GitHub Releases

The "releases" page on GitHub projects links to a page containing the project's history, or changelog. Releases are attached to an existing Git tag, so make sure the Git part is configured correctly.

Unsurprisingly, release-it uses this feature extensively (release-it's releases page).

See the screenshot on the right for an overview of what release-it automates.

To add GitHub releases in your release-it flow, there are two options:

1. Automated. This requires a personal access token.
2. Manual. The GitHub web interface will be opened with pre-populated fields.

Configuration options

Automated

To automate the release (using the GitHub REST API), the following needs to be configured:

• Configure github.release: true
• Obtain a personal access token (release-it only needs "repo" access; no "admin" or other scopes).
• Make sure the token is available as an environment variable.

Do not put the actual token in the release-it configuration. It will be read from the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable. You can change this variable name by setting the github.tokenRef option to something else.

Optionally, release-it can automatically submit comments to the merged pull requests and closed tickets to notify people in which release the fix or feature is included.

Manual

In this mode, release-it will open the default browser pointed at the GitHub web interface with the fields pre-populated (like the screenshot above). The data can be modified and assets can be uploaded before publishing the release.

• Configure github.release: true
• This mode is enabled automatically when the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable is not set.
• Set github.web: true explicitly to override this GITHUB_TOKEN check.
• Use github.autoGenerate: true to let GitHub generate release notes.

In non-interactive CI mode (using --ci or in a CI environment), release-it will not open a browser, but instead print the url to the GitHub web interface (including data to pre-populate the fields).

Git

A GitHub release requires the corresponding Git tag to be present on the remote (release-it creates and pushes this tag automatically). Thus, in addition to the GITHUB_TOKEN, a public SSH key is required to push the Git tag to the remote repository. See Git remotes (and CI: Git) for more information.

Prerequisite checks

First, release-it will check whether the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable is set. If not, it will fall back to open the web interface to publish a release (and skip the next checks). If the token is set, it will authenticate, and verify whether the current user is a collaborator and authorized to publish a release.

To skip these checks, use github.skipChecks.

Release name

The default release name is Release ${version}. However, many projects are more creative here. It can be set from the command-line directly: --github.releaseName="Arcade Silver".

Release notes

By default, the output of git.changelog is used for the GitHub release notes. This is the printed Changelog: ... when release-it boots. This can be overridden with the github.releaseNotes option to customize the release notes for the GitHub release. This will be invoked just before the actual GitHub release itself.

The value can either be a string or a function but a function is only supported when configuring release-it using .release-it.js or .release-it.cjs file.

When the value is a string, it's executed as a shell script. Make sure it outputs to stdout. An example:

{
  "github": {
    "release": true,
    "releaseNotes": "generate-release-notes.sh --from=${latestTag} --to=${tagName}"
  }
}

Another example using --no-merges to omit merge commits:

{
  "github": {
    "release": true,
    "releaseNotes": "git log --no-merges --pretty=format:\"* %s %h\" ${latestTag}...main"
  }
}

Function

When the value is a function, it's executed with a single context parameter that contains the plugin context. The function can also be async. Make sure that it returns a string value. An example:

{
  github: {
    release: true,
    releaseNotes(context) {
      // Remove the first, redundant line with version and date.
      return context.changelog.split('\n').slice(1).join('\n');
    }
  }
}

Use --github.autoGenerate to have GitHub auto-generate the release notes (does not work with web: true).

See Changelog for more information about generating changelogs/release notes.

Object

Use an object to switch from the releaseNotes as a command string to commits fetched by the GitHub Octokit API and rendered using the provided template. Example:

{
  "github": {
    "releaseNotes": {
      "commit": "* ${commit.subject} (${sha}){ - thanks @${author.login}!}",
      "excludeMatches": ["webpro"]
    }
  }
}

Placeholders have syntax ${place.holder}. Blocks surrounded by { and } are rendered only if each placeholder inside is replaced with a value and that value is not in excludeMatches.

Here's an excerpt of an example object that is the context of the releaseNotes.commit template:

{
  "sha": "2e8c8ac65fa9e05fc170d08913d7fbac2b2bd876",
  "commit": {
    "author": { "name": "Lars Kappert", "email": "[email protected]", "date": "2025-01-06T21:15:33Z" },
    "committer": { "name": "Lars Kappert", "email": "[email protected]", "date": "2025-01-06T21:15:33Z" },
    "message": "Add platform-specific entries to metro plugin",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/webpro-nl/knip/git/commits/2e8c8ac65fa9e05fc170d08913d7fbac2b2bd876",
    "comment_count": 0,
    "verification": { "verified": false, "reason": "unsigned", "signature": null, "payload": null, "verified_at": null }
  },
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/webpro-nl/knip/commits/2e8c8ac65fa9e05fc170d08913d7fbac2b2bd876",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/webpro-nl/knip/commit/2e8c8ac65fa9e05fc170d08913d7fbac2b2bd876",
  "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/webpro-nl/knip/commits/2e8c8ac65fa9e05fc170d08913d7fbac2b2bd876/comments",
  "author": { "login": "webpro", "id": 456426, "html_url": "https://github.com/webpro" },
  "committer": { "login": "webpro", "id": 456426, "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/456426?v=4" },
  "parents": []
}

The GitHub plugin adds commit.subject which is only the first line of commit.message (which is potentially multiple lines especially for merge commits).

See REST API: Compare two commits for the full specs of this object.

Attach binary assets

To upload binary release assets with a GitHub release (such as compiled executables, minified scripts, documentation), provide one or more glob patterns for the github.assets option. After the release, the assets are available to download from the GitHub release page. Example:

{
  "github": {
    "release": true,
    "assets": ["dist/*.zip"]
  }
}

Pre-release

If the release is a pre-release (according to semver), release-it automatically sets github.preRelease to true. This can also be set manually.

Draft

In case the release should not be made public yet, set github.draft: true.

Host

Use a different host from what would be derived from the Git url (e.g. when using GitHub Enterprise).

By default, the GitHub API host is https://api.github.com. Setting github.host to "private.example.org" would result in release-it using https://private.example.org/api/v3.

Proxy

In case release are done from behind a proxy, set github.proxy using a string to a proxy address like "http://proxy:8080".

Update the latest release

The latest GitHub release can be updated, e.g. to update the releases notes, add release assets, or toggle the draft status.

• Use --no-increment to skip updating the version.
• Use --no-git to skip Git commit, tag, push (when the tag is already there).
• Use --no-npm to skip publishing to npm (if there's a package.json).
• Use --github.update to update the GitHub release.

Use the other options to update the release, such as --github.assets to add assets. Note that the draft and preRelease options are false by default, but can be set explicitly using e.g. --no-github.draft or --github.draft.

Example command to add assets and explicitly toggle the draft status to "published":

release-it --no-increment --no-git --github.release --github.update --github.assets=*.zip --no-github.draft

Project Non-Latest Release

To do a release that isn't the latest release on your GitHub project e.g for support releases, you can set github.makeLatest to false.

Create GitHub Discussion

To auto-create GitHub Discussion for the release on your GitHub project, you can set:

github.discussionCategoryName to [discussion category name]

Comments

To submit a comment to each merged pull requests and closed issue that is part of the release, set github.comments.submit to true. Here are the default settings:

{
  "github": {
    "comments": {
      "submit": false,
      "issue": ":rocket: _This issue has been resolved in v${version}. See [${releaseName}](${releaseUrl}) for release notes._",
      "pr": ":rocket: _This pull request is included in v${version}. See [${releaseName}](${releaseUrl}) for release notes._"
    }
  }
}

Example comment:

:rocket: This issue has been resolved in v15.10.0. See Release 15.10.0 for release notes.

This only works with github.release: true and not with manual release via the web interface.

Since this is an experimental feature, it's disabled by default for now. Set github.comments: true to enable.