npm package: @inrange/auto-changelog
Description: Command line tool for generating a changelog from git tags and commit history
Author: Pete Cook
Latest version: 2.4.0

# auto-changelog

Command line tool for generating a changelog from git tags and commit history. Used by [Modernizr](https://modernizr.com), [Netlify](https://netlify.com), [Neutrino](https://neutrinojs.org) and [Velocity.js](http://velocityjs.org).

When no tags are present yet, all the commits will be used in the initial version of `CHANGELOG.md`.

[![Latest npm version](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/auto-changelog.svg)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/auto-changelog)
[![Build Status](https://img.shields.io/travis/CookPete/auto-changelog/master.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/CookPete/auto-changelog)
[![Test Coverage](https://img.shields.io/codecov/c/github/cookpete/auto-changelog.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/CookPete/auto-changelog)

### Installation

```bash
npm i @inrange/auto-changelog --save-dev
```

You can install it globally as well with the `-g` flag.  When used in projects the local scope as indicated in above command is best.

### Usage

Simply run `auto-changelog` in the root folder of a git repository. `git log` is run behind the scenes in order to parse the commit history.

```bash
Usage: auto-changelog [options]

Options:

  -o, --output [file]                 # output file, default: CHANGELOG.md
  -c, --config [file]                 # config file location, default: .auto-changelog
  -t, --template [template]           # specify template to use [compact, keepachangelog, json], default: compact
  -r, --remote [remote]               # specify git remote to use for links, default: origin
  -p, --package                       # use version from package.json as latest release
  -v, --latest-version [version]      # use specified version as latest release
  -u, --unreleased                    # include section for unreleased changes
  -l, --commit-limit [count]          # number of commits to display per release, default: 3
  -b, --backfill-limit [count]        # number of commits to backfill empty releases with, default: 3
      --commit-url [url]              # override url for commits, use {id} for commit id
      --issue-url [url]               # override url for issues, use {id} for issue id
      --merge-url [url]               # override url for merges, use {id} for merge id
      --compare-url [url]             # override url for compares, use {from} and {to} for tags
      --issue-pattern [regex]         # override regex pattern for issues in commit messages
      --breaking-pattern [regex]      # regex pattern for breaking change commits
      --merge-pattern [regex]         # add custom regex pattern for merge commits
      --ignore-commit-pattern [regex] # pattern to ignore when parsing commits
      --tag-pattern [regex]           # override regex pattern for version tags
      --tag-prefix [prefix]           # prefix used in version tags, default: v
      --starting-version [tag]        # specify earliest version to include in changelog
      --starting-date [yyyy-mm-dd]    # specify earliest date to include in changelog
      --sort-commits [property]       # sort commits by property [relevance, date, date-desc, subject, subject-desc], default: relevance
      --release-summary               # display tagged commit message body as release summary
      --unreleased-only               # only output unreleased changes
      --hide-empty-releases           # hide empty releases
      --hide-credit                   # hide auto-changelog credit
      --handlebars-setup [file]       # handlebars setup file
      --append-git-log [string]       # string to append to git log command
      --append-git-tag [string]       # string to append to git tag command
      --prepend                       # prepend changelog to output file
      --stdout                        # output changelog to stdout
  -V, --version                       # output the version number
  -h, --help                          # output usage information


# Write log to CHANGELOG.md in current directory
auto-changelog

# Write log to HISTORY.md using keepachangelog template
auto-changelog --output HISTORY.md --template keepachangelog

# Disable the commit limit, rendering all commits for every release
auto-changelog --commit-limit false
```

### Requirements

`auto-changelog` is designed to be as flexible as possible, providing a clear changelog for any project. There are only two absolute requirements:

- You should be using git `1.7.2` or later
- All versions should be tagged using [semver](https://semver.org) tag names – this happens by default when using [`npm version`](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/version)

There are some less strict requirements to improve your changelog:

- [Close issues using keywords](https://help.github.com/articles/closing-issues-using-keywords)
- Merge pull requests using the standard merge commit message for your platform

### What you might do if you’re clever

Install `auto-changelog` to dev dependencies:

```bash
npm install auto-changelog --save-dev
# or
yarn add auto-changelog --dev
```

Add `auto-changelog -p && git add CHANGELOG.md` to the `version` scripts in your `package.json`:

```json
{
  "name": "my-awesome-package",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "devDependencies": {
    "auto-changelog": "*"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "version": "auto-changelog -p && git add CHANGELOG.md"
  }
}
```

Using `-p` or `--package` uses the `version` from `package.json` as the latest release, so that all commits between the previous release and now become part of that release. Essentially anything that would normally be parsed as `Unreleased` will now come under the `version` from `package.json`

Now every time you run [`npm version`](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/version), the changelog will automatically update and be part of the version commit.

### Advanced Usage

#### URL Overrides

Links to commits, issues, pull requests and version diffs are automatically generated based on your remote URL. GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket and Azure DevOps are all supported. If you have an unusual remote or need to override one of the link formats, use `--commit-url`, `--issue-url` or `--merge-url` with an `{id}` token. For custom version diffs, use `--compare-url` with `{from}` and `{to}` tokens.

```bash
# Link all issues to redmine
auto-changelog --issue-url https://www.redmine.org/issues/{id}

# Link to custom diff page
auto-changelog --compare-url https://example.com/repo/compare/{from}...{to}
```

#### Add to an existing changelog

If you’d like to keep an existing changelog below your generated one, just add `<!-- auto-changelog-above -->` to your current changelog. The generated changelog will be added above this token, and anything below will remain.

#### Configuration

You can set any option in `package.json` under the `auto-changelog` key, using camelCase options.

```js
{
  "name": "my-awesome-package",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    // ...
  },
  "auto-changelog": {
    "output": "HISTORY.md",
    "template": "keepachangelog",
    "unreleased": true,
    "commitLimit": false
  }
}
```

You can also store config options in an `.auto-changelog` file in your project root:

```js
{
  "output": "HISTORY.md",
  "template": "keepachangelog",
  "unreleased": true,
  "commitLimit": false
}
```

Note that any options set in `package.json` will take precedence over any set in `.auto-changelog`.

#### Tag prefixes

Use `--tag-prefix [prefix]` if you prefix your version tags with a certain string:

```bash
# When all versions are tagged like my-package/1.2.3
auto-changelog --tag-prefix my-package/
```

#### Tag patterns

By default, `auto-changelog` looks for valid semver tags to build a list of releases. If you are using another format (or want to include all tags), use `--tag-pattern [regex]`:

```bash
# When all versions are tagged like build-12345
auto-changelog --tag-pattern build-\d+

# Include any tag as a release
auto-changelog --tag-pattern .+
```

#### Breaking changes

If you use a common pattern in your commit messages for breaking changes, use `--breaking-pattern` to highlight those commits as breaking changes in your changelog. Breaking change commits will always be listed as part of a release, regardless of any `--commit-limit` set.

```bash
auto-changelog --breaking-pattern "BREAKING CHANGE:"
```

#### Custom issue patterns

By default, `auto-changelog` will parse [GitHub-style issue fixes](https://help.github.com/articles/closing-issues-using-keywords/) in your commit messages. If you use Jira or an alternative pattern in your commits to reference issues, you can pass in a custom regular expression to `--issue-pattern` along with `--issue-url`:

```bash
# Parse Jira-style issues in your commit messages, like PROJECT-418
auto-changelog --issue-pattern [A-Z]+-\d+ --issue-url https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/{id}
```

Or, in your `package.json`:

```js
{
  "name": "my-awesome-package",
  "auto-changelog": {
    "issueUrl": "https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/{id}",
    "issuePattern": "[A-Z]+-\d+"
  }
}
```

If you use a certain pattern before or after the issue number, like `fixes {id}`, just use a capturing group:

```bash
# "This commit fixes ISSUE-123" will now parse ISSUE-123 as an issue fix
auto-changelog --issue-pattern "[Ff]ixes ([A-Z]+-\d+)"
```

#### Custom templates

If you aren’t happy with the default templates or want to tweak something, you can point to a [handlebars](https://handlebarsjs.com) template in your local repo. Check out the [existing templates](templates) to see what is possible.

Save `changelog-template.hbs` somewhere in your repo:

```hbs
### Changelog
My custom changelog template. Don’t worry about indentation here; it is automatically removed from the output.

{{#each releases}}
  Every release has a {{title}} and a {{href}} you can use to link to the commit diff.
  It also has an {{isoDate}} and a {{niceDate}} you might want to use.
  {{#each merges}}
    - A merge has a {{message}}, an {{id}} and a {{href}} to the PR.
  {{/each}}
  {{#each fixes}}
    - Each fix has a {{commit}} with a {{commit.subject}}, an {{id}} and a {{href}} to the fixed issue.
  {{/each}}
  {{#each commits}}
    - Commits have a {{shorthash}}, a {{subject}} and a {{href}}, amongst other things.
  {{/each}}
{{/each}}
```

Then just use `--template` to point to your template:

```bash
auto-changelog --template changelog-template.hbs
```

You can also point to an external template by passing in a URL:

```bash
auto-changelog --template https://example.com/templates/compact.hbs
```

To see exactly what data is passed in to the templates, you can generate a JSON version of the changelog:

```bash
auto-changelog --template json --output changelog-data.json
```

#### `commit-list` helper

Use `{{#commit-list}}` to render a list of commits depending on certain patterns in the commit messages:

```hbs
{{#each releases}}
  ### [{{title}}]({{href}})

  {{! List commits with `Breaking change: ` somewhere in the message }}
  {{#commit-list commits heading='### Breaking Changes' message='Breaking change: '}}
    - {{subject}} [`{{shorthash}}`]({{href}})
  {{/commit-list}}

  {{! List commits that add new features, but not those already listed above }}
  {{#commit-list commits heading='### New Features' message='feat: ' exclude='Breaking change: '}}
    - {{subject}} [`{{shorthash}}`]({{href}})
  {{/commit-list}}
{{/each}}
```

| Option    | Description |
| --------- | ----------- |
| `heading` | A heading for the list, only renders if at least one commit matches |
| `message` | A regex pattern to match against the entire commit message |
| `subject` | A regex pattern to match against the commit subject only |
| `exclude` | A regex pattern to exclude from the list – useful for avoiding listing commits more than once |

#### Replacing text

To insert links or other markup to PR titles and commit messages that appear in the log, use the `replaceText` option in your `package.json`:

```js
{
  "name": "my-awesome-package",
  "auto-changelog": {
    "replaceText": {
      "(ABC-\\d+)": "[`$1`](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/$1)"
    }
  }
}
```

Here, any time a pattern like `ABC-123` appears in your log, it will be replaced with a link to the relevant issue in Jira. Each pattern is applied using `string.replace(new RegExp(key, 'g'), value)`.

#### Handlebars setup file

The `--handlebars-setup` options allows you to point to a file to add custom Handlebars helpers, for use in custom templates using `--template`. Paths are relative to the directory in which you run `auto-changelog`.

```js
auto-changelog --handlebars-setup setup.js --template custom-template.hbs

// setup.js
module.exports = function (Handlebars) {
  Handlebars.registerHelper('custom', function (context, options) {
    return 'custom helpers!'
  })
}

// custom-template.hbs
Now you can use {{custom}}
```

### FAQ

#### What’s a changelog?

See [keepachangelog.com](https://keepachangelog.com).

#### What does this do?

The command parses your git commit history and generates a changelog based on tagged versions, merged pull requests and closed issues. See a simple example in [this very repo](CHANGELOG.md).

#### Why do I need it?

Because keeping a changelog can be tedious and difficult to get right. If you don’t have the patience for a hand-crafted, bespoke changelog then this makes keeping one rather easy. It also can be [automated if you’re feeling extra lazy](#what-you-might-do-if-youre-clever).