Release That

An opinionated GitHub Action to ease the release of a repository using semantic versioning

Minimal setup to enable semantic release on any repository

• Step 1: Add the following content inside .github/workflows/release-that.yaml file

  name: Release that
  on: [push]
  jobs:
    release-that:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      permissions:
        id-token: write
        contents: write
        issues: write
        pull-requests: write
      steps:
        - name: Checkout sources
          uses: actions/checkout@v4
  
        - name: Release That
          uses: rlespinasse/release-that@v1

• Step 2: Enjoy your automatic release system

Inputs

dry-run

Whether to make a release in dry-run mode. The outputs act like a release was published.

- uses: rlespinasse/release-that@v1
  with:
    dry-run: true

without-prefix

Remove prefix from released version, like v1.0.0 -> 1.0.0 (doesn't apply to major tag)

- uses: rlespinasse/release-that@v1
  with:
    without-prefix: true

major-tag

Activate the publication a major tag based on released version. Possible values true, false, and auto. If this tag already exists, it will be overwritten.

- uses: rlespinasse/release-that@v1
  with:
    major-tag: true

By default, the value is auto to activate it (like true) on some conditions, otherwise, it's skip (like false).

• the repository is a GitHub Action due to metadata file presence action.yml or action.yaml (to follow GitHub Action recommandation)
• do not hesitate to propose the next condition through issue or pull-request

github-token

Whether to use a Personal Access Token instead of the default GitHub Token for release

- uses: rlespinasse/release-that@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.YOUR_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

By default ${{ github.token }} is used to make a release. Due to limitation for security concerns, if you want to build a workflows that react when a new release is made, you must use a Personal Access Token.

On repositories created before 2023-02-02, the default token was enough to let this action do its job. Now, new repository will always need to setup permissions to work properly. Please refer to setup documentation.

Tip

If you get a error on your workflow run about EGITNOPERMISSION Cannot push to the Git repository., you can add persist-credentials: false to fix it

- name: Checkout sources
  uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    persist-credentials: false

Outputs

• major_tag_published: Whether a major tag was published (true or false)
• major_tag: Value of the published major tag, otherwise empty (e.g. v1)

And the following outputs from cycjimmy/semantic-release-action (see Under the wood section).

• new_release_published: Whether a new release was published (true or false)
• new_release_version: Version of the new release. (e.g. 1.3.0)
• new_release_major_version: Major version of the new release. (e.g. 1)
• new_release_minor_version: Minor version of the new release. (e.g. 3)
• new_release_patch_version: Patch version of the new release. (e.g. 0)
• last_release_version: Version of the previous release, if there was one. (e.g. 1.2.0)

Under the wood

This is a wrapper around cycjimmy/semantic-release-action action with

• No mandatory configuration like package.json or .releaserc files
• Support of Default branches
  • with the addition of vN.x kind of branches
• Auto-publication of a GitHub release with changelog based on the commit history