release-damnit

A drop-in replacement for Release Please that correctly traverses merge commits.

Why?

Release Please has a known bug: GitHub's API returns commits in chronological order, not topological order. When you merge a feature branch to main with --no-ff, Release Please only sees the merge commit tip, missing all the commits that came through the merge.

release-damnit uses your existing Release Please configuration but reads git history directly using git log instead of relying on GitHub's API.

Installation

As a GitHub Action

- uses: dsswift/release-damnit@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

As a CLI

# Download binary
curl -sSL https://github.com/dsswift/release-damnit/releases/latest/download/release-damnit-linux-amd64 -o release-damnit
chmod +x release-damnit

# Or build from source
go install github.com/dsswift/release-damnit/cmd/release-damnit@latest

Usage

# Dry run - see what would be bumped
release-damnit --dry-run

# Run versioning (updates VERSION files, manifests, changelogs)
release-damnit

# Also create GitHub releases
release-damnit --create-releases

Output Example

Analyzing merge commit abc1234...
Merge range: def5678..ghi9012 (5 commits)

Package analysis:
  jarvis         → minor (feat) [2 commits]
  jarvis-web     → patch (fix)  [1 commit]
  sandbox-portal → patch (fix)  [1 commit]

Updating:
  workloads/jarvis/VERSION: 0.1.119 → 0.2.0
  workloads/jarvis/clients/web/VERSION: 0.1.10 → 0.1.11
  platforms/sandbox/portal/VERSION: 0.1.46 → 0.1.47

Configuration

release-damnit uses your existing Release Please configuration files unchanged:

release-please-config.json

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
  "packages": {
    "workloads/jarvis": {
      "component": "jarvis",
      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md"
    },
    "workloads/jarvis/clients/web": {
      "component": "jarvis-web",
      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md"
    }
  },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "type": "linked-versions",
      "groupName": "ma-observe",
      "components": ["ma-observe-client", "ma-observe-server"]
    }
  ]
}

release-please-manifest.json

{
  "workloads/jarvis": "0.1.119",
  "workloads/jarvis/clients/web": "0.1.10"
}

This file is read to get current versions and updated with new versions.

VERSION Files

Each package has a VERSION file:

0.1.119 # x-release-please-version

How It Works

When a feature branch merges to main:

main:    M1 ─────────────────── M2 (merge commit = HEAD)
          │                      ↑
          │ branch               │ merge (--no-ff)
          ↓                      │
feature:  ●───●───●───●─────────●┘
          A   B   C   D   (HEAD^2)

1. Detect merge commit: git rev-parse HEAD^2 succeeds
2. Find merge base: git merge-base HEAD^1 HEAD^2 = M1
3. Get all merged commits: git log M1..D = A, B, C, D
4. For each commit:
   • Parse conventional commit type (feat, fix, chore, etc.)
   • Get changed files: git diff-tree --name-only -r <sha>
   • Map files to packages (path-based, deepest match wins)
5. Per package: highest-priority commit type determines bump
6. Update files: VERSION, CHANGELOG, manifest
7. Create releases: (optional) via GitHub API

Bump Priority

Commit Type	Bump	Priority
feat	minor	2
fix	patch	1
perf	patch	1
chore	none	0
docs	none	0
style	none	0
refactor	none	0
test	none	0

Breaking changes (indicated by ! or BREAKING CHANGE: footer) always trigger major bump.

For pre-1.0 packages, feat triggers patch instead of minor.

GitHub Action

Inputs

Input	Description	Default
token	GitHub token for creating releases	${{ github.token }}
dry-run	Only show what would change	false
create-releases	Create GitHub releases	true

Outputs

Output	Description
releases_created	Whether any releases were created
{component}--release_created	Whether this component was released
{component}--version	New version for this component
{component}--tag_name	Git tag name for this component

Example Workflow

name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      jarvis--release_created: ${{ steps.release.outputs.jarvis--release_created }}
      jarvis--version: ${{ steps.release.outputs.jarvis--version }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # Required for git history analysis

      - uses: dsswift/release-damnit@v1
        id: release
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  build-jarvis:
    needs: release
    if: needs.release.outputs.jarvis--release_created == 'true'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo "Building jarvis ${{ needs.release.outputs.jarvis--version }}"

Edge Cases

Case	Behavior
Squash merge (non-merge commit)	Falls back to HEAD~1..HEAD
No conventional commits	No bumps, "No releasable changes"
Linked versions	All linked packages bump together
Pre-1.0 packages	feat treated as patch
Multiple scopes in one merge	Each package bumped independently

Comparison to Release Please

Feature	Release Please	release-damnit
Config format	✓	✓ (same files)
Merge commit support	✗	✓
GitHub API dependency	Required	Optional
Monorepo support	✓	✓
Linked versions	✓	✓
Single binary	✗ (Node.js)	✓

License

MIT