changenog

Zero-config changelog generator with monorepo support.

Parses Git tags and commits since last entry, restricts them by current working directory, and adds any missing entries to the changelog.

See this repo's changelog for example output.

• Usage
  • Rust
  • JS
  • Python
  • Manual
• Supported Platforms
• Options
  • Filters
    • Presets
• Entry Strategy
• Monorepo Support
• Known Limitations
  • Cross-Branch Tag Ranges (Rebase/Squash Workflows)

Usage

Rust

https://crates.io/crates/changenog

cargo install changenog

changenog

JS

https://www.npmjs.com/package/changenog

pnpm i -D changenog

{
  "scripts": {
    "changenog": "changenog"
  }
}

Python

https://pypi.org/project/changenog/

pip install changenog

changenog

Manual

Binaries are available on the releases page.

Supported Platforms

| Platform | Architecture | Notes | | -------- | ------------ | ----------------------- | | Linux | x86_64 | Tested on Ubuntu latest | | Linux | aarch64 | Tested on Ubuntu 22.04 | | MacOS | x86_64 | Tested on MacOS 15 | | MacOS | aarch64 | Tested on MacOS latest | | Windows | x86_64 | Tested on Windows 11 | | Windows | aarch64 | Untested ⚠️ |

Options

| Option | Type | Description | | ---------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | --overwrite | boolean | overwrite existing changelog | | --root | string | root dir relative to the current working directory. default: current working directory | | --output | string | output of the generated changelog. one of ['file', 'stdout']. default: 'file' | | --no-links | boolean | disable links | | --remote-url | string | remote URL to use for links. default: origin | | --max-entries | number | maximum number of entries to process. default: '100' | | --tag-filter-regex | regex | regex pattern(s) that each tag must match to be included | | --commit-filter-regex | regex | regex pattern(s) that each commit must match to be included | | --commit-filter-preset | string | filter preset(s) to use. one of ['angular', 'angular-readme-only-docs', 'no-changelog', 'no-semver'] |

Filters

Multiple --tag-filter-regex, --commit-filter-preset and --commit-filter-regex options can be passed. A tag/commit must match all filters to be included.

For example:

changenog --commit-filter-preset=angular --commit-filter-regex='^(?!.*changelog).*$'

Would filter:

✅
docs(readme): update usage
feat: add new feature
fix: fix bug
perf: improve performance

❌
chore: update dependencies
ci(release): release version
docs(changelog): v0.1.0
my commit message

Presets

• angular - include only feat, fix, perf, and docs commits that match the Angular commit message convention
• angular-readme-only-docs - exclude Angular docs commits unless they have a scope of readme
• no-changelog - exclude all commits with changelog in the subject
• no-semver - exclude all commits that match the semver format, specifically, this regex

Entry Strategy

This is the general strategy for building and filtering entries:

1. All entries are processed, restricted by --max-entries
2. Commits are filtered to only include those with changes in --root
3. If <tag a>..<tag b> have no commits, the tags are made part of the same entry
4. Commit filters are applied
5. If an entry has no commits, the entry is excluded
6. Tag filters are applied
7. If an entry has no tags, all commits are merged into the next entry

Monorepo Support

If the git root is in a parent directory, changenog will filter commits to only include those that have changes within the subdirectory.

To include only the tags that apply to that subdirectory, you can provide a --tag-filter-regex option, e.g. --tag-filter-regex='my-package/.*'. This is assuming you have a convention for tagging that scopes to that subdirectory.

Known Limitations

Cross-Branch Tag Ranges (Rebase/Squash Workflows)

When using rebase or squash merge workflows, the commits merged into the main branch are new commits, and any tag created on the merged branch remains pointing at their original commit. There's no way to link the new commits back to the original ones, so the changelog entry for a new tag will include the commits associated with the previous entry.

Workarounds:

• Manually delete the entries for these newer commits in the changelog
• Only create tags after merging to your target branch
• Use merge commits