📄🔖📦

... a GitHub action that builds your release notes / changelog fast, easy and exactly the way you want.

What's included 🚀 • Setup 🛠️ • Sample 🖥️ • Customization 🖍️ • Contribute 🧬 • Local Testing 🧪 • License 📓

• Super simple integration
  • ...even on huge repositories with hundreds of tags
• Parallel releases support
• Rich changelogs based on PRs
  • Alternative commit based mode
• Blazingly fast execution
• Supports any git project
• Highly flexible configuration
• Lightweight
• Supports any branch
• Rich build log output

Specify the action as part of your GitHub actions workflow:

- name: "Build Changelog"
  id: build_changelog
  uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@{latest-release}

After action execution it will return the changelog and additional information as step output. You can use it in any follow-up step by referencing the output by referencing it via the id of the step. For example build_changelog.

# ${{steps.{CHANGELOG_STEP_ID}.outputs.changelog}}
${{steps.build_changelog.outputs.changelog}}

A full set list of possible output values for this action.

Below is a complete example showcasing how to define a build, which is executed when tagging the project. It consists of:

• Prepare tag, via the GITHUB_REF environment variable
• Build changelog, given the tag
• Create release on GitHub - specifying body with constructed changelog

name: 'CI'
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'

jobs:
  release:
    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Build Changelog
        id: github_release
        uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@v3
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Create Release
        uses: mikepenz/[email protected] #softprops/action-gh-release
        with:
          body: ${{steps.github_release.outputs.changelog}}

jobs:
  release:
    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Build Changelog
        uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@v3
        with:
          configurationJson: |
            {
              "template": "#{{CHANGELOG}}\n\n<details>\n<summary>Uncategorized</summary>\n\n#{{UNCATEGORIZED}}\n</details>",
              "categories": [
                {
                    "title": "## 💬 Other",
                    "labels": ["other"]
                },
                {
                    "title": "## 📦 Dependencies",
                    "labels": ["dependencies"]
                }
              ]
            }
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The action supports flexible configuration options to modify vast areas of its behavior. To do so, provide the configuration file to the workflow using the configuration setting.

- name: "Build Changelog"
  uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@{latest-release}
  with:
    configuration: "configuration.json"
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

This configuration is a JSON in the following format. (The below showcases example configurations for all possible options. In most scenarios most of the settings will not be needed, and the defaults will be appropiate.)

{
    "categories": [
      {
        "title": "## 🚀 Features",
        "labels": ["feature"]
      },
      {
        "title": "## 🐛 Fixes",
        "labels": ["fix"]
      },
      {
        "key": "tests",
        "title": "## 🧪 Tests",
        "labels": ["test"]
      },
      {
        "title": "## 🧪 Tests and some 🪄 Magic",
        "labels": ["test", "magic"],
        "exclude_labels": ["no-magic"],
        "exhaustive": true,
        "exhaustive_rules": "false",
        "empty_content": "- no matching PRs",
        "rules": [
          {
            "pattern": "open",
            "on_property": "status",
            "flags": "gu"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "ignore_labels": [
      "ignore"
    ],
    "sort": {
      "order": "ASC",
      "on_property": "mergedAt"
    },
    "template": "#{{CHANGELOG}}\n\n<details>\n<summary>Uncategorized</summary>\n\n#{{UNCATEGORIZED}}\n</details>",
    "pr_template": "- #{{TITLE}}\n   - PR: ##{{NUMBER}}",
    "empty_template": "- no changes",
    "label_extractor": [
      {
        "pattern": "(.) (.+)",
        "target": "$1",
        "flags": "gu"
      },
      {
        "pattern": "\\[Issue\\]",
        "on_property": "title",
        "method": "match"
      }
    ],
    "duplicate_filter": {
      "pattern": "\\[ABC-....\\]",
      "on_property": "title",
      "method": "match"
    },
    "reference": {
      "pattern": ".*\\ \\#(.).*",
      "on_property": "body",
      "method": "replace",
      "target": "$1"
    },
    "transformers": [
      {
        "pattern": "[\\-\\*] (\\[(...|TEST|CI|SKIP)\\])( )?(.+?)\n(.+?[\\-\\*] )(.+)",
        "target": "- $4\n  - $6"
      }
    ],
    "trim_values": false,
    "max_tags_to_fetch": 200,
    "max_pull_requests": 200,
    "max_back_track_time_days": 365,
    "exclude_merge_branches": [
      "Owner/qa"
    ],
    "tag_resolver": {
      "method": "semver",
      "filter": {
        "pattern": "api-(.+)",
        "flags": "gu"
      }
    },
    "base_branches": [
      "dev"
    ]
}

Any section of the configuration can be omitted to have defaults apply.

Please see the Configuration Specification for detailed descriptions on the offered configuration options.

For advanced use cases additional settings can be provided to the action

- name: "Complex Configuration"
  id: build_changelog
  if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
  uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@{latest-release}
  with:
    configuration: "configuration_complex.json"
    owner: "mikepenz"
    repo: "release-changelog-builder-action"
    ignorePreReleases: "false"
    fromTag: "0.3.0"
    toTag: "0.5.0"
    token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}

Table of supported placeholders allowed to be used in the pr_template configuration, which will be included in the release notes / changelog.

Table of supported placeholders allowed to be used in the template and empty_template (only supports placeholder marked for empty) configuration, to give additional control on defining the contents of the release notes / changelog.

Table of descriptions for the configuration.json options to configure the resulting release notes / changelog.

Since v5.x or newer, the regex configuration was unified to allow the same functionalities to be used for the various usecases. This applies to all configurations outlined in Configuration Specification and Custom placeholders that allow a regex object.

Example regex configuration block (Sample extracts a ticket number from the title)

PR title input

[XYZ-1234] This is my PR title

Regex replace pattern

{
  "name": "TICKET",
  "source": "TITLE",
  "transformer": {
    "pattern": "\\s*\\[([A-Z].{2,4}-.{2,5})\\][\\S\\s]*",
    "target": "- [$1](https://corp.ticket-system.com/browse/$1)"
  }
}

Regex replace pattern

{
  "name": "TICKET",
  "source": "TITLE",
  "transformer": {
    "pattern": "\\[([A-Z]{2,4}-.{2,5})\\]",
    "method": "regexr",
    "target": '- [$1](https://corp.ticket-system.com/browse/$1)'
  }
}

Starting with v3.2.0 the action provides a feature of defining CUSTOM_PLACEHOLDERS.

Custom placeholders allow to extract values from any existing placeholder and insert them into the target template.

{
  "template": "**Epics**\n#{{EPIC[*]}}\n\n#{{CHANGELOG}}",
  "pr_template": "- #{{TITLE}} - #{{URL}} #{{EPIC}}",
  "custom_placeholders": [
    {
      "name": "EPIC",
      "source": "BODY",
      "transformer": {
        "pattern": "[\\S\\s]*?(https:\\/\\/corp\\.atlassian\\.net\\/browse\\/EPIC-.{2,4})[\\S\\s]*",
        "target": "- $1"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Starting with v4.1.0 the action is also compatible with gitea.

The API for gitea is equal to the one from GitHub, however it requires the platform to be specified.

- name: Build Changelog
  uses: https://github.com/mikepenz/[email protected]
  with:
    platform: "gitea" # gitea or github, default is github
    commitMode: true
    configuration: "configuration.json"
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} # Do not change this

# Install the dependencies
$ npm install

# Verify lint is happy
$ npm run lint -- --fix

# Build the typescript and package it for distribution
$ npm run build && npm run package

# Run the tests, use to debug, and test it out
$ npm test

It's suggested to export the token to your path before running the tests so that API calls can be done to GitHub.

export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_personal_github_pat

This GitHub action is fully developed in Typescript and can be run locally via npm or right from the browser using GitHub Codespace.

Doing so is a great way to test the action and/or your custom configurations locally, without the need to push and re-run GitHub actions over and over again.

To run locally, or to access private repositories (GitHub Codespaces has automatic access to public repos with the default token), you will require to provide a valid GITHUB_TOKEN with read only permissions to access the repositories you want to run this action towards. (See more details in Token Permission)

# Export the token in the CLI you use to execute.
export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_read_only_github_token

Afterwards it is possible to run the tests included in the project:

npm test -- main.test.ts # modify the file name to run other testcases

To test your own configuration, it's adviced to create a new __tests__/custom.test.ts file, modify it to your needs (e.g. change repo, change token, change settings, ...), and then run it via npm test -- custom.test.ts

import {mergeConfiguration, resolveConfiguration} from '../src/utils'
import {ReleaseNotesBuilder} from '../src/releaseNotesBuilder'

jest.setTimeout(180000)

it('Test custom changelog builder', async () => {
  const configuration = mergeConfiguration(undefined, resolveConfiguration(
    '',
    'configs_test/configuration_approvers.json'
  ))
  const releaseNotesBuilder = new ReleaseNotesBuilder(
    null, // baseUrl
    null, // token
    '.',  // repoPath
    'mikepenz',                                         // user
    'release-changelog-builder-action-playground',      // repo
    '1.5.0',         // fromTag
    '2.0.0',         // toTag
    false, // includeOpen
    false, // failOnError
    false, // ignorePrePrelease
    false, // enable to fetch via commits
    false, // enable to fetch reviewers
    false, // enable to fetch release information
    false, // enable to fetch reviews
    false, // enable commitMode
    false, // enable exportCache
    false, // enable exportOnly
    null,  // path to the cache
    configuration  // configuration
  )

  const changeLog = await releaseNotesBuilder.build()
  console.log(changeLog)
})

One major benefit of setting up a custom test is that it will allow you to use javascripts full debugging support, including the option of breakpoints via (for example) Visual Code.

From GitHub codespaces, open the terminal panel -> Click the small arrow down beside + and pick JavaScript Debug Terminal (make sure to export the token again). Now execute the test with this terminal. (This is very similar to local Visual Code environments).

Permissions depend on the specific usecase, however this action only requires read-only permissions as it will not make modifications to the repository.

Depending on the given environment it may be required to define teh token scope for GitHub actions to read for contents and pull-requests.

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: read

GitHub Actions token scope.

For Fine-grained personal access tokens this means:

• read for Pull requests
  • Covered by the pull-requests scope
• read for Commits
  • Covered by the contents scope
• read for Tags (if not available the from and to refs have to be provided)
  • Covered by the contents scope
• read to list reviews
  • Covered by the contents scope

For Classic tokens you only have to create the token without special permissions.

• Mike Penz
• mikepenz.com - [email protected]
• paypal.me/mikepenz

• Core parts of the PR fetching logic are based on pull-release-notes
  • Nikolay Blagoev - GitHub
• action-gh-release for a few great README ideas

• xray-action
• action-junit-report
• jira-release-composition-action

Copyright for portions of pr-release-notes are held by Nikolay Blagoev, 2019-2020 as part of project pull-release-notes.
All other copyright for project pr-release-notes are held by Mike Penz, 2024.

All patches and changes applied to the original source are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Copyright 2024 Mike Penz

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.