get-next-version gets the next version for your repository according to semantic versioning based on conventional commits.

Go to the releases page, find the download url for your architecture and operating system, and copy it.

Then, run the following steps:

# Download the latest release (insert the url here)
$ curl -L -o get-next-version <URL>

# Ensure the binary is executable
$ chmod a+x get-next-version

# Move the binary to the application directory
$ sudo mv get-next-version /usr/local/bin

Go to the repository and run get-next-version. The tool will analyze the history of your repository and output the next version for your release.

$ get-next-version

Optionally, you may hand over the --repository (or short -r) flag to specify the path to the repository you want to analyze, if it is not in the current working directory.

$ get-next-version --repository <PATH>

If you need to prefix the version, you can use the --prefix (or short -p) flag. Note that the prefix must be a valid tag name on its own.

By default, output will be printed to the console in a human-readable format. If you want to print the output in a machine-readable format, you can use the --target (or short -t) flag:

# Print output in JSON format
$ get-next-version --target json

# Write output to the GITHUB_OUTPUT file in GitHub Action format (see https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/workflow-commands-for-github-actions#setting-an-output-parameter)
$ get-next-version --target github-action

For convenience, you may use the GitHub Action when running get-next-version inside a workflow on GitHub.

⚠️ When cloning the repository, make sure to set the fetch-depth option to 0, otherwise get-next-version will not be able to analyze the history of the repository!

⚠️ The action uses the parameter target=github-action by default, which will not print any human-readable output, but only write the output to the GITHUB_OUTPUT file.

An example workflow that makes use of the GitHub Action is shown below:

name: Example workflow

on: pull_request

jobs:
  example:
    name: Example
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - name: Clone repository
      uses: actions/checkout@v3
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
        ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
    - name: Get next version
      id: get_next_version
      uses: thenativeweb/get-next-version@main
      with:
        prefix: 'v' # optional, defaults to ''
    - name: Show the next version
      run: |
        echo ${{ steps.get_next_version.outputs.version }}
        echo ${{ steps.get_next_version.outputs.hasNextVersion }}

In case you are not familiar with conventional commits (as mentioned above), here is a short summary. Basically, you should prefix your commit messages with one of the following keywords:

• chore – used for maintenance, does not result in a new version
• fix – used for bug fixes, results in a new patch version (e.g. from 1.2.3 to 1.2.4)
• feat – used for introducing new features, results in a new minor version (e.g. from 1.2.3 to 1.3.0)
• feat! – used for breaking changes, results in a new major version (e.g. from 1.2.3 to 2.0.0)

Some examples for commit messages are shown below:

• chore: Initial commit
• fix: Correct typo
• feat: Add support for Node.js 18
• feat!: Change API from v1 to v2

Please note that ! indicates breaking changes, and will always result in a new major version, independent of the type of change.