@semantic-release/release-notes-generator

What is @semantic-release/release-notes-generator?

The @semantic-release/release-notes-generator package is a plugin for the semantic-release system. It automates the generation of release notes based on your project's commit history, adhering to the Semantic Versioning specification. This tool parses commit messages, groups them into sections, and formats them into a markdown document, which can then be used in release documentation.

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

Generate release notes

This feature automates the creation of release notes from commits. The code sample shows how to use the release-notes-generator in a Node.js script to generate release notes by providing plugin configuration and context.

const generateNotes = require('@semantic-release/release-notes-generator');

async function generateReleaseNotes(pluginConfig, context) {
  const notes = await generateNotes(pluginConfig, context);
  console.log(notes);
}

Other packages similar to @semantic-release/release-notes-generator

conventional-changelog

Like @semantic-release/release-notes-generator, conventional-changelog generates changelogs and release notes from a project's commit messages, following the conventional commit format. It offers more extensive customization options and plugins for different release systems, making it versatile but potentially more complex to configure.

lerna-changelog

Lerna-changelog is specifically designed for monorepos managed with Lerna and generates changelogs based on PR titles and labels. It's less flexible than @semantic-release/release-notes-generator for non-monorepo projects but is an excellent fit for projects using Lerna.

README

release-notes-generator

semantic-release plugin to generate changelog content with conventional-changelog

Step	Description
generateNotes	Generate release notes for the commits added since the last release with conventional-changelog.

Install

$ npm install @semantic-release/release-notes-generator -D

Usage

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

{
  "plugins": [
    [
      "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
      {
        "preset": "angular",
        "parserOpts": {
          "noteKeywords": ["BREAKING CHANGE", "BREAKING CHANGES", "BREAKING"]
        }
      }
    ],
    [
      "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
      {
        "preset": "angular",
        "parserOpts": {
          "noteKeywords": ["BREAKING CHANGE", "BREAKING CHANGES", "BREAKING"]
        },
        "writerOpts": {
          "commitsSort": ["subject", "scope"]
        }
      }
    ]
  ]
}

With this example:

• the commits that contains BREAKING CHANGE, BREAKING CHANGES or BREAKING in their body will be considered breaking changes (by default the angular preset checks only for BREAKING CHANGE and BREAKING CHANGES)
• the commits will be sorted in the changelog by subject then scope (by default the angular preset sort the commits in the changelog by scope then subject)

Configuration

Options

Option	Description	Default
preset	conventional-changelog preset (possible values: angular, atom, codemirror, ember, eslint, express, jquery, jshint, conventionalcommits).	angular
config	NPM package name of a custom conventional-changelog preset.	-
parserOpts	Additional conventional-commits-parser options that will extends the ones loaded by preset or config. This is convenient to use a conventional-changelog preset with some customizations without having to create a new module.	-
writerOpts	Additional conventional-commits-writer options that will extends the ones loaded by preset or config. This is convenient to use a conventional-changelog preset with some customizations without having to create a new module.	-
host	The host used to generate links to issues and commits. See conventional-changelog-writer#host.	The host from the repositoryurl option.
linkCompare	Whether to include a link to compare changes since previous release in the release note.	true
linkReferences	Whether to include a link to issues and commits in the release note. See conventional-changelog-writer#linkreferences.	true
commit	Keyword used to generate commit links (formatted as <host>/<owner>/<repository>/<commit>/<commit_sha>). See conventional-changelog-writer#commit.	commits for Bitbucket repositories, commit otherwise
issue	Keyword used to generate issue links (formatted as <host>/<owner>/<repository>/<issue>/<issue_number>). See conventional-changelog-writer#issue.	issue for Bitbucket repositories, issues otherwise
presetConfig	Additional configuration passed to the conventional-changelog preset. Used for example with conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits.	-

Notes: in order to use a preset it must be installed (for example to use the eslint preset you must install it with npm install conventional-changelog-eslint -D)

Note: config will be overwritten by the values of preset. You should use either preset or config, but not both.

Note: Individual properties of parserOpts and writerOpts will override ones loaded with an explicitly set preset or config. If preset or config are not set, only the properties set in parserOpts and writerOpts will be used.

Note: For presets that expects a configuration object, such as conventionalcommits, the presetConfig option must be set.