SmoothDev Release Notes Action

🤖 AI-powered release notes generation using SmoothDev.

Features

• AI-Generated Release Notes: Automatically generate comprehensive release notes between tags
• GitHub Release Integration: Optionally create/update GitHub releases directly
• Multiple Output Formats: Text, JSON, or Keep a Changelog format
• Smart Tag Detection: Auto-detects previous tag if not specified
• Draft & Prerelease Support: Create draft or prerelease GitHub releases

Usage

Basic Usage

name: Release Notes
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

jobs:
  release-notes:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # Required for tag history

      - uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
        with:
          api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}

Create GitHub Release

- uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
  with:
    api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}
    push_to_github: true
    release_tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}

Specify Tag Range

- uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
  with:
    api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}
    from_tag: v1.0.0
    to_tag: v1.1.0

Use Generated Notes in Workflow

- uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
  id: notes
  with:
    api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}

- name: Use release notes
  run: |
    echo "${{ steps.notes.outputs.release_notes }}"

Changelog Format

- uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
  with:
    api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}
    output_format: changelog

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
api_key	SmoothDev API key	Yes	-
from_tag	Starting tag/ref	No	Auto
to_tag	Ending tag/ref	No	HEAD
output_format	Output format: text, json, or changelog	No	text
push_to_github	Create/update GitHub release	No	false
release_tag	Release tag (required if push_to_github=true)	No	-
release_name	Release name override	No	-
draft	Create as draft release	No	false
prerelease	Mark as prerelease	No	false
use_ai_gateway	Use AI Gateway instead of REST API	No	false
cli_version	Specific smooth-cli version to install	No	Latest

Outputs

Output	Description
release_notes	Generated release notes

Setup

1. Get a SmoothDev API Key

Sign up at smoothdev.io and generate an API key from your dashboard.

2. Add Secret to Repository

Add your API key as a repository secret:

1. Go to your repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
2. Click "New repository secret"
3. Name: SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY
4. Value: Your SmoothDev API key

3. Add Workflow

Create .github/workflows/release.yml with the usage example above.

Permissions

This action requires the following permissions:

permissions:
  contents: write  # Required if push_to_github is true

Examples

Full Release Workflow

name: Release
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
        with:
          api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}
          push_to_github: true
          release_tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
          release_name: "Release ${{ github.ref_name }}"

Draft Release for Review

- uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
  with:
    api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}
    push_to_github: true
    release_tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
    draft: true

Prerelease for Beta/RC Tags

- uses: smoothdev-io/release-notes-action@v1
  with:
    api_key: ${{ secrets.SMOOTHDEV_API_KEY }}
    push_to_github: true
    release_tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
    prerelease: ${{ contains(github.ref_name, '-beta') || contains(github.ref_name, '-rc') }}

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for details.

Links

• SmoothDev
• Documentation
• CLI Repository
• PR Summary Action