Studio Changes

📦 Generate a changelog as part of the npm version command

Usage

• Use npm version [patch|minor|major] to create a release
• Your editor will open with a generated CHANGES.md file
• When you're done writing the release notes, save and close the editor to continue
• To abort the release, remove the heading with the new version number

Install

$ npm install @studio/changes --save-dev

Configure

Add this to your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "preversion": "npm test",
    "version": "changes",
    "postversion": "git push --follow-tags && npm publish"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@studio/changes": "^1.0.0"
  }
}

The scripts can also be added with changes --init, if they do not exist yet:

$ node_modules/.bin/changes --init

Or with npx:

$ npx changes --init

If the "version" script already exists, this has no effect. Existing file indentation style will be preserved.

Options

• --help, -h: Display a help message.
• --commits, -c: Generate links to commits using the given URL as base. If no URL is given it defaults to ${homepage}/commit using the homepage configured in the package.json.
• --footer: Generate a footer with the git author and release date. The author name is taken from $GIT_AUTHOR_NAME and $GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL is used to find the authors GitHub profile page.
• --file, -f: Specify the name of the changelog file. Defaults to CHANGES.md.
• --init: Add version lifecycle scripts to package.json. Can be combined with --file and --commits to configure the changes invocation.
• --tag: Use a custom git tag, supports simple replacement of package.json fields. Defaults to v${version}.

Configure your preferred editor with the $EDITOR environment variable.

Preview changes for next release

If the current version in your package.json is already in the changelog, the changes command aborts and shows the unreleased commits. Preview the release notes for the next release like this:

$ node_modules/.bin/changes

Or with npx:

$ npx changes

License

MIT

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