@semantic-release/github

What is @semantic-release/github?

The @semantic-release/github package is designed to automate the release process of your GitHub projects by integrating with semantic versioning. It helps in publishing GitHub releases, managing release notes, and handling assets and pre-releases seamlessly. This package is part of the semantic-release ecosystem, which automates versioning and package publishing.

What are @semantic-release/github's main functionalities?

Publish GitHub Releases

Automatically publish a GitHub release with assets. The configuration allows you to specify which assets to include in the release, such as compiled binaries or distribution packages.

"@semantic-release/github": {
  "assets": [
    {"path": "build/zip/your-package.zip", "label": "Your Package"}
  ]
}

Comment on Released Pull Requests and Issues

Automatically comment on the GitHub issues and pull requests that are part of the release. This feature helps in notifying contributors and users about the resolution of issues and the availability of new versions.

"@semantic-release/github": {
  "successComment": "This issue has been resolved in version \\$VERSION"
}

Add Labels to Pull Requests

Automatically add labels to the pull requests included in the release. This can help in tracking the release status of various changes and organizing pull requests.

"@semantic-release/github": {
  "releasedLabels": ["Status: Released", "\"\\$VERSION\""]
}

Other packages similar to @semantic-release/github

standard-version

Similar to @semantic-release/github, standard-version automates versioning and CHANGELOG generation, but it does so without relying on a continuous integration server. It's more suited for manual releases and doesn't directly integrate with GitHub releases.

release-it

Release-it is a versatile tool for automating versioning and package publishing, similar to @semantic-release/github. It supports various platforms including GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. Unlike @semantic-release/github, it provides a more interactive release process and can be customized for different workflows.

lerna

Lerna is a tool for managing JavaScript projects with multiple packages, making it somewhat similar to @semantic-release/github in terms of release management. It automates the versioning and publishing process for monorepos. While it can work alongside semantic-release for complex workflows, it's primarily focused on monorepo management rather than direct GitHub integration.

README

@semantic-release/github

semantic-release plugin to publish a GitHub release and comment on released Pull Requests/Issues.

Step	Description
verifyConditions	Verify the presence and the validity of the authentication (set via environment variables) and the assets option configuration.
publish	Publish a GitHub release, optionally uploading file assets.
addChannel	Update a GitHub release's pre-release field.
success	Add a comment to each GitHub Issue or Pull Request resolved by the release and close issues previously open by the fail step.
fail	Open or update a GitHub Issue with information about the errors that caused the release to fail.

Install

$ npm install @semantic-release/github -D

Usage

The plugin can be configured in the semantic-release configuration file:

{
  "plugins": [
    "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
    "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
    [
      "@semantic-release/github",
      {
        "assets": [
          { "path": "dist/asset.min.css", "label": "CSS distribution" },
          { "path": "dist/asset.min.js", "label": "JS distribution" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  ]
}

With this example GitHub releases will be published with the file dist/asset.min.css and dist/asset.min.js.

Configuration

GitHub authentication

The GitHub authentication configuration is required and can be set via environment variables.

Follow the Creating a personal access token for the command line documentation to obtain an authentication token. The token has to be made available in your CI environment via the GH_TOKEN environment variable. The user associated with the token must have push permission to the repository.

When creating the token, the minimum required scopes are:

• repo for a private repository
• public_repo for a public repository

Note on GitHub Actions: You can use the default token which is provided in the secret GITHUB_TOKEN. However releases done with this token will NOT trigger release events to start other workflows. If you have actions that trigger on newly created releases, please use a generated token for that and store it in your repository's secrets (any other name than GITHUB_TOKEN is fine).

When using the GITHUB_TOKEN, the minimum required permissions are:

• contents: write to be able to publish a GitHub release
• issues: write to be able to comment on released issues
• pull-requests: write to be able to comment on released pull requests

Environment variables

Variable	Description
GITHUB_TOKEN or GH_TOKEN	Required. The token used to authenticate with GitHub.
GITHUB_URL or GH_URL	The GitHub server endpoint.
GITHUB_PREFIX or GH_PREFIX	The GitHub API prefix, relative to GITHUB_URL.
GITHUB_API_URL	The GitHub API endpoint. Note that this overwrites GITHUB_PREFIX.

Options

Option	Description	Default
githubUrl	The GitHub server endpoint.	GH_URL or GITHUB_URL environment variable.
githubApiPathPrefix	The GitHub API prefix, relative to githubUrl.	GH_PREFIX or GITHUB_PREFIX environment variable.
githubApiUrl	The GitHub API endpoint. Note that this overwrites githubApiPathPrefix.	GITHUB_API_URL environment variable.
proxy	The proxy to use to access the GitHub API. Set to false to disable usage of proxy. See proxy.	HTTP_PROXY environment variable.
assets	An array of files to upload to the release. See assets.	-
successComment	The comment to add to each issue and pull request resolved by the release. Set to false to disable commenting on issues and pull requests. See successComment.	:tada: This issue has been resolved in version ${nextRelease.version} :tada:\n\nThe release is available on [GitHub release](<github_release_url>)
successCommentCondition	Use this as condition, when to comment on issues or pull requests. See successCommentCondition	-
failComment	The content of the issue created when a release fails. Set to false to disable opening an issue when a release fails. See failComment.	Friendly message with links to semantic-release documentation and support, with the list of errors that caused the release to fail.
failTitle	The title of the issue created when a release fails. Set to false to disable opening an issue when a release fails.	The automated release is failing 🚨
failCommentCondition	Use this as condition, when to comment on or create an issues in case of failures. See failCommentCondition.	-
labels	The labels to add to the issue created when a release fails. Set to false to not add any label.	['semantic-release']
assignees	The assignees to add to the issue created when a release fails.	-
releasedLabels	The labels to add to each issue and pull request resolved by the release. Set to false to not add any label. See releasedLabels.	['released<%= nextRelease.channel ? \ on @${nextRelease.channel}` : "" %>']-
addReleases	Will add release links to the GitHub Release. Can be false, "bottom" or "top". See addReleases.	false
draftRelease	A boolean indicating if a GitHub Draft Release should be created instead of publishing an actual GitHub Release.	false
releaseNameTemplate	A Lodash template to customize the github release's name	<%= nextverison.name %>
releaseBodyTemplate	A Lodash template to customize the github release's body	<%= nextverison.notes %>
discussionCategoryName	The category name in which to create a linked discussion to the release. Set to false to disable creating discussion for a release.	false

proxy

Can be false, a proxy URL or an Object with the following properties:

Property	Description	Default
host	Required. Proxy host to connect to.	-
port	Required. Proxy port to connect to.	File name extracted from the path.
secureProxy	If true, then use TLS to connect to the proxy.	false
headers	Additional HTTP headers to be sent on the HTTP CONNECT method.	-

See node-https-proxy-agent and node-http-proxy-agent for additional details.

proxy examples

'http://168.63.76.32:3128': use the proxy running on host 168.63.76.32 and port 3128 for each GitHub API request. {host: '168.63.76.32', port: 3128, headers: {Foo: 'bar'}}: use the proxy running on host 168.63.76.32 and port 3128 for each GitHub API request, setting the Foo header value to bar.

assets

Can be a glob or and Array of globs and Objects with the following properties:

Property	Description	Default
path	Required. A glob to identify the files to upload.	-
name	The name of the downloadable file on the GitHub release.	File name extracted from the path.
label	Short description of the file displayed on the GitHub release.	-

Each entry in the assets Array is globbed individually. A glob can be a String ("dist/**/*.js" or "dist/mylib.js") or an Array of Strings that will be globbed together (["dist/**", "!**/*.css"]).

If a directory is configured, all the files under this directory and its children will be included.

The name and label for each assets are generated with Lodash template. The following variables are available:

Parameter	Description
branch	The branch from which the release is done.
lastRelease	Object with version, gitTag and gitHead of the last release.
nextRelease	Object with version, gitTag, gitHead and notes of the release being done.
commits	Array of commit Objects with hash, subject, body message and author.

Note: If a file has a match in assets it will be included even if it also has a match in .gitignore.

assets examples

'dist/*.js': include all the js files in the dist directory, but not in its sub-directories.

[['dist', '!**/*.css']]: include all the files in the dist directory and its sub-directories excluding the css files.

[{path: 'dist/MyLibrary.js', label: 'MyLibrary JS distribution'}, {path: 'dist/MyLibrary.css', label: 'MyLibrary CSS distribution'}]: include the dist/MyLibrary.js and dist/MyLibrary.css files, and label them MyLibrary JS distribution and MyLibrary CSS distribution in the GitHub release.

[['dist/**/*.{js,css}', '!**/*.min.*'], {path: 'build/MyLibrary.zip', label: 'MyLibrary'}]: include all the js and css files in the dist directory and its sub-directories excluding the minified version, plus the build/MyLibrary.zip file and label it MyLibrary in the GitHub release.

[{path: 'dist/MyLibrary.js', name: 'MyLibrary-${nextRelease.gitTag}.js', label: 'MyLibrary JS (${nextRelease.gitTag}) distribution'}]: include the file dist/MyLibrary.js and upload it to the GitHub release with name MyLibrary-v1.0.0.js and label MyLibrary JS (v1.0.0) distribution which will generate the link:

[MyLibrary JS (v1.0.0) distribution](MyLibrary-v1.0.0.js)

successComment

The message for the issue comments is generated with Lodash template. The following variables are available:

Parameter	Description
branch	Object with name, type, channel, range and prerelease properties of the branch from which the release is done.
lastRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag and gitHead of the last release.
nextRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag, gitHead and notes of the release being done.
commits	Array of commit Objects with hash, subject, body message and author.
releases	Array with a release Objects for each release published, with optional release data such as name and url.
issue	A GitHub API pull request object for pull requests related to a commit, or GitHub API issue object for issues resolved via keywords

successComment example

The successComment This ${issue.pull_request ? 'pull request' : 'issue'} is included in version ${nextRelease.version} will generate the comment:

This pull request is included in version 1.0.0

successCommentCondition

The message for the issue comments is generated with Lodash template. The following variables are available:

Parameter	Description
branch	Object with name, type, channel, range and prerelease properties of the branch from which the release is done.
lastRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag and gitHead of the last release.
nextRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag, gitHead and notes of the release being done.
commits	Array of commit Objects with hash, subject, body message and author.
releases	Array with a release Objects for each release published, with optional release data such as name and url.
issue	A GitHub API Pull Request object for pull requests related to a commit

successCommentCondition example

• do not create any comments at all: set to false or templating: "<% return false; %>"
• to only comment on issues: "<% return !issue.pull_request; %>"
• to only comment on pull requests: "<% return issue.pull_request; %>"
• to avoid comment on PRs or issues created by Bots: "<% return issue.user.type !== 'Bot'; %>"
• you can use labels to filter issues: "<% return issue.labels?.some((label) => { return label.name === ('semantic-release-relevant'); }); %>"

check the GitHub API issue object for properties which can be used for the filter

failComment

The message for the issue content is generated with Lodash template. The following variables are available:

Parameter	Description
branch	The branch from which the release had failed.
errors	An Array of SemanticReleaseError. Each error has the message, code, pluginName and details properties. pluginName contains the package name of the plugin that threw the error. details contains a information about the error formatted in markdown.

failComment example

The failComment This release from branch ${branch.name} had failed due to the following errors:\n- ${errors.map(err => err.message).join('\\n- ')} will generate the comment:

This release from branch master had failed due to the following errors:

• Error message 1
• Error message 2

failCommentCondition

The message for the issue content is generated with Lodash template. The following variables are available:

Parameter	Description
branch	Object with name, type, channel, range and prerelease properties of the branch from which the release is done.
lastRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag and gitHead of the last release.
nextRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag, gitHead and notes of the release being done.
commits	Array of commit Objects with hash, subject, body message and author.
releases	Array with a release Objects for each release published, with optional release data such as name and url.
issue	A GitHub API pull request object for pull requests related to a commit, or GitHub API issue object for issues resolved via keywords

failCommentCondition example

• do not create any comments at all: set to false or templating: "<% return false; %>"
• to only comment on main branch: "<% return branch.name === 'main' %>"
• you can use labels to filter issues, i.e. to not comment if the issue is labeled with wip: "<% return !issue.labels?.includes('wip') %>"

check the GitHub API Pull Request Object for properties which can be used for the filter

releasedLabels

Each label name is generated with Lodash template. The following variables are available:

Parameter	Description
branch	Object with name, type, channel, range and prerelease properties of the branch from which the release is done.
lastRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag and gitHead of the last release.
nextRelease	Object with version, channel, gitTag, gitHead and notes of the release being done.
commits	Array of commit Objects with hash, subject, body message and author.
releases	Array with a release Objects for each release published, with optional release data such as name and url.
issue	A GitHub API pull request object for pull requests related to a commit, or GitHub API issue object for issues resolved via keywords

releasedLabels example

The releasedLabels ['released<%= nextRelease.channel ? ` on @\${nextRelease.channel}` : "" %> from <%= branch.name %>'] will generate the label:

released on @next from branch next

addReleases

Add links to other releases to the GitHub release body.

Valid values for this option are false, "top" or "bottom".

addReleases example

See The introducing PR for an example on how it will look.