feat: Add release-please-action for automated releases

[amondnet]

Overview

Integrate Google's release-please-action to automate the release process for vercel-action.

Motivation

• Automate version bumping based on conventional commits
• Generate changelogs automatically
• Create GitHub releases with proper tags
• Streamline the release process with release PRs

Implementation Plan

1. Add Release Please Workflow

Create .github/workflows/release-please.yml:

name: Release Please

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
        with:
          release-type: node
          package-name: vercel-action

2. Configuration Details

• Release Type: node (for NPM package with package.json version management)
• Branch: master (main branch)
• Version Strategy: Based on conventional commits
  • fix: → patch version (41.1.4 → 41.1.5)
  • feat: → minor version (41.1.4 → 41.2.0)
  • feat!: or BREAKING CHANGE → major version (41.1.4 → 42.0.0)

3. Additional Considerations

• The project already uses conventional commits format
• Ensure dist/ folder is built and committed during releases
• CHANGELOG.md will be automatically maintained

Benefits

1. Automated Version Management: No manual version bumping needed
2. Consistent Changelog: Generated from commit messages
3. Release PRs: Review changes before releasing
4. GitHub Releases: Automatic creation with proper tags
5. Semantic Versioning: Follows SemVer based on commit types

References

• release-please-action documentation
• Conventional Commits

Tasks

• Create release-please workflow file
• Test with next merge to master
• Update contributing docs if needed