Changesets and Server Changes

Trigger.dev uses changesets to manage package versions and releasing them to npm. For server-only changes, we use a lightweight .server-changes/ convention.

Adding a changeset (package changes)

Changesets and .server-changes/ files are user-facing release notes, not a catalog of every change. Add one only when the change is something a user would notice or act on. Skip it for internal-only changes, refactors, chores, and packages that are not consumed independently (e.g. @trigger.dev/redis-worker). Anyone who wants the exact history reads the commits.

To add a changeset, use pnpm run changeset:add and follow the Changesets adding-a-changeset guide. Please only ever select one of our public packages when adding a changeset.

Adding a server change (server-only changes)

If your PR only changes server components (apps/webapp/, apps/supervisor/, etc.), does NOT change any published packages, AND the change is user-facing, add a .server-changes/ file instead of a changeset:

cat > .server-changes/fix-batch-queue-stalls.md << 'EOF'
---
area: webapp
type: fix
---

Speed up batch queue processing by removing stalls and fixing retry race
EOF

• area: webapp | supervisor
• type: feature | fix | improvement | breaking

For mixed PRs (both packages and server): the changeset covers it, so no .server-changes/ file is needed. If the package change is internal and needs no changeset but the server change is user-facing, add a .server-changes/ file for it.

See .server-changes/README.md for full documentation.

When to add which

Only for user-facing changes. Skip the note entirely for internal-only or admin-only changes, refactors, and chores.

Release instructions (CI)

Please follow the best-practice of adding changesets in the same commit as the code making the change with pnpm run changeset:add, as it will allow our release.yml CI workflow to function properly:

• Anytime new changesets are added in a commit in the main branch, the changesets-pr.yml workflow will run and will automatically create/update a PR with a fresh run of pnpm run changeset:version.
• The release PR body is automatically enhanced with a clean, deduplicated summary that includes both package changes and .server-changes/ entries.
• Consumed .server-changes/ files are removed on the changeset-release/main branch — the same way changesets deletes .changeset/*.md files. When the release PR merges, they're gone from main.
• When the version PR is merged into main, the release.yml workflow will automatically build, release packages to npm, and create a single unified GitHub release.

Pre-release instructions

1. Add changesets as usual pnpm run changeset:add
2. Switch to pre-release mode by running pnpm run changeset:next
3. Create version pnpm run changeset:version
4. Release pnpm run changeset:release
5. Switch back to normal mode by running pnpm run changeset:normal

Snapshot instructions

1. Update the .changeset/config.json file to set the "changelog" field to this:

"changelog": "@changesets/cli/changelog",

2. Do a temporary commit (do NOT push this, you should undo it after)

3. Run ./scripts/publish-prerelease.sh prerelease

You can choose a different tag if you want, but usually prerelease is fine.

5. Undo the commit where you updated the config.json file.