📦🚀 GitHub Action release drafter

Draft GitHub releases and automate versioning based on conventional commit messages.

Here is a git graph, demonstrating how the release strategy would look like:

gitGraph
    commit tag: "v1.0.0"
    branch features/my-awesome-idea
    commit
    commit id: "fix: fixed linting errors"
    checkout main
    merge features/my-awesome-idea tag: "v1.0.1"
    branch features/my-second-idea
    commit id: "feat:adding new calculator to calculate prices"
    checkout main
    merge features/my-second-idea tag: "v1.1.0"
    branch features/my-third-idea
    commit
    commit id: "BREAKING CHANGE:removed database connection"
    checkout main
    merge features/my-third-idea tag: "v2.0.0"

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Usage

- uses: KoblerS/release-drafter@v1

The available parameters are optional:

• token: (default) the GitHub token that will be used for authentication
• generate-release-notes: true (default) adds the existing commit messages to the release notes, false leaves the release notes empty
• version-prefix: v prepends a prefix to the version number

Important

Important note: Make sure to set the correct permissions for your action:

permissions:
  # Required to request the OIDC JWT Token
  id-token: write
  # Required when GH token is used to authenticate with private repo
  contents: write

Output variables

In order to continue workflow code the following output parameters are set:

• release-id: GitHub internal id of the created release
• version: Version code of the created release
• raw-version: Version code without v prefix

How does it work?

This action analyzes commit messages to assess the impact of changes on the codebase. By adhering to standardized commit message conventions, it automatically calculates the next semantic version number, generates a changelog, and drafts a release on GitHub.

Tools like commitizen or commitlint can assist contributors in creating valid commit messages.

The examples below illustrate which commit messages trigger specific release types when semantic-release is executed (using the default configuration):

Patch release

• fix(api): fixed API endpoint to get the communication working
• docs: added infrastructure diagram
• test: added unit tests for src/calculator.ts

For a comprehensive list of keywords, refer to src/version-helper.ts.

Minor release

• feat(calculation): implemented salary income calculator

Major release

Ensure the BREAKING CHANGE: token is at the beginning of the line.

• perf(pencil): remove graphiteWidth option
  • BREAKING CHANGE: The graphiteWidth option has been removed.
  • The default graphite width of 10mm is always used for performance reasons.
• refactor!: refactored API endpoints to noun-based approach
• major: enforcing OAuth authentication for all API endpoints