Merge pull request #226 from babel/update-release-automation

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# Changelog
+
 ## v7.7.0 (2020-07-30)
 
 #### :rocket: Enhancement

RELEASE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# Release Process
+
+Releases are mostly automated using
+[release-it](https://github.com/release-it/release-it/) and
+[lerna-changelog](https://github.com/lerna/lerna-changelog/).
+
+## Preparation
+
+Since the majority of the actual release process is automated, the primary
+remaining task prior to releasing is confirming that all pull requests that
+have been merged since the last release have been labeled with the appropriate
+`lerna-changelog` labels and the titles have been updated to ensure they
+represent something that would make sense to our users. Some great information
+on why this is important can be found at
+[keepachangelog.com](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/), but the overall
+guiding principle here is that changelogs are for humans, not machines.
+
+When reviewing merged PR's the labels to be used are:
+
+* breaking - Used when the PR is considered a breaking change.
+* enhancement - Used when the PR adds a new feature or enhancement.
+* bug - Used when the PR fixes a bug included in a previous release.
+* documentation - Used when the PR adds or updates documentation.
+* internal - Used for internal changes that still require a mention in the
+  changelog/release notes.
+
+## Release
+
+Once the prep work is completed, the actual release is straight forward:
+
+* First, ensure that you have installed your projects dependencies:
+
+```sh
+npm install
+```
+
+* Second, ensure that you have obtained a
+  [GitHub personal access token][generate-token] with the `repo` scope (no
+  other permissions are needed). Make sure the token is available as the
+  `GITHUB_AUTH` environment variable.
+
+  For instance:
+
+  ```bash
+  export GITHUB_AUTH=abc123def456
+  ```
+
+[generate-token]: https://github.com/settings/tokens/new?scopes=repo&description=GITHUB_AUTH+env+variable
+
+* And last (but not least 😁) do your release.
+
+```sh
+npx release-it
+```
+
+[release-it](https://github.com/release-it/release-it/) manages the actual
+release process. It will prompt you to to choose the version number after which
+you will have the chance to hand tweak the changelog to be used (for the
+`CHANGELOG.md` and GitHub release), then `release-it` continues on to tagging,
+pushing the tag and commits, etc.