---

Automate releases based on SemVer and Conventional Commits. Like semantic-release and release-please but simpler and faster.

Autorel automatically does the following, if appropriate:

• Bumps the version based on the commit messages
• Creates a new release on GitHub with Release Notes
• Publishes the package to NPM
• Runs any arbitrary command or bash script

Currently only has built-in support for GitHub and NPM, but you can write your own scripts to support other systems and languages.

✅ Conventional Commit and SemVer Compliant

• 100% compliant with Conventional Commits and SemVer out of the box, including "!" for breaking changes

😃 Simple & Easy to Use

• No confusing configuration files or complex setup
• Works with any CI/CD system, including GitHub Actions
• Works with any language or platform
• Built-in bash script support

🚀 Fast & Lightweight

• Minimal dependencies and fast execution written in TypeScript
• Comprehensive test coverage
• Less broken builds and more time to focus on your code!

Read our FAQ on why you should use autorel and how it compares to other tools

Table of Contents

• Example Usage (CLI)
• Example Usage (Library)
• System Requirements
• Commit Messages
• Usage with GitHub Actions
• Usage with Other Repositories (not GitHub)
• Usage with Other Languages (not Node.js)
• Configuration
• Sample YAML Configuration
• Types
• Debug Mode
• About package.json versions
• FAQ
• Support, Feedback, and Contributions
• License

Example Usage (CLI)

npx autorel --publish --run 'echo "Next version is ${NEXT_VERSION}"'

This will:

1. Bump the version based on the commit messages since the last release
2. Create a new release on GitHub with Release Notes
3. Update package.json and publish the release to NPM (does not commit the change to the repository, see below)
4. Run the command echo "Next version is ${NEXT_VERSION}"

You can also install autorel globally and run it directly:

npm i -g autorel
autorel --publish

Avoiding Breaking Changes

If using the npx command, you may want to append the version number to prevent breaking changes in the future. You can do this by appending @^ followed by the major version number.

Example: npx autorel@^2

Example Usage (Library)

1. Install autorel as a dependency

   npm i autorel

2. Import and use in your project

   import {autorel} from 'autorel';
   
   autorel({publish: true}).then((nextVersion) => {
       console.log(`Next version is ${nextVersion}`);
   });

System Requirements

• Linux or MacOS (Windows is not officially supported)
• Node.js 14+
• NPM 7+
• Git 2.13+
• Bash

Commit Messages

Commit messages are parsed to determine the version bump. They must follow the Conventional Commits standard specification.

Here are some examples of commit messages and the resulting SemVer version bump (with default configuration):

• fix: fix a bug -> 0.0.1
• feat: add new feature -> 0.1.0
• feat!: add breaking change -> 1.0.0

You can find more examples in the Conventional Commits documentation.

Usage with GitHub Actions

You can use autorel with GitHub Actions to automate your releases (recommended).

❗️ You must set fetch-depth: 0 and fetch-tags: true in actions/checkout@v4 (or later) or autorel will not work correctly.

❗️ You must be authenticated with NPM to publish. To do so via GitHub Actions, see this.

Here is a sample configuration:

name: Release
on:
  push:
    branches: [main, alpha, beta]
jobs:
  release:
    name: Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          fetch-tags: true
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: latest
          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npx autorel@^2
        env:
            GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}}
            NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{secrets.NPM_TOKEN}}

It's also recommended you create a .autorel.yaml file in the root of your project to configure autorel.

Usage with Other Repositories (not GitHub)

autorel is designed to work with any CI/CD system, not just GitHub Actions. You can use it with GitLab, Bitbucket, Jenkins, or any other system that supports running shell commands.

Simply use the --skip-release flag (arg: skipRelease: true) to skip creating a release on GitHub. Then, you can use the --run flag (arg: run: string) to run any command or script after the version bump with the new version number available as an environment variable see below.

If you're interested in contributing built-in support for other systems, please open an issue or PR.

Usage with Other Languages (not Node.js)

autorel is designed to work with any language or platform. You can use it with Python, Ruby, Go, Java, or any other language.

Simply omit the --publish flag (arg: publish: false, which is default) to skip publishing to NPM. Then, you can use either the --run flag (arg: run: string) or runScript: string arg to run any command or script after the version bump with the new version number available as an environment variable see below.

If you're interested in contributing built-in support for other systems, please open an issue or PR.

Configuration

When run in CLI mode, autorel can be configured via CLI arguments or a yaml file. CLI arguments take precedence over the yaml file.

However, omitting the --publish flag will still publish to NPM if publish: true is set in the yaml file, and the same for other binary flags.

When used as a library, you pass the configuration directly to the autorel function.

All arguments are optional.

❗️ The yaml configuration file must be named .autorel.yaml and be in the root of your project.

See sample YAML configuration

publish

Whether to publish the release to NPM. If true, you must be authenticated with NPM. To do so via GitHub Actions, see this.

• CLI: --publish
• Argument: publish: boolean
• Default: false

dryRun

Whether to run in dry-run mode. This will not push the tag, create the release, publish to NPM, or run the command.

• CLI: --dry-run
• Argument: dryRun: boolean
• Default: false

skipRelease

Whether to skip creating a release on GitHub. If true, the release will not be created, but the tag will still be pushed and the package on npm will still be updated, if applicable.

• CLI: --skip-release
• Argument: skipRelease: boolean
• Default: false

run

A bash command/script to run after the release is complete. All scripts are run in "-e" mode, meaning they will exit on the first error.

The following environment variables are available:

Variable	Description
NEXT_VERSION	The new version number (without the v)
NEXT_TAG	The new tag, ie. v3.1.0

Example CLI usage:

npx autorel --run 'echo "Next version is ${NEXT_VERSION}"'

Example YAML usage:

run: echo "Next version is ${NEXT_VERSION}"

You can use the multi-line string syntax in YAML to write a script:

run: |
  echo "$(date +"%Y-%m-%d") ${NEXT_VERSION}" >> versions.txt
  aws s3 sync . s3://my-bucket

• CLI: --run
• Argument: run: string
• Default: undefined

preRun

A bash command/script to run before the release is started. All scripts are run in "-e" mode, meaning they will exit on the first error. Here's where you can do things like run tests or do build steps.

This could save you time and money by not running unnecessary steps in your CI/CD pipeline. It will not run if no release is determined to be necessary, and it will not run in dry-run mode.

This is run after determining the new version number but before pushing tags, creating the release on GitHub, updating the package.json, or publishing to NPM.

Example YAML usage:

preRun: |
  npm ci
  npm run build
  npm run test
  npm run lint

• CLI: --pre-run
• Argument: preRun: string
• Default: undefined

preRelease

❗️ This is typically set via the branches configuration (recommended), but can be overridden here.

The pre-release channel to use. This will be appended to the version number. For example, if the version is 1.0.0 and the pre-release is alpha, the version will be 1.0.0-alpha.1. For "production" releases, the "latest" tag will be used for NPM.

• CLI: --pre-release
• Argument: preRelease: string
• Default: undefined

breakingChangeTitle (YAML/library only)

The title to use for the breaking changes section in the release notes.

• Argument: breakingChangeTitle: string
• Default: "🚨 Breaking Changes 🚨"

commitTypes (YAML/library only)

The commit types to use for both the release notes and version bumping.

• Argument: commitTypes: CommitType[]
• Defaults: src/defaults.ts

branches (YAML/library only)

The branches to use for the release along with their pre-release channel. If not provided, the default is:

- {name: 'main'}

The above will release to the latest channel on NPM. If you want to release to a different channel (making it a pre-release), you can specify it like so:

branches:
  - {name: 'main'}
  - {name: 'develop', prereleaseChannel: 'alpha'}
  - {name: 'staging', prereleaseChannel: 'beta'}

The above will release to the latest channel (production) on NPM for the main branch, the alpha pre-release channel for the develop branch, and the beta pre-release channel for the staging branch.

• Argument: branches: ReleaseBranch[]

useVersion

The version to use for the release INSTEAD of the version being generated. Always results in a release being created unless noRelease is true. Advanced usage only, not recommended for most users.

• CLI: --use-version
• Argument: useVersion: string
• Default: undefined

❗️ Must be a valid SemVer version, without the v.

Sample YAML Configuration

_{.autorel.yaml}

# Define the branches and their respective channels
branches:
  - {name: 'main'}
  - {name: 'next', prereleaseChannel: 'next'}

# Enable publishing to NPM
publish: true

# Run custom script after publish
run: |
  echo "$(date +"%Y-%m-%d") ${NEXT_VERSION}" >> versions.txt
  aws s3 sync . s3://my-bucket

Types

You can find the types defined at src/index.ts.

Debug Mode

To enable debug mode, set AUTOREL_DEBUG=1:

AUTOREL_DEBUG=1 npx autorel

This will output configuration and other debug information.

About package.json versions

If using our npm publishing feature, the package.json file's version will be updated in memory before being pushed to npm, as this is the only place where it's actually required. The change will not be pushed to the repository, as it is not necessary and could cause conflicts. See this post

If you need access to the new version number in your CI/CD pipeline, you can use the NEXT_VERSION or NEXT_TAG environment variables.

Support, feedback, and contributions

• Star this repo if you like it!
• Submit an issue with your problem, feature request or bug report
• Issue a PR against main and request review. Make sure all tests pass and coverage is good.
• Write about this project in your blog, tweet about it, or share it with your friends!

Sponsorship

Aeroview is a lightning-fast, developer-friendly, and AI-powered logging IDE. Get started for free at https://aeroview.io.

Want to sponsor this project? Reach out.

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License

MIT