Git to Changelog CLI

A simple no-frills CLI tool to create a changelog markdown file based on git commits.

This tool simply creates a CHANGELOG.md from git commits. I tried other npm packages and found that they did not fit my needs for a plug and play, no customization needed, solution.

Usage

npm i git-to-changelog -D

{
  "scripts": {
    "changelog": "git-to-changelog"
  }
}

npm run changelog

Automatically Add To Git Stage

This tool accepts an optional --stage CLI argument that when used will automatically stage your CHANGELOG.md.

Here's an example of its use in an npm build script:

"scripts": {
    ...
    "changelog": "git-to-changelog --stage",
    "preversion": "npm test",
    "version": "npm run changelog",
    "postversion": "git push --follow-tags"
  }

Expectations

• Your package.json has a "version" property.
  • Used for latest version detection.
• optional Your package.json has a "homepage" property.
  • Used for defining commit links.
  • GitHub, Bitbucket, and GitLab links are supported.
• optional Your repo has SemVer tagged releases (e.g. "v1.0.0" or "1.0.0").
  • Use for version grouping.
  • Though optional, there is no point in using this tool if you don't tag versions.

What Makes This Package Different

Versioning

If there are commits after your latest git-tagged commit, versioning happens automatically and follows these rules:

• If the package.json version is later than the latest git-tagged version:
  • Use package.json version (with todays date).
• If the package.json version is equal to the latest git-tagged version:
  • Use the word "Latest" (with todays date).
• If the package.json version is earlier than the latest git-tagged version:
  • Throw an error.

If there are no commits after the latest tag -- which should be the case most of the times you run this tool -- the latest git-tagged version will be your first changelog entry. Note that if there are no tagged commits in your repo, this tool will still work.

Merged Branches

Merged commits are given special treatment. If this tool finds a merge commit with git's default subject naming convention, the subject text is updated to read Implement '<branch-name>' and all commits from that branch are indented.

Example:

git log --graph --oneline

*   dddb03a (HEAD -> master, origin/master)  Merge branch 'feat/additional-validation' into master
|\
| * 1027df0 Update inline docs
| * f6f8cd1 Update error e041 message
| * 67e294b Add error e040
|/
* 8c6a1cc Add support for admin-only routes
* 4bd8518 Update token hash to include encoded user name

Becomes:

- Implement 'feat/additional-validation'
  - Update inline docs
  - Update error e041 message
  - Add error e040
- Add support for admin-only routes
- Update token hash to include encoded user name

Sample Output

See this projects CHANGELOG.

License

Copyright (c) 2018, 2020 Leandro Silva (http://grafluxe.com)

Released under the MIT License.

See LICENSE.md for entire terms.