When does this project release a new version, and how?

[HonkingGoose]

When does this repository get a new release?

It's not clear to me how/when the renovabot/github-action gets updated versions of the Renovate program?

The readme on this repository does not explain the version/release policy. The readme should explain how and when a new version of the GitHub Action of Renovate is released, and what version numbers mean.

I'm willing to open a PR to improve the readme, once I have the correct info. 😉

Why I'm asking about this

A user recently tried to fetch the v37.363.1 release, which is released on the main renovabot/renovate repository, and got this error:

git fetch https://github.com/renovatebot/github-action v37.363.1
fatal: couldn't find remote ref v37.363.1

• Getting unsupported/unversioned values on renovate logs renovate#29063 (reply in thread)

User accidentally fetching the wrong version?

Maybe that error is because the latest version of renovatebot/github-action is actually v40.1.11? So the version numbers of Renovate's GitHub Action and Renovate the main program/repo do not match?

How do we use Semantic Release? Is the config correct?

I see we're using Semantic Release to release new versions on the release branch, based on some rules about the commit message and file content:

github-action/.releaserc.json

Lines 1 to 96 in 012ab12

	{
	"branches": ["release"],
	"plugins": [
	"@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
	"@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
	"@semantic-release/npm",
	[
	"@semantic-release/git",
	{
	"assets": ["dist", "package.json"],
	"message": "chore(release): ${nextRelease.version} [skip ci]"
	}
	],
	[
	"@semantic-release/github",
	{
	"releasedLabels": false,
	"successComment": false
	}
	]
	],
	"analyzeCommits": {
	"releaseRules": [
	{
	"type": "docs",
	"scope": "readme.md",
	"release": "patch"
	},
	{
	"type": "build",
	"release": "patch"
	},
	{
	"type": "skip",
	"release": false
	}
	]
	},
	"preset": "conventionalcommits",
	"presetConfig": {
	"types": [
	{
	"type": "feat",
	"section": "Features"
	},
	{
	"type": "feature",
	"section": "Features"
	},
	{
	"type": "fix",
	"section": "Bug Fixes"
	},
	{
	"type": "perf",
	"section": "Performance Improvements"
	},
	{
	"type": "revert",
	"section": "Reverts"
	},
	{
	"type": "docs",
	"section": "Documentation"
	},
	{
	"type": "style",
	"section": "Styles"
	},
	{
	"type": "chore",
	"section": "Miscellaneous Chores"
	},
	{
	"type": "refactor",
	"section": "Code Refactoring"
	},
	{
	"type": "test",
	"section": "Tests"
	},
	{
	"type": "build",
	"section": "Build System"
	},
	{
	"type": "ci",
	"section": "Continuous Integration"
	},
	{
	"type": "skip",
	"hidden": true
	}
	]
	}
	}

Lots of [skip release] commit messages in the release branch

I see a lot of [skip release] commit messaged in the renovatebot/github-action, commits on release branch overview. Is that the correct, wanted behavior?

Last release three weeks ago

The last release on the renovatebot/github-action releases overview is `v40.1.11. That is three weeks ago as of this post.

Summary

• Check if our Semantic Release configuration is working as intended.
• Explain in the readme:
  • How and when new versions are released.
  • How the versioning scheme works, and what versions mean.
  • If the versions of Renovate the main program, and Renovate as GitHub Action match, or are different.

Again, I'm willing to open a PR to improve the readme. 😉

[viceice]

it's never updated on renovate releases. the action is always runing the ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:latest docker images by default.
The action is only released if there are allowed semantic committs pushed to main, we're using semantic-release on this repo.

See:

• https://github.com/renovatebot/github-action?tab=readme-ov-file#renovate-image
• https://github.com/renovatebot/github-action?tab=readme-ov-file#renovate-version

[HonkingGoose]

I'm adding this info to the readme with this PR:

• docs(readme): rewrite #846