semantic-release Without npm Publishing

Versioning Without npm Publishing

Not every project needs to publish to the npm registry. Private applications, Docker-only projects, or non-JavaScript projects can still benefit from semantic-release's automated versioning.

Configuration

{
  "branches": ["main"],
  "plugins": [
    "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
    "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
    ["@semantic-release/npm", {
      "npmPublish": false
    }],
    "@semantic-release/github"
  ]
}

Why Keep the npm Plugin?

Even with npmPublish: false, the npm plugin still:

• Updates the version field in package.json
• Updates package-lock.json
• Ensures the version in your repository matches the release tag

Without package.json

For non-JavaScript projects that don't have a package.json, you can skip the npm plugin entirely:

{
  "branches": ["main"],
  "plugins": [
    "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
    "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
    ["@semantic-release/exec", {
      "prepareCmd": "echo ${nextRelease.version} > VERSION"
    }],
    "@semantic-release/github"
  ]
}

Use Cases for npmPublish: false

• Web applications deployed via Docker or cloud services
• Internal tools that don't need registry publishing
• Go, Rust, Python projects using semantic-release for versioning
• Monorepos where only some packages publish to npm

Version File Generation

Use the exec plugin to write the version to any file format your project needs — a VERSION file, a Python __version__ variable, or a Go constants file.