changelog-dumb

A dumb changelog generator. No config. No AI. Just works.

Why?

Existing changelog tools are too smart. They want config files, AI analysis, custom templates, and 47 options.

This tool makes one decision for you:

1. Reads your git commits
2. Groups them by type
3. Outputs a CHANGELOG.md

That's it. One decision. No setup.

Dates are included for human readability only and are not configurable.

changelog-dumb only reads existing git metadata. It does not infer versions, analyze semantics, or make release decisions.

Install

npm install -g changelog-dumb

Usage

# In your git repo
changelog-dumb

Done. Check your CHANGELOG.md.

Options

# Generate changelog since a tag
changelog-dumb --from v1.0.0

# Preview without writing
changelog-dumb --dry-run

How it groups commits

| Prefix | Group | |--------|-------| | feat:, add:, new: | Added | | fix:, bugfix:, hotfix: | Fixed | | remove:, delete:, deprecate: | Removed | | Everything else | Changed |

No customization. This is the format.

Scope Extraction

Scopes from conventional commits are preserved:

feat(auth): Add login page
fix(api): Handle timeout errors

Becomes:

### Added
- **auth**: Add login page

### Fixed
- **api**: Handle timeout errors

Output format

# Changelog

## [Unreleased] - 2024-01-15

### Added
- **auth**: User authentication
- Dark mode support

### Fixed
- **api**: Login button not working
- Memory leak in dashboard

### Changed
- Updated dependencies
- Refactored database layer

CI/CD Usage

# GitHub Actions - generate changelog on release
- name: Generate changelog
  run: npx changelog-dumb

What this tool does NOT do

• ❌ AI-generated summaries
• ❌ Config files
• ❌ Custom templates
• ❌ Semantic versioning analysis
• ❌ Integration with issue trackers
• ❌ Multiple output formats

If you want those, use something else.

License

MIT