A lightweight tool to automate your release process, compatible with conventional commit messages. It reads your commit history, determines the release type, and generates release notes without unnecessary dependencies.
Light Release is a lightweight alternative to semantic-release designed to simplify your release process while maintaining compatibility with conventional commit messages. It reads your commit history, determines the type of release (major, minor, or patch), and generates visually appealing release notes—all without unnecessary dependencies!
The purpose of Light Release is to automate the release process for developers who want a hassle-free experience without the complexity of larger tools. If you're tired of managing your releases manually, or if you just want to impress your team with snazzy release notes, then Light Release is here to save the day!
Getting started with Light Release is a breeze! Just run the following command in your terminal:
npm install light-release --save-devMake sure you have Git installed, as Light Release relies on your commit history. If Git is not found, Light Release will kindly inform you to install it.
Using Light Release is as simple as pie! Once installed, you can run it from the command line. Here's how:
- Navigate to your project directory.
- Run the command:
npx light-releaseAnother method, extremely more useful is to include light-release among your package scripts:
To include Light Release in your package scripts, add the following to the scripts section of your package.json file:
"scripts": {
"release": "light-release"
}Now, you can run Light Release using the following command:
npm run releaseThis will analyze your commit history, determine the release version, and generate the release notes in both HTML and Markdown formats.
On the first run, Light Release will generate a default configuration file named light-release.config.json in your project's root directory. You can modify this file to customize the behavior of the tool according to your preferences. If the file doesn't exist, everything will be activated by default—because who doesn't love a little plug-and-play?
After running Light Release, you can expect to find:
- A structured set of release notes in both HTML and Markdown formats, beautifully organized by version in the
.release-notesdirectory. - A CHANGELOG.md file detailing all changes made in each release.
- Shield badges indicating the impact of each commit (how many files were changed).
- Author information pulled from your Git configuration, so everyone gets the credit they deserve!
We welcome contributions from everyone! Whether you have ideas for new features, improvements, or just want to report a bug, please feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.
To start collaborating, simply fork the repository and follow these steps:
- Clone your forked repository to your local machine.
- Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix:
git checkout -b feature/my-awesome-feature- Make your changes and commit them:
git commit -m "Add my awesome feature"- Push your changes to your forked repository:
git push origin feature/my-awesome-feature- Open a pull request and describe your changes!
A big thank you to all the wonderful contributors who help make Light Release shine! If you’ve contributed to this project, your name will be here. Let’s keep the love rolling!
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.
If you find Light Release useful, please consider citing it in your work:
@software{light_release,
author = {Vincenzo Manto},
title = {Light Release},
year = {2024},
url = {https://github.com/VincenzoManto/light-release},
}