Auto-Release

Automatically creates releases based on pull requests and labels.

Specifications and practices

Auto-Release follows:

• SemVer 2.0.0 specifications
• GitHub Flow specifications
• Continiuous Delivery practices

How it works

The workflow will trigger on pull requests to the main branch.

The following labels will inform the action what kind of release to create:

• For a major release, and increasing the first number in the version use:
  • major
  • breaking
• For a minor release, and increasing the second number in the version.
  • minor
  • feature
• For a patch release, and increases the third number in the version.
  • patch
  • fix

When a pull request is closed, the action will create a release based on the labels and clean up any previous prereleases that was created.

Note: The labels can be configured using the MajorLabels, MinorLabels and PatchLabels parameters/settings in the configuration file to trigger on other labels.

Usage

The action can be configured using the following settings:

Name	Description	Default	Required
AutoCleanup	Control wether to automatically cleanup prereleases. If disabled, the action will not remove any prereleases.	true	false
AutoPatching	Control wether to automatically handle patches. If disabled, the action will only create a patch release if the pull request has a 'patch' label.	true	false
ConfigurationFile	The path to the configuration file. Settings in the configuration file take precedence over the action inputs.	.github\auto-release.yml	false
CreateMajorTag	Control wether to create a tag for major releases.	true	false
CreateMinorTag	Control wether to create a tag for minor releases.	true	false
DatePrereleaseFormat	The format to use for the prerelease number using .NET DateTime format strings.	''	false
IgnoreLabels	A comma separated list of labels that do not trigger a release.	NoRelease	false
IncrementalPrerelease	Control wether to automatically increment the prerelease number. If disabled, the action will ensure only one prerelease exists for a given branch.	true	false
MajorLabels	A comma separated list of labels that trigger a major release.	major, breaking	false
MinorLabels	A comma separated list of labels that trigger a minor release.	minor, feature	false
PatchLabels	A comma separated list of labels that trigger a patch release.	patch, fix	false
VersionPrefix	The prefix to use for the version number.	v	false
WhatIf	Control wether to simulate the action. If enabled, the action will not create any releases. Used for testing.	false	false

Configuration file

The configuration file is a YAML file that can be used to configure the action. By default, the configuration file is expected at .github\auto-release.yml, which can be changed using the ConfigurationFile setting. The actions configuration can be change by altering the settings in the configuration file.

DatePrereleaseFormat: 'yyyyMMddHHmm'
IncrementalPrerelease: false
VersionPrefix: ''

This example uses the date format for the prerelease, disables the incremental prerelease and removes the version prefix.

Example

Add a workflow in you repository using the following example:

name: Auto-Release

on:
  pull_request_target:
    branches:
      - main
    types:
      - closed
      - opened
      - reopened
      - synchronize
      - labeled

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}

jobs:
  Auto-Release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Auto-Release
        uses: PSModule/Auto-Release@v1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }} # Used for GitHub CLI authentication

Permissions

If running the action in a restrictive mode, the following permissions needs to be granted to the action:

permissions:
  contents: write # Required to create releases
  pull-requests: write # Required to create comments on the PRs