TypeError: Method Date.prototype.toString called on incompatible receiver [object Date]

[florian-heer]

Hi,

in a workflow i am getting the error (2 days ago everything was fine):

7:32:01 AM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "generateNotes" of plugin "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator"
[7:32:01 AM] [semantic-release] › ✘  Failed step "generateNotes" of plugin "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator"
[7:32:01 AM] [semantic-release] › ✘  An error occurred while running semantic-release: TypeError: Method Date.prototype.toString called on incompatible receiver [object Date]
    at Proxy.toString (<anonymous>)
    at [Symbol.toPrimitive] (<anonymous>)
    at new Date (<anonymous>)
    at Object.formatDate (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/utils.js:8:12)
    at defaultCommitTransform (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/options.js:23:23)
    at transformCommit (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/commit.js:29:23)
    at write (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/writers.js:39:28)
    at async nextAsync (node:internal/streams/from:182:33) {
  pluginName: '@semantic-release/release-notes-generator'
}
TypeError: Method Date.prototype.toString called on incompatible receiver [object Date]
    at Proxy.toString (<anonymous>)
    at [Symbol.toPrimitive] (<anonymous>)
    at new Date (<anonymous>)
    at Object.formatDate (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/utils.js:8:12)
    at defaultCommitTransform (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/options.js:23:23)
    at transformCommit (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/commit.js:29:23)
    at write (file:///home/runner/.config/yarn/global/node_modules/conventional-changelog-writer/dist/writers.js:39:28)
    at async nextAsync (node:internal/streams/from:182:33) {
  pluginName: '@semantic-release/release-notes-generator'
}

Im using the following setup of semantic-release.
Versions:

yarn global add semantic-release \
@semantic-release/commit-analyzer \
@semantic-release/release-notes-generator \
@semantic-release/npm \
@semantic-release/github \
@semantic-release/changelog \
@semantic-release/git \
conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits@7.0.2 \
semantic-release-export-data

Config:

const config = {
  branches: [{ name: 'main', prerelease: false }],
  tagFormat: '${version}',
  repositoryUrl: '...',
  debug: true,
  plugins: [
    [
      '@semantic-release/commit-analyzer',
      {
        releaseRules: [
          { type: 'fix', release: 'patch' },
          { type: 'refactor', release: 'patch' },
          { type: 'feat', release: 'minor' },
          { type: 'breaking', release: 'major' },
        ],
      },
    ],
    [
      '@semantic-release/release-notes-generator',
      {
        preset: 'conventionalcommits',
        presetConfig: {
          types: [
            { type: 'build', section: 'Build System', hidden: false },
            { type: 'chore', section: 'Build System', hidden: false },
            { type: 'ci', section: 'Continuous Integration', hidden: false },
            { type: 'docs', section: 'Documentation', hidden: false },
            { type: 'feat', section: 'Features', hidden: false },
            { type: 'fix', section: 'Bug Fixes', hidden: false },
            { type: 'perf', section: 'Performance Improvements', hidden: false },
            { type: 'refactor', section: 'Code Refactoring', hidden: false },
            { type: 'style', section: 'Styles', hidden: false },
            { type: 'test', section: 'Tests', hidden: false },
          ],
        },
        writerOpts: {
          commitsSort: ['subject', 'scope'],
        },
      },
    ],
    '@semantic-release/npm',
    '@semantic-release/github',
    '@semantic-release/changelog',
    {
      changelogFile: 'CHANGELOG.md',
    },
    '@semantic-release/git',
    {
      assets: ['package.json', `CHANGELOG.md`],
      message:
        'chore(release): ${mainRelease.version} [skip ci]\n\n${mainRelease.notes}',
    },
  ],
}

[florian-heer]

After removing the version (@7.0.2) of conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits the workflow is working again. Set the version to 7.0.2 was a quick fix, since something was broken in the version 8.0.0

[travi]

After removing the version (@7.0.2) of conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits the workflow is working again. Set the version to 7.0.2 was a quick fix, since something was broken in the version 8.0.0

please reconsider unpinning the version. you are correct that v7.0.2 is no longer the correct version to pin, but pinning v8 (just pinning the major version should be fine) can protect you from running into similar problems for the next release of breaking changes