This is a convenience wrapper around semantic-release designed to be used with GitHub Actions. It uses conventional commit messages to generate release notes and a changelog. When a release is necessary, it is automatically published to npm, pushing the newly created tag, revised package.json and updated changelog to GitHub.

pnpm add -D @joshunrau/semantic-release @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional husky

Note: Commitlint and Husky are optional peer dependencies, and could be replaced with any other toolchain that ensures that conventional commits are followed.

First, setup Husky (if applicable):

pnpm exec husky init

Then, add the following git hook:

.husky/commit-msg

#!/bin/sh

pnpm exec commitlint --edit $1

Now, add the following configuration:

package.json

{
  "commitlint": {
    "extends": ["@commitlint/config-conventional"]
  },
  "release": {
    "extends": ["@joshunrau/semantic-release"]
  }
}

Next, generate an access token for npm with read and write permissions for the package in question and set the NPM_TOKEN secret for the repository.

Then, add the following workflow:

.github/workflows/release.yaml

name: Release
on:
  push:
    branches: ['main']
  workflow_dispatch:
permissions:
  contents: read
jobs:
  release:
    permissions:
      contents: write
      issues: write
      pull-requests: write
      id-token: write
    uses: joshunrau/semantic-release/.github/workflows/release.yaml@main
    secrets:
      NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
    with:
      build-command: pnpm build # optional