A semantic release group of actions action for generating the next release version & changelog based on commit messages & notifying closed issues.

Still very much a v0.x beta.

• Assumptions
• Primary action
  • Inputs
  • Outputs
• Notify issues on release
  • Inputs
• Plain old changelog generator
  • Inputs
  • Outputs
• Resolve the last released tag
  • Inputs
  • Outputs
• Resolve the next tag to release
  • Inputs
  • Outputs
• Check if the local branch is in sync with the remote
• Example workflows

Assumptions

1. You have no diverging version trees. The version can only ever keep going up - if you release an update in v2.x you cannot use this action to release a for v1.x.
2. You're following semantic versioning.
3. You're using the following conventional commit message format:

type(scope?): Message

Extended message

Where the extended message can contain the following keywords:

• Closes #1, Closes #1, #2, #n (case-insensitive) - mark this commit as closing the given issues.
• BREAKING CHANGE: description (case-sensitive, configurable) - mark this commit as a breaking change.

Primary action

1. Parse commits since last release
2. Determine next release version and whether we should make a release
3. Generate changelog
4. Output everything as action outputs

Inputs

Key	Required	Default	Description
breaking-change-keywords	✔️	BREAKING CHANGE	If the commit message extended body starts with one of these prefixes (one per line, case sensitive) then a breaking change release will be made
minor-types	❌		Types that result in a minor version release. Format: type: Heading in the changelog (one per line).
patch-types	❌		Types that result in a patch version release. Format: same as minor-types
trivial-types	❌		Types that are included in the changelog, but don't result in a version bump. Format: same as minor-types
stay-at-zero	❌	false	If we're currently at version 0.x (or no version at all) then this can be set to true to stay at version 0.x with our releases.

Types with identical headings will get merged under the same heading in the changelog regardless of whether they're all major/minor/patch or not.

Outputs

Name	Description
changelog	The generated changelog
commit-count	Total number of commits since the previous release
relevant-commit-count	commit-count with commits with mismatching message regex filtered out
release-type	The type of release that was generated: major, minor, patch
next-version	The next version we should release, based on commit messages
next-version-major	If next-version outputs v1.2.3 then this will output 1
next-version-minor	If next-version outputs v1.2.3 then this will output 2
next-version-patch	If next-version outputs v1.2.3 then this will output 3
last-tag	The last tag we scanned from, if any
in-sync	Gets set to true if we're in sync with the remote repository, i.e. not behind or ahead of it in commits
issues-closed	A comma-separated list of issue numbers (without #) closed by this release, if any
should-release	Gets set to true there were version bumping commits processed and we're in sync with the remote repository

Notify issues on release

This action lives under /notify.

1. Take the issues-closed and, most likely, next-version outputs of the primary action
2. Check if we're ahead of/behind the remote and terminate early if needed
3. Apply a label to each issue and add a comment.

Inputs

Key	Required	Default	Description
tag	✔️		The tag that just just released, e.g. the next-version output of the primary step
issues	✔️		A comma-separated list of issues to notify, e.g. the issues-closed output of the primary step. Note that no duplicate verification happens in order to conserve API call quota, therefore calling this action repeatedly with the same issue(s) will result in multuple comments.
labels	✔️	Released	Labels to apply to released issues (1 per line)
gh-token	✔️	${{ github.token }}	API token to use
error-on-ratelimit	❌	false	Error if the GitHub API token gits a rate limit (true) or just warn (false)
error-on-out-of-sync	❌	false	If we're behind/ahead of the remote, should the action skip notifications, but succeed (false) or fail with an error (true)? Overridden by allow-out-of-sync.
allow-out-of-sync	❌	false	Continue with notifications even if we're out of sync with the remote. Takes precedence over error-on-ratelimit.
comment	✔️	This issue has been included in [{{tag}}]({{releaseUrl}}) :tada:	The comment that'll be made on every issue. Accepts placeholders in the form of {{name}} - list included below.

Comment placeholders:

• tag: The tag input
• owner: The repo owner
• repo: The repo name
• baseUrl: Shorthand for https://github.com/{{owner}}/{{repo}}
• releaseUrl: Shorthand for {{baseUrl}}/releases/tag/{{tag}}

Plain old changelog generator

This action lives under /generate-changelog.

Take a commit range in, spit a changelog out.

Inputs

Same as primary action: breaking-change-keywords, minor-types, patch-types, trivial-types, stay-at-zero.

Key	Required	Default	Description
from	❌	The beginning of all time	Commit/tag to start from. The lefthand side of a git log xx..yy command.
last-tag	❌		The last tag that got released, if any
until	❌	HEAD	Commit/tag to end at. The righthand side of a git log xx..yy command.

Outputs

Same as primary action: changelog, release-type, commit-count, relevant-commit-count, issues-closed, in-sync, should-release, next-version.

Resolve the last released tag

This action lives under /last-tag. Same step as the primary action uses.

Inputs

Key	Required	Default	Description
before	❌		If specified, the last tag must come before this tag sorted by semantic version.
after	❌		If specified, the last tag must come after this tag sorted by semantic version.

Outputs

last-tag, if resolved.

Resolve the next tag to release

Lives under /next-tag. Generates the next tag based on the previous released version and a release type.

Inputs

Key	Required	Default	Description
last-tag	❌		The last tag that got released
release-type	✔️		The type of release to make: major, minor, patch
stay-at-zero	❌	false	Same as primary action

Outputs

tag with the full tag and major, minor, patch with the broken down segments.

Check if the local branch is in sync with the remote

Lives under /sync-check. No inputs, one output: in-sync; gets set to true if we're still in sync.

Example workflows

Generate a release when the main branch gets major/minor/patch commits

name: Release
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
      - main
jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Release
    permissions:
      contents: write # Needed for the notify step unless a different GitHub token is provided
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # need to fetch the whole history
          fetch-tags: true # needed to know what the previous release was
          
      - uses: alorel-actions/semantic-release-lite@v0
        id: parse-release
        with:
          minor-types: "feat: Features"
          patch-types: |
            fix: Bug Fixes
            perf: Performance improvements
          trivial-types: |
            deps: Dependency Updates
            ci: CI & Build
            build: CI & Build
            chore: Maintenance

      - run: whatever you need to do for your release
        if: ${{ steps.parse-release.outputs.should-release }}  

      - uses: alorel-actions/semantic-release-lite/notify@v0
        if: ${{ steps.parse-release.outputs.should-release && steps.parse-release.outputs.issues-closed }}
        with:
          tag: ${{ steps.parse-release.outputs.next-version }}
          issues: ${{ steps.parse-release.outputs.issues-closed }}

Generate a changelog for a specific commit range

name: Preliminary changelog
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Release
    permissions:
      contents: write # Needed for the notify step unless a different GitHub token is provided
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # need to fetch the whole history
          fetch-tags: true # needed to know what the previous release was
      
      - uses: alorel-actions/semantic-release-lite/generate-changelog@v0
        id: changelog
        with:
          from: master
          minor-types: "feat: Features"
          patch-types: |
            fix: Bug Fixes
            perf: Performance improvements
          trivial-types: |
            deps: Dependency Updates
            ci: CI & Build
            build: CI & Build
            chore: Maintenance

      # Might want to e.g. post this as a PR comment
      - run: 'echo -e "Changelog for this release: ${{ steps.parse-release.outputs.changelog }}  "'