maven release plugin with phase and jar-with-dependencies

I have a build set up to run a variety of tasks when I run mvn release:prepare and mvn:release:perform. Specifically, I have a phase set up so that my javadocs and source-plugins are run only when I release. This allows my build to avoid a lot of time for the common case of mvn clean install. I'd like to add to this my maven-assembly-plugin jar-with-dependencies so only when I release the assembly plugin is run.

Here's what my build looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>example</groupId>
    <artifactId>example</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>

    <name>Example</name>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.4.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <releaseProfiles>release</releaseProfiles>
                    <goals>deploy</goals>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>release</id>
            <activation>
                <activeByDefault>false</activeByDefault>
            </activation>
            <build>
                <plugins>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>2.2.1</version>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>attach-sources</id>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>jar</goal>
                                </goals>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                    </plugin>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>2.9</version>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>attach-javadocs</id>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>jar</goal>
                                </goals>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                        <configuration>
                            <doclet>org.asciidoctor.Asciidoclet</doclet>
                            <docletArtifact>
                                <groupId>org.asciidoctor</groupId>
                                <artifactId>asciidoclet</artifactId>
                                <version>0.1.3</version>
                            </docletArtifact>
                            <linksource>true</linksource>
                        </configuration>
                    </plugin>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>2.4</version>
                        <configuration>
                            <descriptorRefs>
                                <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
                            </descriptorRefs>
                        </configuration>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>make-assembly</id>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>single</goal>
                                </goals>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                    </plugin>
                </plugins>
            </build>
        </profile>
    </profiles>
</project>

the maven-source-plugin and maven-javadoc-plugin both run during the release phase, but the maven-assembly-plugin does not. What do I have to do to make this plugin run during a maven release?

The single isn't bound to a default phase, so you have to specify it in the execution-block. If you compare it with the javadoc:jar you'll see that this goal is by default bound to the package phase.