changelog-releasenotes-action

This action generates release notes from CHANGELOG.md and uploads them into github release description automatically.

Usage

jobs:
  releasenotes:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Generate release notes
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Generate release notes
        uses: kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action@v2
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_KEY }}

The simple script above is enough for most usage. It extracts the changes of newest tag from CHANGELOG.md, skips the date, and uploads them into github release description body. If no release has been specified, it will create one, but if a release with the tag already exists, it will modify its release description.

Note Note that the script needs the GITHUB_TOKEN for creating or updating the release.

Options

Version 2 kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action@v2 uses Node 20. There is also an optional old Version 1 kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action@v1 that uses Node 16.

Optionally there are inputs that you can change to modify the actions behavior. The action also outputs the filtered release notes as releasenotes. Below is a more detailed version with all the possible options:

jobs:
  releasenotes:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Generate release notes
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Generate release notes
        uses: kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action@v2
        with:
          # Below are the optional options you can change and their default values
          changelog: 'CHANGELOG.md'  # Changelog file name for input
          filtered_changelog: 'FILTERED_CHANGELOG.md' # The output name release notes file
          changelog_format: 'keepachangelog' # 'auto-changelog' to change the defaults to the other format
          start_token: '## [' # The start tag of the release notes
          end_token:   '## [' # The end tag of the release notes
          specific_tag: ''  # Use specific tag (e.g. v0.1.2) instead of the newest
          skip_n_lines: '0' # Skip first N lines in parsing
          upcoming_release: 'false' # Create prerelease with [Upcoming] section
          create_release: 'true' # make a new release if one does not exist
          update_release: 'true' # update existing release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_KEY }}

File format

By default the action wants a CHANGELOG.md file in the style of keepachangelog format:

# Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

## [Unreleased]

## [1.1.1] - 2023-03-05

### Added

- Keepachangelog feature(#3).

### Fixed

- Keepachangelog feature(#2).

### Changed

- Keepachangelog features

### Removed

- Unused keepachangelog features

## [1.1.0] - 2019-02-15

### Added

- Keepachangelog feature(#1).

Another option is the auto-changelog format. You can also use the format in the style of the auto-changelog tool by specifying changelog_format: 'auto-changelog'. Below is an example of the other format:

## Changelog

#### [Upcoming](https///github.com/kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action/compare/v1.0.1...HEAD)

- Upcoming commit

#### [v1.0.1](https://github.com/kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action/releases/tag/v1.0.1)

> 21 July 2023

- Add this feature
- Add that feature

#### [v1.0.0](https://github.com/kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action/releases/tag/v1.0.0)

> 20 July 2023

- Version 1.0.0 feature

Here is a simple example using the auto-changelog format:

jobs:
  releasenotes:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Generate release notes
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Generate release notes
        uses: kuvaus/changelog-releasenotes-action@v2
        with:
          changelog_format: 'auto-changelog'
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_KEY }}

Third option is a non standard format. If you want to use your own formatting for the CHANGELOG.md, just change the start_token and end_token from the options to your liking.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License