Keep-a-changelog plugin for release-it

This release-it plugin maintains your CHANGELOG.md file according to the Keep A Changelog standards.

It updates the changelog automatically by:

• replacing the ## [Unreleased] header with the current version and release date.
• [optionally] adding a new ## [Unreleased] header as preparation for future changes.

It does not automatically populate the changelog with commit messages from the git history!

The idea and initial implementation comes from @eMarek.

npm install --save-dev @release-it/keep-a-changelog

In release-it config:

"plugins": {
  "@release-it/keep-a-changelog": {
    "filename": "CHANGELOG.md"
  }
}

Options

| option | default value | description | | ----------------- | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | filename | 'CHANGELOG.md' | File with changelogs. | | strictLatest | true | Entry of latest version must be present in order to get correct changelog. Set this option to false if you expect latest version without logs. | | addUnreleased | false | It leaves "Unreleased" title row if set to true. | | keepUnreleased | false | It leaves "Unreleased" title row unchanged if set to true. | | addVersionUrl | false | Links the version to the according changeset. Uses GitHub-compatible URLs by default, see other options to configure the URL format. | | versionUrlFormats | See below. | Determines the version URL format when addVersionUrl is set to true. Uses GitHub-compatible URLs by default. | | head | 'HEAD' | The git revision the new version tag is compared to in the Unreleased URL. |

versionUrlFormats

The URL formats used when addVersionUrl is set to true. Example configuration for a repository in Azure DevOps:

"plugins": {
  "@release-it/keep-a-changelog": {
    "filename": "CHANGELOG.md",
    "head": "main",
    "addVersionUrl": true,
    "versionUrlFormats": {
      "repositoryUrl": "https://dev.azure.com/...",
      "unreleasedUrl": "{repositoryUrl}/branchCompare?baseVersion=GT{tagName}&targetVersion=GB{head}",
      "versionUrl": "{repositoryUrl}/branchCompare?baseVersion=GT{previousTag}&targetVersion=GT{tagName}",
      "firstVersionUrl": "{repositoryUrl}?version=GT{tagName}"
    }
  }
}

| option | default value | description | | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | repositoryUrl | 'https://{host}/{repository}' | The format of the repository URL. | | unreleasedUrl | '{repositoryUrl}/compare/{tagName}...{head}' | The format of the [unreleased] section URL. | | versionUrl | '{repositoryUrl}/compare/{previousTag}...{tagName}' | The format of a release version URL. | | firstVersionUrl | '{repositoryUrl}/releases/tag/{tagName}' | The format of the first release version URL, i.e. when no previous tags have been released. |