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changelog-updater Action

A GitHub Action to update a changelog with the latest release notes.

The Action …

  • adds a new second level heading for the new release
  • pastes your release notes in the appropriate place in CHANGELOG.md

If your changelog follows the "Keep a Changelog" format and contains an "Unreleased"-heading, the Action will update the heading to point to the compare view between the latest version and HEAD. (Read more about this here)

Don't want to use GitHub Actions? Checkout the changelog-updater CLI that powers this Action. Want to learn more about this Action? Read my introduction blog post.

Usage

The Action is best used in a Workflow that listens to the release-event and the type released. This way, the name and body of your release will be added to the CHANGELOG.

The following is an example Workflow ready to be used.

The Workflow checks out the target branch of the release, updates the ./CHANGELOG.md-file with the name and the contents of the just released release and commits the changes back to your repository using git-auto-commit.

# .github/workflows/update-changelog.yaml
name: "Update Changelog"

on:
  release:
    types: [released]

jobs:
  update:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    permissions:
      # Give the default GITHUB_TOKEN write permission to commit and push the 
      # updated CHANGELOG back to the repository.
      # https://github.blog/changelog/2023-02-02-github-actions-updating-the-default-github_token-permissions-to-read-only/
      contents: write

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.event.release.target_commitish }}

      - name: Update Changelog
        uses: stefanzweifel/changelog-updater-action@v1
        with:
          latest-version: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}
          release-notes: ${{ github.event.release.body }}

      - name: Commit updated CHANGELOG
        uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v5
        with:
          branch: ${{ github.event.release.target_commitish }}
          commit_message: Update CHANGELOG
          file_pattern: CHANGELOG.md

To generate the release notes automatically for you, I can recommend using the release-drafter Action.

Note
When you use the publish-input of release-drafter to immediately create the release, the release-event is probably not triggered due to a limitation of GitHub Actions.
Please create a personal access token, add it as a secret to your repository and pass the token to the release-drafter/release-drafter-Action. See this discussion for more details.

Advanced Usage

Use Tag Date as Release Date

The following workflow is a bit more advanced. It …

  • extracts the exact release date from the git tag
  • optionally, uses the target branch of the release in the "Unreleased" compare URL
  • pushes the created commit to the target branch of the commit

Warning
DO NOT enable the compare-url-target-revision option, if the target of your releases is the default branch (ref/heads/main or main). The action would otherwise receive refs/heads/main as the target revision value and will generate invalid compare URLs.

Show update-changelog.yaml 
# .github/workflows/update-changelog.yaml
name: "Update Changelog"

on:
  release:
    types: [released]

jobs:
  update:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    permissions:
      # Give the default GITHUB_TOKEN write permission to commit and push the 
      # updated CHANGELOG back to the repository.
      # https://github.blog/changelog/2023-02-02-github-actions-updating-the-default-github_token-permissions-to-read-only/
      contents: write

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          # Fetch entire history of repository to ensure release date can be
          # extracted from commit of the given tag.
          fetch-depth: 0
          # Checkout target branch of this release. Ensures that the CHANGELOG
          # is not out of date.
          ref: ${{ github.event.release.target_commitish }}

      - name: Extract release date from git tag
        id: release_date
        run: |
          echo "date=$(git log -1 --date=short --format=%ad '${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT;

      - name: Update Changelog
        uses: stefanzweifel/changelog-updater-action@v1
        with:
          # Pass extracted release date, release notes and version to the Action.
          release-date: ${{ steps.release_date.outputs.date }}
          release-notes: ${{ github.event.release.body }}
          latest-version: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}

          # Optional
          # If your project keeps separate branches for major releases, and you want to point the compare URL
          # in the "Unreleased"-heading to the corresponding major release branch (eg. `2.x`), then enable the option
          # below.
          # `compare-url-target-revision` will change how the compare URL is composed and will replace 
          # `v2.0.1...HEAD` with `v2.0.1...2.x`.
          # WARNING: When you select `main` when creating a new release, the value `refs/heads/main` 
          # is passed to the Action which will generate an invalid compare URL.
          # compare-url-target-revision: ${{ github.event.release.target_commitish }}

      - name: Commit updated CHANGELOG
        uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v5
        with:
          # Push updated CHANGELOG to release target branch.
          branch: ${{ github.event.release.target_commitish }}
          commit_message: Update CHANGELOG
          file_pattern: CHANGELOG.md

Trigger Action on workflow_dispatch event

HannesWell uses the Action in a worfklow triggered by the workflow_dispatch: See workflow.

The workflow …

  • is manually triggered
  • builds a Java project
  • uses the content between the Unreleased and Previous Release heading as release notes and updates the CHANGELOG.md
  • commits the changes and pushes them to GitHub
  • creates a new GitHub release and points in the release notes to the right heading for the just released version

This workflow uses the output variables generated by this Action to accomplish this task.

Inputs

Checkout action.yml for a full list of supported inputs. Check the README of the underlying CLI to learn more about them.

Expected Changelog Formats

At minimum, the Action requires an empty CHANGELOG.md file to exist in your repository. When executed, the Action will place the release notes at the bottom of the document. If your changelog already contains a second level heading, the Action will put the release notes above previous release notes in the document.

Your changelog will look something like this:

# Changelog

## v1.1.0 - 2021-02-01

### Added

- New Feature A

## v1.0.0 - 2021-01-01

- Initial Release

If you want to learn more on how the Action determines the place for the release notes, read the notes in the README of the CLI that powers this Action.

Outputs

The Action exposes some outputs you can further use in your workflow. The Action currently supports the following outputs:

release_compare_url

The generated compare URL for the just created release. For example https://github.com/org/repo/compare/v1.0.0...v1.1.0. The value is only available, if the Action could generate a compare URL based on the available CHANGELOG data.

release_url_fragment

The URL fragment for the just created release. For example '#v100---2021-02-01'. You can use this to generate URLs that point to the newly created release in your CHANGELOG.

unreleased_compare_url

The generated compare URL between the latest version and the target revision. For example https://github.com/org/repo/compare/v1.0.0...HEAD. The value is only available, if the Action could generate a compare URL based on the available CHANGELOG data.

See action.yml for details.

See workflow below on how to use these output values in your workflow.

- name: Update Changelog
  uses: stefanzweifel/changelog-updater-action@v1
  id: "changelog-updater"
  with:
    # Pass extracted release date, release notes and version to the Action.
    release-date: ${{ steps.release_date.outputs.date }}
    release-notes: ${{ github.event.release.body }}
    latest-version: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}
    compare-url-target-revision: ${{ github.event.release.target_commitish }}

- name: "release_compare_url"
  # https://github.com/org/repo/compare/v1.0.0...v1.1.0
  run: "echo ${{ steps.changelog-updater.outputs.release_compare_url }}"

- name: "release_url_fragment"
  # #v100---2021-02-01
  run: "echo ${{ steps.changelog-updater.outputs.release_url_fragment }}"

- name: "unreleased_compare_url"
  # https://github.com/org/repo/compare/v1.0.0...HEAD
  run: "echo ${{ steps.changelog-updater.outputs.unreleased_compare_url }}"

Versioning

We use SemVer for versioning. For the versions available, see the tags on this repository.

We also provide major version tags to make it easier to always use the latest release of a major version. For example you can use stefanzweifel/changelog-updater-action@v1 to always use the latest release of the current major version. (More information about this here.)

Credits

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.