📄🔖📦

release-changelog-builder-action

... a GitHub action that builds your release notes / changelog fast simple and exactly the way you want.

What's included 🚀 • Setup 🛠️ • Sample 🖥️ • Customization 🖍️ • Contribute 🧬 • Local Testing 🧪 • License 📓

What's included 🚀

Super simple integration
- ...even on huge repositories with hundreds of tags
Parallel releases support
Rich changelogs based on PRs
- Alternative commit based mode
Blazingly fast execution
Supports any git project
Highly flexible configuration
Lightweight
Supports any branch
Rich build log output

Setup

Configure the workflow

Specify the action as part of your GitHub actions workflow:

- name: "Build Changelog"
  id: build_changelog
  uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@{latest-release}

Important

When upgrading from v4 to v5, please ensure to read the upgrade warning in the release notes, especially if regexes are used.

Full Sample 🖥️

Below is a complete example showcasing how to define a build, which is executed when tagging the project. It consists of:

Prepare tag, via the GITHUB_REF environment variable
Build changelog, given the tag
Create a release on GitHub - specifying body with a constructed changelog

Example

name: 'CI'
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'

jobs:
  release:
    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Build Changelog
        id: github_release
        uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@v5
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Create Release
        uses: mikepenz/action-gh-release@v0.2.0-a03 #softprops/action-gh-release
        with:
          body: ${{steps.github_release.outputs.changelog}}

Example w/ Configuration

jobs:
  release:
    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Build Changelog
        uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@v5
        with:
          configurationJson: |
            {
              "template": "#{{CHANGELOG}}\n\n<details>\n<summary>Uncategorized</summary>\n\n#{{UNCATEGORIZED}}\n</details>",
              "categories": [
                {
                    "title": "## 💬 Other",
                    "labels": ["other"]
                },
                {
                    "title": "## 📦 Dependencies",
                    "labels": ["dependencies"]
                }
              ]
            }
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Example Commit Mode w/ Configuration

jobs:
  release:
    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Build Changelog
        uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@v5
        with:
          mode: "COMMIT"
          configurationJson: |
            {
              "template": "#{{CHANGELOG}}",
              "categories": [
                {
                    "title": "## Feature",
                    "labels": ["feat", "feature"]
                },
                {
                    "title": "## Fix",
                    "labels": ["fix", "bug"]
                },
                {
                    "title": "## Other",
                    "labels": []
                }
              ],
              "label_extractor": [
                {
                  "pattern": "^(build|chore|ci|docs|feat|fix|perf|refactor|revert|style|test){1}(\\([\\w\\-\\.]+\\))?(!)?: ([\\w ])+([\\s\\S]*)",
                  "target": "$1"
                }
              ]
            }
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

This example defines a regex to extract the label from the commit message. Handling flags from the Conventional Commit Standards.

Action Inputs/Outputs

Action inputs

Depending on the use-case additional settings can be provided to the action

- name: "Complex Configuration"
  id: build_changelog
  if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
  uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@{latest-release}
  with:
    configuration: "configuration_complex.json"
    owner: "mikepenz"
    repo: "release-changelog-builder-action"
    ignorePreReleases: "false"
    fromTag: "0.3.0"
    toTag: "0.5.0"
    token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}

Note

All input values are optional. It is only required to provide the token either via the input, or as env variable.

Input	Description
`configurationJson`	Provide the configuration directly via the build `yml` file. Please note that `${{}}` has to be written as `#{{}}` within the `yml` file.
`configuration`	Relative path, to the `configuration.json` file, providing additional configurations
`outputFile`	Optional relative path to a file to store the resulting changelog in.
`owner`	The owner of the repository to generate the changelog for
`repo`	Name of the repository we want to process
`fromTag`	Defines the 'start' from where the changelog will consider merged pull requests (can be a tag or a valid git ref)
`toTag`	Defines until which tag the changelog will consider merged pull requests (can be a tag or a valid git ref)
`path`	Allows to specify an alternative sub directory, to use as base
`token`	Alternative config to specify token. You should prefer `env.GITHUB_TOKEN` instead though
`baseUrl`	Alternative config to specify base url for GitHub Enterprise authentication. Default value set to `https://api.github.com`
`includeOpen`	Enables to also fetch currently open PRs. Default: false
`ignorePreReleases`	Allows to ignore pre-releases for changelog generation (E.g. for 1.0.1... 1.0.0-rc02 <- ignore, 1.0.0 <- pick). Only used if `fromTag` was not specified. Default: false
`failOnError`	Defines if the action will result in a build failure if problems occurred. Default: false
`fetchViaCommits`	Enables PRs to get fetched via the commits identified between from->to tag. This will do 1 API request per commit -> Best for scenarios with squash merges
`fetchReviewers`	Will enable fetching the users/reviewers who approved the PR. Default: false
`fetchReleaseInformation`	Will enable fetching additional release information from tags. Default: false
`fetchReviews`	Will enable fetching the reviews on of the PR. Default: false
`mode`	Defines the mode used to retrieve the information. Available options: [`PR`, `COMMIT`, `HYBRID`]. Defaults to `PR`. Hybrid mode treats commits like pull requests. Commit mode is a special configuration for projects which work without PRs. Uses commit messages as changelog. This mode looses access to information only available for PRs. Formerly set as `commitMode: true`, this setting is now deprecated and should be converted to `mode: "COMMIT"`. Note: the commit or hybrid modes are not fully supported.
`exportCache`	Will enable exporting the fetched PR information to a cache, which can be re-used by later runs. Default: false
`exportOnly`	When enabled, will result in only exporting the cache, without generating a changelog. Default: false (Requires `exportCache` to be enabled)
`cache`	The file path to write/read the cache to/from.

Warning

${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} only grants rights to the current repository, for other repositories please use a PAT (Personal Access Token).

Action outputs

After action execution it will return the changelog and additional information as step output. You can use it in any follow-up step by referencing the output by referencing it via the id of the step. For example build_changelog.

# ${{steps.{CHANGELOG_STEP_ID}.outputs.changelog}}
${{steps.build_changelog.outputs.changelog}}

A full set list of possible output values for this action.

Output	Description
`outputs.changelog`	The built release changelog built from the merged pull requests
`outputs.owner`	Specifies the owner of the repository processed
`outputs.repo`	Describes the repository name, which was processed
`outputs.fromTag`	Defines the `fromTag` which describes the lower bound to process pull requests for
`outputs.toTag`	Defines the `toTag` which describes the upper bound to process pull request for
`outputs.failed`	Defines if there was an issue with the action run, and the changelog may not have been generated correctly. [true, false]
`outputs.pull_requests`	Defines a `,` joined array with all PR IDs associated with the generated changelog.
`outputs.categorized_prs`	Count of PRs which were successfully categorized as part of the action.
`outputs.open_prs`	Count of open PRs. Only fetched if `includeOpen` is enabled.
`outputs.uncategorized_prs`	Count of PRs which were not categorized as part of the action.
`outputs.changed_files`	Count of changed files in this release.
`outputs.additions`	Count of code additions in this release (lines).
`outputs.deletions`	Count of code deletions in this release (lines).
`outputs.changes`	Total count of changes in this release (lines).
`outputs.commits`	Count of commits which have been added in this release.
`outputs.contributors`	The contributors of this release. Based on PR authors only.
`outputs.categorized`	The categorized pull requests used to build the changelog as serialized JSON.
`outputs.cache`	The file pointing to the cache for the current fetched data. Can be provided to another action step.

Customization 🖍️

Note

Important

When running this action for non tags trigger the toTag will be automatically resolved using the latest tag as retrieved by the git API.

Note

The first release tag is a special case since there is no previous release the action can reference to. For this case, there are two options:

When checking out the source via git (E.g.: actions/checkout), the action will use the first commit.
Create an initial tag on the commit you want to begin a changelog from (for example v0.0.1).

Note

By default not specifying fromTag or toTag will resolve toTag from either the ref or alternatively fallback to the latest tag from the git API. fromTag is resolved by sorting tags using semver. Tags not following semver are filtered out. Check the configuration for alternatives.

Note

If you are behind a corporate HTTP proxy, you can set the https_proxy environment variable to the proxy URL. For reference, please see the Octokit documentation.

Configuration

The action supports flexible and extensive configuration options to fine-tune it for the specific projects needs. To do so provide the configuration either directly to the step via configurationJson or as file via the configuration.

Configuration in .yml

- name: Build Changelog
  uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@v5
  with:
    configurationJson: |
      {
        "template": "#{{CHANGELOG}}\n\n<details>\n<summary>Uncategorized</summary>\n\n#{{UNCATEGORIZED}}\n</details>",
        "categories": [
          {
              "title": "## 💬 Other",
              "labels": ["other"]
          }
        ]
      }

Configuration as json file

- name: "Build Changelog"
  uses: mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@{latest-release}
  with:
    configuration: "configuration.json"

[!WARNING]
It is required to have a checkout step prior to the changelog step if configuration is used, to allow the action to discover the configuration file. Use configurationJson as alternative.

Note

Defaults for the configuration can be found in the configuration.ts

Note

It is possible to provide the configuration as file and as json via the yml file. The order of config values used: configurationJson > configuration > DefaultConfiguration.

The configuration is a JSON in the following format. (The below showcases example configurations for all possible options. In most scenarios most of the settings will not be needed, and the defaults will be appropriate.)

{
    "categories": [
      {
        "title": "## 🚀 Features",
        "labels": ["feature"]
      },
      {
        "title": "## 🐛 Fixes",
        "labels": ["fix"]
      },
      {
        "key": "tests",
        "title": "## 🧪 Tests",
        "labels": ["test"]
      },
      {
        "title": "## 🧪 Tests and some 🪄 Magic",
        "labels": ["test", "magic"],
        "exclude_labels": ["no-magic"],
        "exhaustive": true,
        "exhaustive_rules": "false",
        "empty_content": "- no matching PRs",
        "rules": [
          {
            "pattern": "open",
            "on_property": "status",
            "flags": "gu"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "ignore_labels": [
      "ignore"
    ],
    "sort": {
      "order": "ASC",
      "on_property": "mergedAt"
    },
    "template": "#{{CHANGELOG}}\n\n<details>\n<summary>Uncategorized</summary>\n\n#{{UNCATEGORIZED}}\n</details>",
    "pr_template": "- #{{TITLE}}\n   - PR: ##{{NUMBER}}",
    "empty_template": "- no changes",
    "label_extractor": [
      {
        "pattern": "(.) (.+)",
        "target": "$1",
        "flags": "gu"
      },
      {
        "pattern": "\\[Issue\\]",
        "on_property": "title",
        "method": "match"
      }
    ],
    "duplicate_filter": {
      "pattern": "\\[ABC-....\\]",
      "on_property": "title",
      "method": "match"
    },
    "reference": {
      "pattern": ".*\\ \\#(.).*",
      "on_property": "body",
      "method": "replace",
      "target": "$1"
    },
    "transformers": [
      {
        "pattern": "[\\-\\*] (\\[(...|TEST|CI|SKIP)\\])( )?(.+?)\n(.+?[\\-\\*] )(.+)",
        "target": "- $4\n  - $6"
      }
    ],
    "trim_values": false,
    "max_tags_to_fetch": 200,
    "max_pull_requests": 200,
    "max_back_track_time_days": 365,
    "exclude_merge_branches": [
      "Owner/qa"
    ],
    "tag_resolver": {
      "method": "semver",
      "filter": {
        "pattern": "api-(.+)",
        "flags": "gu"
      }
    },
    "base_branches": [
      "dev"
    ]
}

Any section of the configuration can be omitted to have defaults apply.

Warning

ignore_labels take precedence over category labels, allowing to specifically exclude certain PRs.

Please see the Configuration Specification for detailed descriptions on the offered configuration options.

Template placeholders

Table of supported placeholders allowed to be used in the template and empty_template (only supports placeholder marked for empty) configuration, to give additional control on defining the contents of the release notes / changelog.

Placeholder	Description	Empty
`#{{CHANGELOG}}`	The contents of the changelog, matching the labels as specified in the categories configuration
`#{{UNCATEGORIZED}}`	All pull requests not matching a specified label in categories
`#{{OPEN}}`	All open pull requests. Will only be fetched if `includeOpen` is enabled.
`#{{IGNORED}}`	All pull requests defining labels matching the `ignore_labels` configuration
`#{{OWNER}}`	Describes the owner of the repository the changelog was generated for	x
`#{{REPO}}`	The repository name of the repo the changelog was generated for	x
`#{{FROM_TAG}}`	Defines the 'start' from where the changelog did consider merged pull requests	x
`#{{FROM_TAG_DATE}}`	Defines the date at which the 'start' tag was created. Requires `fetchReleaseInformation`.	x
`#{{TO_TAG}}`	Defines until which tag the changelog did consider merged pull requests	x
`#{{TO_TAG_DATE}}`	Defines the date at which the 'until' tag was created. Requires `fetchReleaseInformation`.	x
`#{{RELEASE_DIFF}}`	Introduces a link to the full diff between from tag and to tag releases	x
`#{{CHANGED_FILES}}`	The count of changed files.
`#{{ADDITIONS}}`	The count of code additions (lines).
`#{{DELETIONS}}`	The count of code deletions (lines).
`#{{CHANGES}}`	The count of total changes (lines).
`#{{COMMITS}}`	The count of commits in this release.
`#{{CONTRIBUTORS}}`	The contributors of this release. Based on PR Authors only.
`#{{CATEGORIZED_COUNT}}`	The count of PRs which were categorized
`#{{UNCATEGORIZED_COUNT}}`	The count of PRs and changes which were not categorized. No label overlapping with category labels
`#{{OPEN_COUNT}}`	The count of open PRs. Will only be fetched if `includeOpen` is configured.
`#{{IGNORED_COUNT}}`	The count of PRs and changes which were specifically ignored from the changelog.
`#{{DAYS_SINCE}}`	Days between the 2 releases. Requires `fetchReleaseInformation` to be enabled.	x

PR Template placeholders

Table of supported placeholders allowed to be used in the pr_template configuration, which will be included in the release notes / changelog.

Placeholder	Description
`#{{NUMBER}}`	The number referencing this pull request. E.g. 13.
`#{{TITLE}}`	Specified title of the merged pull request.
`#{{URL}}`	Url linking to the pull request on GitHub.
`#{{STATUS}}`	Status of the PR. Usually always `merged`. Possibly `Open` if `includeOpen` is configured.
`#{{CREATED_AT}}`	The ISO time, the pull request was created at.
`#{{MERGED_AT}}`	The ISO time, the pull request was merged at.
`#{{MERGE_SHA}}`	The commit SHA, the pull request was merged with.
`#{{AUTHOR}}`	Author creating and opening the pull request.
`#{{AUTHOR_NAME}}`	The name of the Author creating and opening the pull request (Can be empty).
`#{{LABELS}}`	The labels associated with this pull request, joined by `,`.
`#{{MILESTONE}}`	Milestone this PR was part of, as assigned on GitHub.
`#{{BODY}}`	Description/Body of the pull request as specified on GitHub.
`#{{ASSIGNEES}}`	Login names of assigned GitHub users, joined by `,`.
`#{{REVIEWERS}}`	GitHub Login names of specified reviewers, joined by `,`. Requires `fetchReviewers` to be enabled.
`#{{APPROVERS}}`	GitHub Login names of users who approved the PR, joined by `,`.

Important

v4 updates the default placeholders format to #{{}}. The old format ${{}} will be supported until v5 for backwards compatibility.

Array Placeholders

Table of special array placeholders allowed to be used in the pr_template configuration.

Array placeholders follow the following format: (KEY)[(*/index)] for example: ASSIGNEES[*] or ASSIGNEES[0]. When using * values are joined by ,.

Placeholder	Description
`#{{ASSIGNEES[*]}}`	Login names of assigned GitHub users.
`#{{REVIEWERS[*]}}`	GitHub Login names of specified reviewers. Requires `fetchReviewers` to be enabled.
`#{{APPROVERS[*]}}`	GitHub Login names of users who approved the PR.

Additionally, there are special array placeholders like REVIEWS which allows access to it's properties via (KEY)[(*/index)].(property).

For example: REVIEWS[*].author or REVIEWS[*].body

Placeholder	Description
`#{{REVIEWS[*].author}}`	GitHub Login names of specified reviewers.
`#{{REVIEWS[*].body}}`	The body of the review.
`#{{REVIEWS[*].htmlURL}}`	The URL to the given review.
`#{{REVIEWS[*].submittedAt}}`	The date went he review was submitted.
`#{{REVIEWS[*].state}}`	The state of the given review.

Similar to REVIEWS, REFERENCED PRs also offer special placeholders.

Placeholder	Description
`#{{REFERENCED[*].number}}`	The PR number of the referenced PR.
`#{{REFERENCED[*].title}}`	The title of the referenced PR.
`#{{REFERENCED[*]."..."}}`	Allows to use most other PR properties as placeholder.

Configuration Specification

Table of descriptions for the configuration.json options to configure the resulting release notes / changelog.

Input	Description
categories	An array of `category` specifications, offering a flexible way to group changes into categories.
category.key	Optional key used for the `categorized` json output.
category.title	The display name of a category in the changelog.
category.labels	An array of labels, to match pull request labels against. If any PR label matches any category label, the pull request will show up under this category. (See `exhaustive` to change this)
category.exclude_labels	Similar to `labels`, an array of labels to match PRs against, but if a match occurs the PR is excluded from this category.
category.exhaustive	Will require all labels defined within this category to be present on the matching PR.
category.exhaustive_rules	Will require all rules defined within this category to be valid on the matching PR. If not defined, defaults to the value of `exhaustive`
category.empty_content	If the category has no matching PRs, this content will be used. When not set, the category will be skipped in the changelog.
category.rules	An array of `rules` used to match PRs against. Any match will include the PR. (See `exhaustive` to change this)
category.rules.pattern	A `regex` pattern to match the property value towards. Uses `RegExp.test("val")`
category.rules.flags	Defines the regex flags specified for the pattern. Default: `gu`.
category.rules.on_property	The PR property to match against. Possible values.
ignore_labels	An array of labels, to match pull request labels against. If any PR label overlaps, the pull request will be ignored from the changelog. This takes precedence over category labels
sort	A `sort` specification, offering the ability to define sort order and property.
sort.order	The sort order. Allowed values: `ASC`, `DESC`
sort.on_property	The property to sort on. Allowed values: `mergedAt`, `title`
template	Specifies the global template to pick for creating the changelog. See Template placeholders for possible values
pr_template	Defines the per pull request template. See PR Template placeholders for possible values
empty_template	Template to pick if no changes are detected. See Template placeholders for possible values
label_extractor.[{<EXTRACTOR>}]	An array of `Extractor` specifications, offering a flexible API to extract additional labels from a PR. Please see the documentation related to Regex Configuration for more details.
duplicate_filter.{<EXTRACTOR>}	Defines the `Extractor` to use for retrieving the identifier for a PR. In case of duplicates will keep the last matching pull request (depends on `sort`). Please see the documentation related to Regex Configuration for more details.
reference.{<EXTRACTOR>}	Defines the `Extractor` to use for resolving the "PR-number" for a parent PR. In case of a match, the child PR will not be included in the release notes. Please see the documentation related to Regex Configuration for more details.
transformers.[{<REGEX>}]	An array of `Regex` specifications, offering a flexible API to modify the text per pull request. This is applied on the change text created with `pr_template`. `transformers` are executed per change, in the order specified. Please see the documentation related to Regex Configuration for more details.
max_tags_to_fetch	The maximum amount of tags to load from the API to find the previous tag. Loaded paginated with 100 per page
max_pull_requests	The maximum amount of pull requests to load from the API. Loaded paginated with 30 per page
max_back_track_time_days	Defines the max amount of days to go back in time per changelog
exclude_merge_branches	An array of branches to be ignored from processing as merge commits
tag_resolver	Section to provide configuration for the tag resolving logic. Used if no `fromTag` is provided
tag_resolver.method	Defines the method to use. Current options are: `semver`, `sort`. Default: `semver`
tag_resolver.filter	Defines a regex object which is used to filter out tags not matching.
tag_resolver.transformer.{<REGEX>}	Defines a regex transformer used to optionally transform the tag after the filter was applied. Allows to adjust the format to e.g. semver. Please see the documentation related to Regex Configuration for more details.
base_branches	The target branches for the merged PR, ignores PRs with different target branch. Values can be a `regex`. Default: allow all base branches
trim_values	Defines if all values inserted in templates are `trimmed`. Default: false

Regex Configuration

Since v5.x or newer, the regex configuration was unified to allow the same functionalities to be used for the various use-cases. This applies to all configurations outlined in Configuration Specification and Custom placeholders that allow a regex object.

Input	Description
.pattern	The `regex` pattern to use
.target	The result pattern. The result text will be used as label. If empty, no label is created. (Usage depends on the `method` used for the regex). Javascript methods (`replace`, `replaceAll`, `match`) define the regex in JavaScript format (e.g. double backslash to escape a dot \.). For example to include all matching tags and exclude the rest, use negative lookahead to exclude tags. For example, api.* will only include tags starting with "api", ^(?!alpha).* will exclude all tags starting with "alpha".
.method	The extraction method used. Defaults to: `replace`. Alternative values: `replaceAll`, `match`. These methods specified references the JavaScript String method. And a special method `regexr`, that functions similar to the `list` within the regexr tool.
.flags	Defines the regex flags specified for the pattern. Default: `gu`.
.on_empty	Defines the placeholder to be filled in, if the regex does not lead to a result.
.on_property	This is available for `Extractor` type regex objects. With the property describing a field available in PRs. (e.g.: title, body, ...) Default: `body`.

Example regex configuration block

Sample extracts a ticket number from the title

Sample PR title input

[XYZ-1234] This is my PR title

Regex replace pattern

{
  "name": "TICKET",
  "source": "TITLE",
  "transformer": {
    "pattern": "\\s*\\[([A-Z].{2,4}-.{2,5})\\][\\S\\s]*",
    "target": "- [$1](https://corp.ticket-system.com/browse/$1)"
  }
}

Regexr style pattern (Use regexr.com to test). To test on Regexr inverse the escaping of \\ to \

{
  "name": "TICKET",
  "source": "TITLE",
  "transformer": {
    "pattern": "\\[([A-Z]{2,4}-.{2,5})\\]",
    "method": "regexr",
    "target": '- [$1](https://corp.ticket-system.com/browse/$1)'
  }
}

Warning

Usages of \ in the json have to be escaped. E.g. \ becomes \\.

Custom placeholders

Starting with v3.2.0 the action provides a feature of defining CUSTOM_PLACEHOLDERS.

Custom placeholders allow to extract values from any existing placeholder and insert them into the target template.

Example

Custom placeholders can be defined via the configuration.json as custom_placeholders. See the below example json:

{
  "template": "**Epics**\n#{{EPIC[*]}}\n\n#{{CHANGELOG}}",
  "pr_template": "- #{{TITLE}} - #{{URL}} #{{EPIC}}",
  "custom_placeholders": [
    {
      "name": "EPIC",
      "source": "BODY",
      "transformer": {
        "pattern": "[\\S\\s]*?(https:\\/\\/corp\\.atlassian\\.net\\/browse\\/EPIC-.{2,4})[\\S\\s]*",
        "target": "- $1"
      }
    }
  ]
}

This example will look for JIRA tickets in the EPIC project, and extract all of these tickets. The exciting part for that case is, that the ticket is PR-bound but can be used in the global TEMPLATE, but equally also in the PR template. This is unique for CUSTOM PLACEHOLDERS as standard placeholders do not offer this functionality.

Input	Description
custom_placeholders	An array of `Placeholder` specifications, offering a flexible API to extract custom placeholders from existing placeholders.
custom_placeholders.name	The name of the custom placeholder. Will be used within the template.
custom_placeholders.source	The source PLACEHOLDER, requires to be one of the existing Template or PR Template placeholders.
custom_placeholders.transformer.{<REGEX>}	The transformer specification used to extract the value from the original source PLACEHOLDER. Please see the documentation related to Regex Configuration for more details.

A placeholder with the name as CUSTOM_PLACEHOLDER can be used as #{{CUSTOM_PLACEHOLDER}} in the target template. By default the same restriction applies as for PR vs. template placeholder. E.g. a global placeholder can only be used in the global template (and not in the PR template).

Custom placeholders offer one new feature, though. PR-related placeholders can be used in the global template via the following syntax:

CUSTOM_PLACEHOLDER[*] - Will join all found values and insert them at the given location in the global template
CUSTOM_PLACEHOLDER[0] / CUSTOM_PLACEHOLDER[index] - Will insert the first found value (item at index) into the global template

Gitea support 🧪

Starting with v4.1.0 the action is also compatible with gitea.

Warning

The API from gitea does not allow to retrieve the diff via its API, requiring the repo to be checked out

The API for gitea is equal to the one from GitHub, however it requires the platform to be specified.

- name: Build Changelog
  uses: https://github.com/mikepenz/release-changelog-builder-action@v5
  with:
    platform: "gitea" # gitea or GitHub, default is GitHub
    configuration: "configuration.json"
  env:
    token: ${{ secrets.GITEA_TOKEN }}

Contribute 🧬

# Install the dependencies
$ npm install

# Verify lint is happy
$ npm run lint -- --fix

# Build the typescript and package it for distribution
$ npm run build && npm run package

# Run the tests, use to debug, and test it out
$ npm test

It's suggested to export the token to your path before running the tests so that API calls can be done to GitHub.

export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_personal_github_pat

Local Testing 🧪

This GitHub action is fully developed in Typescript and can be run locally via npm or right from the browser using GitHub Codespace.

Doing so is a great way to test the action and/or your custom configurations locally, without the need to push and re-run GitHub actions over and over again.

To run locally, or to access private repositories (GitHub Codespaces has automatic access to public repos with the default token), you will require to provide a valid GITHUB_TOKEN with read-only permissions to access the repositories you want to run this action towards. (See more details in Token Permission)

To test your own configuration and use-case, the project contains a __tests__/demo/demo.test.ts file, modify this one to your needs. (e.g., change repo, change token, change settings, ...), and then run it via:

npm test -- demo.test.ts

Debugging with Breakpoints

One major benefit of setting up a custom test is that it will allow you to use JavaScripts full debugging support, including the option of breakpoints via (for example) Visual Code.

From GitHub codespaces, open the terminal panel -> Click the small arrow down beside + and pick JavaScript Debug Terminal (make sure to export the token again). Now execute the test with this terminal. (This is very similar to local Visual Code environments).

Run common tests

To run the common tests of the action, you require to export a valid GitHub token.

# Export the token in the CLI you use to execute.
export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_read_only_github_token

Afterwards it is possible to run any test included in the project:

npm test -- main.test.ts # modify the file name to run other testcases

Token Permission

Permissions depend on the specific use-case, however this action only requires read-only permissions as it will not make modifications to the repository.

GitHub actions

Depending on the given environment it may be required to define teh token scope for GitHub actions to read for contents and pull-requests.

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: read

GitHub Actions token scope.

`Fine-grained personal access tokens`

For Fine-grained personal access tokens this means:

read for Pull requests
- Covered by the pull-requests scope
read for Commits
- Covered by the contents scope
read for Tags (if not available the from and to refs have to be provided)
- Covered by the contents scope
read to list reviews
- Covered by the contents scope

Classic tokens

For Classic tokens you only have to create the token without special permissions.

Developed By

Mike Penz
mikepenz.com - mikepenz@gmail.com
paypal.me/mikepenz

Credits

Core parts of the PR fetching logic are based on pull-release-notes
- Nikolay Blagoev - GitHub
action-gh-release for a few great README ideas

Other actions

xray-action
action-junit-report
jira-release-composition-action

License

Copyright for portions of pr-release-notes are held by Nikolay Blagoev, 2019-2020 as part of project pull-release-notes.
All other copyright for project pr-release-notes are held by Mike Penz, 2024.

Fork License

All patches and changes applied to the original source are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Copyright 2024 Mike Penz

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

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README.md

README.md

release-changelog-builder-action

What's included 🚀

Setup

Configure the workflow

Full Sample 🖥️

Action Inputs/Outputs

Action inputs

Action outputs

Customization 🖍️

Note

Configuration

Template placeholders

PR Template placeholders

Configuration Specification

Regex Configuration

Custom placeholders

Gitea support 🧪

Contribute 🧬

Local Testing 🧪

Token Permission

GitHub actions

`Fine-grained personal access tokens`

Classic tokens

Developed By

Credits

Other actions

License

Fork License

Sample result release notes / changelog

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

release-changelog-builder-action

What's included 🚀

Setup

Configure the workflow

Full Sample 🖥️

Action Inputs/Outputs

Action inputs

Action outputs

Customization 🖍️

Note

Configuration

Template placeholders

PR Template placeholders

Configuration Specification

Regex Configuration

Custom placeholders

Gitea support 🧪

Contribute 🧬

Local Testing 🧪

Token Permission

GitHub actions

Fine-grained personal access tokens

Classic tokens

Developed By

Credits

Other actions

License

Fork License

Sample result release notes / changelog

`Fine-grained personal access tokens`