Getting Started

Release on every push to main, straight from your commit messages. No config file, no plugins.

1. Write conventional commits

feat(ui): dark mode        → minor
fix: crash on empty input  → patch
feat!: drop Node 18        → major
chore: bump deps           → no release

See Versioning for the full rules and how to change them.

2. Add the workflow

# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

concurrency: release # one release at a time; queued pushes release after

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
      - uses: orochibraru/releaser@v1

That's it. On the next push with a feat or fix commit you get:

• a CHANGELOG.md entry,
• the version in package.json bumped (if the file exists),
• a chore(release): X.Y.Z [skip ci] commit and a vX.Y.Z tag on main,
• a GitHub release with the same notes.

The first release is always 1.0.0. Shallow clones are fetched in full automatically, so fetch-depth: 0 is optional.

3. Protected branches

The default github.token can't push to a protected main: the push fails with GH013: Repository rule violations. releaser pushes through origin, so check out with a credential the ruleset lets through. A deploy key is the narrowest:

1. ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N "" -f release. Add release.pub as a deploy key with write access, and release as the RELEASE_DEPLOY_KEY secret.
2. In the ruleset on main, add Deploy keys to the bypass list.
3. Check out with it. The action keeps github.token for the API.

- uses: actions/checkout@v7
  with:
    ssh-key: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_DEPLOY_KEY }}
- uses: orochibraru/releaser@v1

A PAT or GitHub App token (token: on both steps) works too, but only if its user or app is on the bypass list; admins aren't by default. It also reaches further than one repo's key. Pushes over either one trigger workflows, unlike github.token's.

4. Try it locally

go install github.com/orochibraru/releaser/cmd/releaser@latest
releaser

Or download releaser-<os>-<arch> from the latest release.

Outside CI (CI unset) it's a dry run: it prints the next version and its notes and touches nothing. Pass -dry-run=false to really release. Only branch (main) releases; to preview from a feature branch, pass -branch "$(git branch --show-current)".

Next: Inputs and flags.