Lazy Release Action

The easiest way to version, publish and create changelogs for your JavaScript/TypeScript projects.

If you enjoy this tool, please consider giving it a star ⭐️ on GitHub! Also if you find it useful, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee. Your support helps me continue to improve and maintain the project.

Table of Contents

• How does it work?
• 📝 Setup
• 🏷️ Types
• 🔧 Customization
  • Inputs
  • Output Params
• 💡 Inspiration
• 🔗 Links

How does it work?

see docs

📝 Setup

1. Update pull request settings

• Go to Settings > General > Pull Requests
  • Uncheck "Allow merge merges"
  • Check "Allow squash merges"
    • Choose "Pull request title and description" for default commit message

2. Update workflow permissions

• Go to Settings > Actions > General
  • Set "Workflow permissions" to "Read and write permissions"
  • Check "Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests"

3. Create workflow file .github/workflows/release.yml

name: Release

on:
  push: # For creating or updating the Release PR
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request: # For creating a release by merging in the Release PR
    types: [closed]
    branches:
      - main

permissions:
  contents: write
  packages: write
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  release:
    if: >
      github.event.repository.fork == false &&
      (github.event_name == 'push' || 
       (github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.pull_request.merged == true))
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22

      - name: Create Release PR or Release
        uses: stellasoftio/lazy-release-action@0cb4b3f3dff07aed965af41a37112abe7b1905e2 # v0.7.0
        with:
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

🏷️ Types

Type	Description
🚀 feat	A new feature
🐛 fix	A bug fix
⚡️ perf	A code change that improves performance
🏠 chore	Routine tasks and maintenance
📚 docs	Documentation changes
🎨 style	CSS changes
♻️ refactor	A code refactor
✅ test	Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
📦 build	Changes that affect the build system
🤖 ci	Changes to CI configuration files
⏪ revert	Reverts a previous commit

🔧 Customization

Inputs

Input	Type	Default Value	Description
github-token	string	''	GitHub authentication token
npm-token	string	''	NPM authentication token
default-branch	string	main	The repo's default branch
snapshots	boolean	false	Whether to create snapshots
end-commit	string	''	The end commit reference
release-pr-title	string	Version Packages	The title of the release PR
publish-major-tag	boolean	false	Publishes the major tag e.g v1. This option is useful for GitHub actions. If the tag already exists the tag will be overwritten

examples

- name: Create Release PR or Publish Release
  uses: stellasoftio/lazy-release-action@0cb4b3f3dff07aed965af41a37112abe7b1905e2 # v0.7.0
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    snapshots: true

Output Params

Output Name	Description
published	The flag that indicates the packages have been published to npm or GitHub packages
<package-name>_version	The updated version number of the package (without scope) after processing

example

- name: Create Release PR or Publish Release
  id: lazy-release
  uses: stellasoftio/lazy-release-action@0cb4b3f3dff07aed965af41a37112abe7b1905e2 # v0.7.0
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: After Publish
  if: steps.lazy-release.outputs.published == 'true'
  run: |
    echo "Run a script after packages have been published"

- name: Get new package version
  if: ${{ steps.lazy-release.outputs.my-package_version != '' }}
  run: |
    echo "Package versions: ${{ steps.lazy-release.outputs.my-package_version }}"

💡Inspiration

This project was inspired by...

• changelogen
  • Using emojis, compare changes
• changesets
  • Gave me ideas on how to handle versioning for monorepos + providing a status comment
  • Idea of using a release PR
• vite
  • Adding a date to the changelog
  • Gave me the idea of how to show breaking changes in the changelog

🔗 Links

• Comparison of Similar Tools