_file(file):
modified=Falserf=open(file)
wf=open(file+'.new', 'w')
forlineinrf:
if'x-version-update:'inline:
line=line.replace('-SNAPSHOT', '-rc1')
modified=Truewf.write(line)
rf.close()
wf.close()
ifmodified:
subprocess.run(['rm', file])
subprocess.run(['mv', file+'.new', file])
else:
subprocess.run(['rm', file+'.new'])

Lastly, looking at #11838 I modified CHANGELOG.md, versions.txt and .release-please-manifest.json

[release-please]

🤖 Created releases:

• v1.76.0-rc1

🌻