Automated Release with Changelog

Automated Release Workflow

Automating releases removes human error from the release process and ensures every release has consistent notes, tags, and assets. This workflow triggers when a version tag is pushed.

Workflow YAML

name: Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'

      - name: Install and build
        run: |
          npm ci
          npm run build

      - name: Generate changelog
        id: changelog
        run: |
          PREV_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 HEAD^ 2>/dev/null || echo "")
          if [ -n "$PREV_TAG" ]; then
            CHANGES=$(git log $PREV_TAG..HEAD --pretty=format:"- %s (%h)" --no-merges)
          else
            CHANGES=$(git log --pretty=format:"- %s (%h)" --no-merges -20)
          fi
          echo "changes<<EOF" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "$CHANGES" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          echo "EOF" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

      - name: Create GitHub Release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
        with:
          body: |
            ## Changes
            ${{ steps.changelog.outputs.changes }}
          files: |
            dist/*.tar.gz
            dist/*.zip
          draft: false
          prerelease: ${{ contains(github.ref, '-beta') || contains(github.ref, '-rc') }}

      - name: Publish to npm
        run: npm publish
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

How It Works

1. Tag trigger: Pushing a tag like v1.2.3 triggers the workflow
2. Full history: fetch-depth: 0 fetches all Git history for changelog generation
3. Changelog: Extracts commit messages between the previous tag and the current one
4. Release creation: softprops/action-gh-release creates the GitHub Release with notes and file attachments
5. npm publish: Publishes the package to npm using a stored auth token

Version Tag Workflow

# Bump version in package.json
npm version patch  # or minor, major
# This creates a commit and tag
git push origin main --tags

Pre-release Detection

The prerelease field automatically marks releases as pre-release when the tag contains -beta or -rc (e.g., v2.0.0-beta.1).

Adding Release Assets

Use the files field to attach binaries, archives, or other build outputs to the release. Glob patterns are supported.