notegen

Generate release notes from git commit history.

Installation

Local (recommended for projects)

# With npm
npm install --save-dev @definitely-not-devs/notegen

# With pnpm
pnpm add -D @definitely-not-devs/notegen

# With yarn
yarn add -D @definitely-not-devs/notegen

Global (use across multiple projects)

# With npm
npm install -g @definitely-not-devs/notegen

# With pnpm
pnpm add -g @definitely-not-devs/notegen

# With yarn
yarn global add @definitely-not-devs/notegen

With global installation, use notegen directly without npx.

Quick Start

1. Initialize configuration:

npx notegen init

This creates a notegen.json file in your project:

{
  "baseUrl": "https://jira.company.com/browse",
  "releaseNotes": true,
  "output": "CHANGELOG.md"
}

2. Generate release notes:

npx notegen generate

Usage

Basic Usage

# Generate release notes for all commits
npx notegen generate

# Or add to package.json scripts:
{
  "scripts": {
    "release-notes": "notegen generate"
  }
}

# Then run:
pnpm release-notes

Advanced Options

# Specify output file
npx notegen generate -o CHANGELOG.md

# Generate for specific commit range
npx notegen generate --from v1.0.0 --to v2.0.0

# Generate for a specific tag (auto-detects previous tag)
npx notegen generate --to v2.0.0

# Generate for the latest tag (auto-detects last and previous tag)
npx notegen generate --last --release-notes

# Limit number of commits
npx notegen generate --limit 10

# Generate release notes format (grouped by feat/fix with tickets)
npx notegen generate --release-notes

# With ticket links
npx notegen generate --release-notes --base-url https://jira.company.com/browse

Options

• -o, --output <file> - Output file path (default: RELEASE_NOTES.md)
• -f, --from <commit> - Start from commit/tag (exclusive)
• -t, --to <commit> - End at commit/tag (inclusive, default: HEAD)
• -l, --limit <number> - Limit number of commits
• -r, --release-notes - Generate release notes format with grouped tickets (feat/fix)
• --no-release-notes - Generate standard changelog format (overrides config)
• -b, --base-url <url> - Base URL for linking tickets
• --last - Generate release notes for the last tag (auto-detects previous tag)

CLI options override configuration file settings.

Modes

Basic Mode (default, or with --no-release-notes)

Groups commits by conventional commit prefixes in the message:

feat: add user authentication
fix: resolve login bug
chore: update dependencies

Generates a simple changelog grouped by:

• Features (feat: commits)
• Bug Fixes (fix: commits)
• Other Changes (everything else)

Custom sections from config are not used in basic mode.

If your config has "releaseNotes": true by default, you can override it with --no-release-notes to use basic mode.

Release Notes Mode (--release-notes)

Groups commits by ticket references for tracking. The ticket reference can be in either the commit message or body:

# In commit message (single -m)
git commit -m "feat: add user authentication US-123"

# In commit footer (multiple -m or editor)
feat: add user authentication

US: 123

fix: resolve login bug

BUG: 456

In release notes mode, commits are grouped by ticket reference type (US, BUG, etc.) instead of the commit message prefix. Supported formats:

• US: 123 or US-123 or US 123 or US#123 → User Stories section
• BUG: 456 or BUG-456 or BUG 456 or BUG#456 → Bugs section
• Any custom pattern defined in your config

Commits without matching ticket references are excluded from release notes mode.

Custom Sections

You can configure custom sections in notegen.json:

{
  "sections": [
    {
      "section": "User Stories",
      "pattern": "US",
      "label": "US"
    },
    {
      "section": "Bugs",
      "pattern": "BUG",
      "label": "BUG"
    },
    {
      "section": "Improvements",
      "pattern": "IMPROVEMENT",
      "label": "IMPROVEMENT"
    }
  ]
}

Each section matches commits based on ticket references in either the commit message or body. The pattern field looks for <pattern>: <number>, <pattern>-<number>, <pattern> <number>, or <pattern>#<number> anywhere in the commit.