A CLI for auto updating a Keep a Changelog changelog for a given release.

Install

$ yarn add -D the-chronicler

Usage

The Chronicler exposes one command at present for releasing a CHANGELOG.

  Description
    A CLI for auto updating a [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/) changelog for a given release.

  Usage
    $ the-chronicler <command> [options]

  Available Commands
    release

  For more info, run any command with the `--help` flag
    $ the-chronicler release --help

  Options
    -v, --version    Displays current version
    -h, --help       Displays this message

the-chronicler release

  Description
    Take the contents of the unreleased section and move it to a new release

  Usage
    $ the-chronicler release <version> [options]

  Options
    -f, --filename         (default CHANGELOG.md)
    -l, --linkPattern
    -h, --help           Displays this message

version

Release is either a Semver level (major, minor, patch) or a Semver version, with or without a v prefix.

Config

The Chronicler uses cosmiconfig for configuration file support. This means you can configure The Chronicler via (in order of precedence):

• A "chronicler" key in your package.json file.
• A .chroniclerrc file written in JSON or YAML.
• A .chroniclerrc.json, .chroniclerrc.yml, .chroniclerrc.yaml, or .chroniclerrc.json5 file.
• A .chroniclerrc.js, .chroniclerrc.cjs, chronicler.config.js, or chronicler.config.cjs file that exports an object using module.exports.
• A .chroniclerrc.toml file.

Filename

Specify the filename of your changelog.

In accord with Keep a Changelog I recommend using CHANGELOG.md as your filename of choice.

"While it's easy to think that the name of your changelog file doesn't matter that much, why make it harder for your end users to consistently find notable changes?"

| Default | CLI Override | Config Override | | -------------- | --------------------- | -------------------- | | CHANGELOG.md | --filename <string> | filename: <string> |

Link Pattern

Specify the link to the version in your representation of choice.

⚠️ Warning ⚠️

The Chronicler expects that you are using link reference definitions and that at least an unreleased link exist there.

| CLI | API | | ------------------------ | ----------------------- | | --linkPattern <string> | linkPattern: <string> |

An example of this for GitHub version tags:

https://github.com/Renddslow/the-chronicler/compare/{{prev}}...{{next}}

Template

Link patterns offer simple templating via templite. Variables provided are prev and next, representing the previous version recorded in the CHANGELOG and the version that is presently being released (respectively).

Roadmap

Below are a few commands that are forthcoming.

• fix - The place I presently work (as well as a number of my own packages) didn't realize that Keep a Changelog recommended link reference definitions for version numbers. Instead, we interpreted the square brackets as stylistic. fix will translate release sections to corresponding link reference definitions automagically.